Sept. 26 (UPI) — Former President Barack Obama on Friday released his final political endorsements of 2020, giving his support to 111 Democratic candidates in state and federal races.
He weighed in on a number of hotly contested races, including the open U.S. Senate seat in Arizona — giving the nod to astronaut Mark Kelly. Real Clear Politics’ average of polls shows Kelly with a 5.5% edge over his opponent, incumbent Sen. Martha McSally.
“I’m proud to endorse these outstanding Democratic candidates who will work to get the virus under control, rebuild the economy and the middle class, and protect Americans’ healthcare and pre-existing conditions protections. Support these candidates — and vote early if you can,” Obama tweeted.
In other U.S. Senate races he offered his support for Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock in Georgia, Adrian Perkins in Louisiana, Gary Peters in Michigan, Ben Ray Lujan in New Mexico and MJ Hegar in Texas.
Republicans currently have a majority in the Senate, with 53 seats to Democrats’ 45 — plus two Independents who caucus with the latter.
In gubernatorial races, Obama endorsed Nicole Galloway in Missouri and Dan Feltes in New Hampshire. In the U.S. House, Obama endorsed Alyse Galvin in Alaska; Tom O’Halleran and Hiral Tipirneni in Arizona; Diane Mitsch Bush in Colorado; Jahana Hayes in Connecticut; Alan Cohn, Margaret Good, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Donna Shalala in Florida; Lucy McBath and Carolyn Bourdeaux in Georgia; Kaiali’i Kahele in Hawaii; Michelle De La Isla and Sharice Davids in Kansas; Hillary Scholten, Jon Hoadley, Elissa Slotkin and Haley Stevens in Michigan; Dan Feehan and Angie Craig in Minnesota; Jill Schupp in Missouri; Chris Pappas and Ann McLane Kuster in New Hampshire; Nancy Goroff and Ritchie Torres in New York; Peter DeFazio in Oregon; Carolyn Long and Kim Schrier in Washington; and Ron Kind in Wisconsin.
Democrats currently have control of the U.S. House with 232 seats. Republicans have 198 seats and Libertarians one, with four vacancies. Real Clear Politics considers 31 seats to be tossups in the 2020 election — 19 currently held by Democrats and 11 held by Republicans. Of the remaining seats, 214 are either likely or leaning Democratic, while 190 are likely or leaning Republican.
Obama previously offered endorsements in 118 races this year, including support for his former vice president, Joe Biden.
