Obama once urged Black men to back Harris — then he, Democrats reversed race rhetoric legacy in 2025

By Fox News · Fox News

Democrats historically have touted race and identity politics in the lead-up to high-profile elections, including former President Barack Obama chastising Black men for not supporting former Vice President Kamala Harris for president just one year ago. On the 2025 gubernatorial campaign trail in Virginia, however, race was dropped from the common talking points as Obama and other Democrats rallied around former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a White woman, in her battle against Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, a Jamaican immigrant and Marine veteran. Earle-Sears would have been the state's first Black female governor if she had been victorious Tuesday. Former Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is in the midst of his 2026 Senate campaign to replace outgoing Sen. Mitch McConnell, advocated that identity politics should be dropped from public discourse and replaced with discussions on merit, while noting Democrats employ race rhetoric when it's most advantageous. Democrats "certainly pick and choose when they want to highlight a candidate's race and use that for political expediency," Cameron said. "But the Republican Party has been consistent that we're a party about merit." FOX NEWS POLL: HOW SPANBERGER WON VIRGINIA GOVERNOR Obama campaigned in the Old Dominion state to drum up support for Spanberger, who is the first woman elected governor in the state, just roughly a year after he chastised Black male voters in Pennsylvania for not offering an outpouring of support to then-Vice President Harris' campaign. "We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all corners of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running," Obama said of support for Harris' race. "Now, I also want to say that that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers. So if you don't mind — just for a second, I've got to speak to y’all and say that when you have a choice that is this clean: When on the one hand, you have somebody who…