Obama, on California Front Lines, Joins Democratic Battle to Capture House

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Barack Obama came to the front lines of the Democratic battle to take back Congress on Saturday, describing the coming election as a pivotal moment for a divided nation and a chance “to restore some sanity to our politics.”

“If we don’t step up, things are going to get worse,” Obama said at a rally in California, a state where Democrats are hoping to capture seven seats held by Republicans. “Where there is a vacuum in our democracy, when we are not participating we are not paying attention, other voices fill the void.”

Obama’s appearance came a day after he delivered a lashing critique of President Donald Trump in a speech in Illinois, continuing the extraordinary spectacle of a former president, a Democrat, directly confronting a sitting president, a Republican. The back-to-back events, less than two months before the midterms, left no doubt that Obama intends to play an active role as campaigns enter their final weeks.

“The biggest threat to our democracy is not one individual,” he told 700 people crammed into ballroom. “It’s not one big super-PAC billionaire. It’s apathy. It’s indifference; it’s us not doing what we are supposed to do.”

In contrast to his speech in Illinois, Obama did not mention Trump by name, although the object of his dark warnings about the nation was obvious to his audience — who greeted him with cheers and shouts of “take it back.”

But from the start of his 23-minute speech, Obama, wearing a white shirt with an open collar, made clear he had set himself a different task: He was there to promote the candidacies of Democrats in California and across the country trying to win Republican seats. To that end, he named seven California Democrats running for the House, offering them brief and enthusiastic endorsements that were captured on Democratic Party cameras and that will presumably end up in candidate advertisements before long.

For the start of his support tour, Obama chose a part of the nation, Orange County, rich in political symbolism. The county was historically a conservative stronghold — the birthplace of Richard M. Nixon — that has been turning steadily Democratic over the past decade. Hillary Clinton defeated Trump here in 2016.

And five of the seven seats Democrats are going after are in Orange and San Diego counties.

Orange County is home to the Republican that Democrats view as most vulnerable this November: Dana Rohrabacher, because of his strong support of Trump and ties to Russia. He is being challenged by Harley Rouda, a Republican turned Democrat, who was in the audience as Obama spoke.

Obama’s decision to enter the fray is not without risks. It could very well, as some Democrats acknowledge, energize Republican and conservative voters, of which there are many in this part of the state, who have long opposed Obama.

But he made clear his main goal Saturday was getting Democrats and independents, who are a big bloc of voters here, to turn out in November.

“All across the country you can feel the energy,” Obama said. “People are saying enough is enough. We are taking off our bedroom slippers and we are putting on our marching shoes.”

Obama’s apparent decision to not go on the attack might have been in part a bow to the political sensibilities in the districts that Democrats are trying to capture. Although Clinton won all of the seven Republican-held congressional districts in play in the state, there are still pockets of support for Trump, and registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats in four of the districts.

Still, Obama did not avoid the themes he had struck on Friday as he addressed a room filled with Democrats, including some of the candidates, their families, staff members and supporters.

“We are in a challenging moment,” he said. “Because when we look at the arc of American history, there has always been a push and a pull between those who want to go forward and those who want to look back, between those who want to divide and those who want to bring people together. Between those who promote the politics of hope and those who exploit the politics of fear.”

The event took place at a convention center across the street from Disneyland. People coming to the rally — as well as protesters outside the hall — intermingled with tourists wearing mouse ears on their way to visit the theme park on a bright and sunny afternoon.

Obama took the occasion to tell a story of when he, as a student attending Occidental College in Los Angeles, had come with some friends to see a concert, and afterward, boarded the gondolas to smoke. (Cigarettes, Obama quickly made clear as the allusion titillated some in the crowd in a state where marijuana is legal.)

He was promptly caught by Disney security guards. “This is a true story, everybody,” he said. “I was booted from the Magic Kingdom.”