Barack Obama rallies Georgia Democrats in final midterm campaign week

Ossoff leads Collins by eight to 10 points; Bottoms remains statistically tied

Former President Barack Obama addressed a Wednesday campaign rally in Morrow, Georgia, during the final week of the 2026 midterm campaign. The Guardian reported that 3,500 to 4,000 people filled the Discovery Center of Clayton County, just south of Atlanta, for the stop. Obama appeared with US senator Jon Ossoff and former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. The appearance was part of his cross-country campaign tour before next week’s election, supporting their campaigns and other down-ballot Democrats.

The Guardian described a broad wave of Democratic support buoying candidates across the country. Its Georgia polling summary put Ossoff eight to 10 points ahead of Republican US Representative Mike Collins, while Bottoms was statistically tied with Jackson. If Bottoms were elected, she would break the state’s Republican trifecta, which had controlled both chambers of Georgia’s legislature and the governor’s office since 2004.

Obama used the rally to criticize Donald Trump and the Republican Party. “These are not serious people,” he said of Trump and the Republican Party. “And we’re all paying the price for their lack of seriousness.” The stop continued the cross-country tour on which Obama had been offering pointed criticism of Republican candidates and Trump.

Obama also returned to Donald Trump’s reaction to a joke Obama made last week about the White House renovation, which likened the project to Saddam Hussein decorating a Cheesecake Factory. “The Saddam Hussein thing didn’t bother him. But he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory,” he said. Obama said the reaction had produced a whole-government response. “The White House even called the secretary of the treasury,” he said, adding that the official trying to figure out how to lower inflation was told to hold a press conference in front of the Cheesecake Factory.

Obama rebuffed Republicans’ accusations that mentioning the popular chain was snobbish. “I am the father of two daughters,” he said. “Do you think I could have survived their childhood without going to the Cheesecake Factory?” He then turned to problems of affordability for American voters, contrasting them with what he called the corruption of the presidency. “We have never seen a president so intent on selling favors,” he said. He also said Trump had made billions of dollars while in office and added, “Understand that this has not been done in modern times.”

Many speakers at the rally, including Ossoff, made the construction of a new ballroom on the site of the former East Wing of the White House a topic. “Each day, Donald Trump digs the moral pit deeper,” Ossoff said, accusing the president of leading “the most corrupt administration of all time, and everybody knows it.” Ossoff then invoked Democrats’ pledge to impeach Trump if they took control of Congress next year. “If you’re involved in any of this, next year you’ll be raising your hand to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” he said. The crowd chanted, “Lock him up!” in response.

Bottoms contrasted her candidacy with Jackson’s, tying the Republican opponent, described as a billionaire healthcare executive, to Trump. She called them “two out-of-touch billionaires who want to keep getting rich on the backs of taxpayers.” Invoking the legacies of US Representative John Lewis and Coretta Scott King, she characterized her candidacy as transcending politics. “They may have the money, but they will never overtake our movement,” she said.

Georgia’s other senator, Rev Raphael Warnock, warned of “spiritual wickedness in high places” while describing the effects of deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP nutrition support for children. He connected those concerns to the country’s character. “This is about the character of the country,” he said. “This is about who we are and whether we are here for one another … I am concerned about the spiritual health of our country. There is brokenness, because only a broken nation could manage to elect Donald Trump twice.”

Donald Trump was campaigning in Ohio at the same time as the Georgia rally and had been holding near-daily events in the final days of the midterm campaign, The Guardian reported. He had also made two appearances in as many weeks in Georgia, both in what would otherwise seem to be congressional districts that are safe territory for Republicans.