Barack Obama spoke at the Fitzgerald Field House at a private event Thursday, 26 days before the election.
“We don’t need a president who will make problems worse, just to make his own political circumstances better,” Obama said.
He endorsed the Harris campaign in July after Biden stepped down from the race.
“I would have voted for Biden if he was in a casket,” Crystal Sensky, a 46-year-old rallygoer from Canonsburg, said.
The most vital issue to her in the presidential race is to beat Trump.
Obama said that JD Vance recently claimed that Trump saved the Affordable Care Act when he was president. During the rally, Obama said that 45 million people rely on the Affordable Care Act. He said that all Trump did during his presidency was attempt to tear it down.
“This election is not just about policy, it’s about values and the example we want to set for our children and their children,” Obama said.
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, PA Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, PA Gov. Josh Shapiro, PA Sen. Bob Casey and two others spoke at the event on a stage before a massive American flag. Supporters filled the ground floor of the building, leading into a set of bleachers.
Shapiro bragged that, during his term, there was a significant investment in education in the Commonwealth of PA and rapid infrastructure rebuilding, bringing up the Fern Hollow Bridge that collapsed in 2022.
Shapiro asked Donald Trump to “stop shit-talking America” and referred to the decisions the Founding Fathers made when the Constitution was written in Philadelphia.
“I don’t care what the Supreme Court says, we’re not going back to a king in this country,” Shapiro said. “We have a republic if you can keep it.”
Casey introduced Obama onto the stage as the man who passed the Affordable Care Act. As a Pennsylvania senator, he said that he “fought off all the attempts to gut and appeal” it in his term.
“I’m going to beat David McCormick, and I’m going to beat those billionaires,” Casey said. “We’re here to focus on the future – the future of our commonwealth and the country.”
Obama endorsed Casey in his speech.
Davis, the youngest lieutenant governor in America, and the first Black lieutenant governor in Commonwealth history, said he wants Harris in office to lower costs for middle-class Americans.
“Trump has a view to take us backwards, but here in Pittsburgh we have the choice to make for our children,” he said.
As the son of a union bus driver and hairdresser, he mentioned his beginnings in McKeesport.
At the rally, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey attributed the loss of 205,000 jobs in Pennsylvania to Trump’s candidacy.
“We will make our voices heard, we are never going back,” Gainey said.
Cate Lecrone, a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh natural science student, said she thinks Tim Walz “mellows” Harris’s image to make her fit in with the category of everyday people.
“Being relatable is the best way to get those kinds of voters,” Lecrone said.
During the rally, Obama joked that Trump didn’t know how to change a tire or a diaper.
Austin Gohn, a 20-year-old from York, is a computer science junior at Pitt. He supports Kamala for her views on gun control, LGBTQ+ rights and abortion rights.
“There are good people of conscience on both sides of the abortion divide,” Obama said. “If you believe in freedom, then you should believe that the person who decides is the person whose body is involved and not the politicians.”
Gohn said that Kamala’s TikTok page does a good job of reaching young voters.
“We’ve had Trump, we’ve had Biden, it’s about time that we’ve had younger people that really represent the whole country,” Gohn said.
Obama said that everyone who was in the Field House was probably going to vote, unless they were underage. Gabriel LaRocco, a 12-year-old from Beachview who went to the rally with his mom and his dad, fell under this category.
“I know that I can’t vote, but I think that it’s still really cool to come out to these rallies and support Kamala and Coach Walz,” Gabriel LaRocco said. He likes that Kamala supports abortion and unions because his father is a member of one.
Casey LaRocco, Gabriel’s father, 48, brought his family to the rally because he said he wants his son to “see the right thing to do.”
“Doing the right thing is sometimes hard, but this is not hard,” Casey LaRocco said. “She is the right choice to make.”
Casey LaRocco is on the board for IATSE 489, a union of studio mechanics. If Obama ran, he said he would vote for him again.
“A woman’s choice should be her choice,” LaRocco said. “A politician should never be involved in the medical choice for an American citizen.”
Another attendee, Lisa Absher, a 56-year-old registered Independent from Monroeville, plans to vote on an absentee ballot. She had private access to stand in front of the stage as a canvas volunteer.
“I’ve been working really hard volunteering a lot of my time to support the Kamala campaign,” Absher said. “I do a lot of training for other volunteers, they call us Kamala Kaptains.”
She said she cried during Obama’s speech and was thrilled when the candidacy switched from Biden to Kamala.
There was one known medical emergency at the rally. Microphone issues affected the first three speakers, causing them to ask attendees if they could hear them multiple times, to which the crowd responded no.
Obama said that, instead of booing at the rally, attendees should go vote.
