The fundraiser marks Obama’s political return to the City of Angels months after he hosted a similar event there for President Joe Biden. A recording of Obama helping Biden off the stage after it, in addition to co-host actor George Clooney’s op-ed following Biden’s debate against former President Donald Trump, contributed to the pressure campaign mounted on the incumbent to step down.

Obama’s fundraiser, which will raise money for the Harris campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and Democratic state parties around the country, is the former president’s first campaign event for Harris, aside from his appearance last month at the Democratic National Convention. It comes as the Harris campaign simultaneously embraces Obama, while putting distance between him and the vice president, though the former president is expected to start holding rallies next month for Harris and down-ballot candidates.

Tickets for Obama’s fundraiser, co-hosted by former Obama ambassador to Spain James Costos and designer Michael Smith, range from $50,000 to $250,000. The evening fundraiser coincides with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton‘s own first event for Harris, a lunchtime fundraiser on the same day in the same city. Actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Sally Field are anticipated to be at Clinton’s fundraiser.

“This is a full, you know, hands-on-deck moment,” Clinton told MSNBC Thursday. “You never know what might influence somebody in their voting.”

Although campaign fundraising operations tend to morph closer to elections when the candidate’s most important resource becomes their time, the Harris campaign’s divide-and-conquer fundraising strategy is different to that of its Biden counterpart when Democratic enthusiasm was less apparent. The then-Biden campaign also promoted the president’s fundraiser with Obama and the other Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, with a quieter approach to the Los Angeles event. This time around it is Obama’s team who is taking the lead.

The Harris campaign has strategically leaned on Obama, while it has tried to provide the vice president with space and opportunities to be her own person, with the added advantage of avoiding any direct, head-to-head comparisons between the pair.

For example, before Harris’s opening and potential only debate against Trump last week, her campaign produced a new ad amplifying Obama’s quip about the former president’s crowd sizes from his Democratic convention address. The spot was placed nationally on cable television, including Fox News, and in local media markets for West Palm Beach, where Trump lives, and Philadelphia, where the debate was broadcast from.

“Here’s a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems,” Obama told the convention in Chicago last month. “This weird obsession with crowd sizes… it just goes on, and on, and on.”

The ad served as a preview for one of Harris’s most memorable moments from the debate: when she needled Trump into defending his crowd sizes and rally performances.

“I’m going to actually do something really unusual and I’m going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies because it’s a really interesting thing to watch,” Harris said. “You will see during the course of his rallies he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will tell you the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you.”

At the same time, again during the Democratic convention, Harris and her vice presidential nominee, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), held a competing rally in Milwaukee, the site of the Republican National Convention the previous month, on the same night Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama spoke at the event.

Even the Obamas’s endorsement of Harris, an announcement made in a video days after other prominent Democrats had publicly backed her, which has since been watched 117 million combined views and raised $400,000, only showcased the vice president speaking to the former first couple on speaker phone.

Earlier this week, Michelle and I called our friend @KamalaHarris. We told her we think she’ll make a fantastic President of the United States, and that she has our full support. At this critical moment for our country, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure she wins in… pic.twitter.com/0UIS0doIbA

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 26, 2024

Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, one of the co-founders of White Dudes for Harris, supported the Harris campaign’s strategy, citing the vice president’s improved favorability rating, which this week became net positive for the first time since mid-2021. Her average favorability rating is now net positive 0.9 percentage points, 48.7%-47.8%, according to RealClearPolitics.

“People want to see a joyful warrior like Kamala in the White House, not a miserable loser like Trump,” Nellis told the Washington Examiner. “She dominated him in the debate last week. She outraised him 3-to-1 in August, fueled by small-dollar donations. Her rallies are drawing massive crowds, driving Trump insane. She’s going to be able to carry this momentum into November.”

The Harris campaign disclosed the vice president raised $361 million last month to Trump’s $130 million, with approximately $100 million more cash on hand in contrast to the former president.

For former California Democratic Party adviser Bob Mulholland, Harris has an additional edge over Trump by being younger than the former president and by being a relative political newcomer.

“As LBJ said to staff, do not send me anywhere unless I have something new to announce. Kamala Harris is that something ‘new,’ everywhere she goes,” Mulholland told the Washington Examiner of former President Lyndon Johnson.

But Republican strategist John Feehery remained unconvinced excitement for Harris will continue until Nov. 5, with or without Obama.

“It will be interesting to see what the October surprise will this election cycle,” Feehery told the Washington Examiner. “In a year of twists and turns, it’s hard to know what will spark momentum for either campaign.”

In another effort to differentiate herself, Harris will host her own fundraiser on Sept. 29 in Los Angeles. Ticket prices for the vice president’s event range from $500 to $1 million, with $500 tickets already sold out. The more expensive tickets include a reception with her, a “liberty luncheon,” and a photo.

Obama raised $30 million for Biden in June through the fundraiser he co-hosted with Clooney and Julia Roberts, another A-list celebrity, but its financial success was overshadowed by Biden seeming to freeze on stage and the former president assisting him to get out of the spotlight.

“Let’s not forget, President Obama, President Biden have a relationship,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at the time. “They are friends. They’re like family to each other, and I think that’s what you saw.”

“You saw the president put his hand behind the, on the back of President Biden, and they walked off the stage after taking questions or in a, at an event taking questions from Jimmy Kimmel,” she said. “That is what you saw.”

Obama’s fundraiser builds on his outreach to digital creators and activists for National Voter Registration Day this week, encouraging them to encourage others to vote.

“What’s the point in having 4 million followers if you’re not doing anything with it,” Obama said. “What’s the point of all the work that you do to make sure your voice is heard, if your voice is not being harnessed on behalf of the things that are most important.”