WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination Friday, delivering Harris perhaps the most important missing piece in what has been a cascade of support from her party’s most influential leaders.

Obama Originally Withheld Endorsement

Obama, who has positioned himself as an impartial party elder and has remained neutral during Democratic primaries since he left office, had held back as endorsements poured in for Harris from all corners of the party after President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race Sunday.

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Harris’ campaign released a video Friday of a phone call between Harris and Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama that took place Wednesday while the vice president was in Indianapolis.

“We called to say, Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” Obama said.

Harris replied: “Thank you both! It means so much. And, and we’re going to have some fun with this, too, aren’t we?”

The Obamas issued a statement saying they would “do everything we can to elect Kamala Harris the next president of the United States.” They added, “And we hope you’ll join us.”

The vice president has quickly amassed the support of former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, the party’s 2016 presidential nominee; Democratic leaders; a vast majority of the Democratic caucuses in the House and Senate; and every Democratic governor across the country. By Monday night, she had secured pledges from enough Democratic delegates to become the party’s nominee.

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Obama did not mention Harris this week in a warm tribute to Biden that he posted on Medium shortly after the president had announced he would leave the race.

“Joe Biden has been one of America’s most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me,” wrote Obama, who chose Biden as his running mate in 2008.

Republicans interpreted Obama’s silence about Harris on Sunday as a snub. But people close to Obama downplayed its significance and said he had no alternate candidate in mind. They added that an immediate endorsement by Obama could have fueled criticism that the abrupt falling-in behind Harris amounted to a coronation, rather than the best possible consensus under rushed circumstances.

In 2020, Obama similarly resisted pressure from Biden’s aides to endorse his former vice president early in the Democratic primaries, before Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont had dropped out. Obama said then that he did not want to “thumb the scale.”

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One person familiar with Obama’s thinking said this week that he saw his role as helping to quickly “unite the party once we have a nominee.”

In 2008, Obama was elected the first Black president of the United States. Harris, who has broken barriers herself as the first Black woman to serve as California’s attorney general and only the second Black woman ever elected to the Senate, now has the chance to follow his pathbreaking presidency. If elected, she would be the first woman, the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to win the White House.

She has long been seen as Obama’s ally, speaking at the Democratic National Convention where he was renominated in 2012.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Jazmine Ulloa and Reid J. Epstein/Kenny Holston
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