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Former president Barack Obama is making his first campaign foray of 2017, agreeing to stump for Democrat Ralph Northam in his bid to be Virginias next governor.

David Turner, a spokesman for Northam, said the former president agreed this week to hit the campaign trail for Northam, but would not say when or where.

An aide to Obama confirmed that the former president agreed to campaign for Northam during a congratulatory call, although no events have been planned.

The HuffPost first reported Obamas plans to campaign for Northam.

The Virginia governors race, one of just two gubernatorial contests this year, is shaping up as the next high-profile electoral contest in the era of President Trump. It follows a couple of Democratic losses in high-profile special elections to fill congressional vacancies, including a race in Georgia last week that became the most expensive in U.S. history.

Obama, who carried Virginia in 2008 and 2012, could help Northam improve his support among younger voters and solidify his already strong backing from African American voters. Northams strongholds in the Democratic primary were in the Urban Crescent, the heavily populated areas of Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads.

Northam faces Ed Gillespie, a longtime Republican operative and party leader, in November. Gillespie spokesman David Abrams dismissed the potential appeal of the former president.

How many Democratic surrogates is it going to take to try to drag the lieutenant governor across the finish line? he said. Virginians deserve to hear from candidates directly, in their own voices, about their own ideas and proposals.

Gillespie recently campaigned with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).

Obama stayed out of the hard-fought Democratic primary this month between Northam and former congressman Tom Perriello. Northam, who beat Perriello, called former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. with an appeal to prevent Obama from endorsing in the race, according to a Democrat familiar with the call.

But Perriello, who lost his seat in Congress over his vote for the Affordable Care Act and then went on to work for the Obama administration, invoked the former president anyway, airing footage of him with Obama in campaign ads.

Since leaving office, Obama has stayed in the political fray, condemning President Trumps travel ban and decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, as well as Republican attempts to gut his signature health-care law.

(Amber Ferguson,Jorge Ribas,Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post)

But he did not campaign for Democrats in congressional elections this year, though he did cut a video endorsing Emmanuel Macron in the French presidential election.

Obama has said redistricting will be his primary cause. He says he wants to help rebuild Democratic strength by preventing Republicans from drawing legislative maps that are favorable to them and will define the political landscape for the next decade. The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, chaired by Holder, has made Virginias gubernatorial and House of Delegate races its first campaign targets.

At a Democratic fundraiser in Richmond this month, Holder said Virginia was at the epicenter of the political universe in 2017 and promised that his group would bring Democratic all-stars to the campaign trail.

[Holder says Virginia governors race is chance to send message to Trump]

Obamas predecessor, George W. Bush, largely kept a low political profile after leaving the White House, waiting seven years before he campaigned for his brother Jeb Bushs failed presidential bid.

Bush also has connections to the Virginia contest: He tapped Gillespie to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee early in his presidential term, and later brought him into the White House as his counselor. The former president attended a March fundraiser for Gillespie in Dallas and wrote a $25,000 check for his gubernatorial campaign.

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Obama returning to campaign trail to stump for Northam in Virginia governor's race - Washington Post

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Why is the Left so Dishonest about Islam? Being Libertarian Last week marked the one year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. The last month and a half has brought multiple terrorist attacks to the UK alone. The last few years have seen a dramatic rise in the frequency of these attacks both ... and more »

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Why is the Left so Dishonest about Islam? - Being Libertarian

On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Trump posted on Twitter, venting about Mr. Heller and other Republicans who are not supporting the Senate bill.

On Friday, Mr. Sandoval acknowledged the obvious. Hes in the eye of the storm here, Mr. Sandoval said at a news conference in Nevada as Mr. Heller stood next to him, looking vaguely miserable as Mr. Sandoval announced his opposition to the Senate bill. The legislation could affect 210,000 Nevada residents insured through the health care laws expansion of Medicaid.

On Friday Mr. Heller said that he, too, was against the bill as it is currently drafted, leaving himself just enough wiggle room to continue his longstanding practice of being the senator in the middle, the man who wants to see the Medicaid program phased out, except when he decides he doesnt. (Mr. Heller has taken both positions publicly.) He has also voted to take away money from Planned Parenthood, but tells some select audiences that I have no problems with federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Mr. Heller, whose spokeswoman said he was not available for an interview, said at the news conference Friday that this bill thats currently in front of the United States Senate is not the answer its simply not the answer. He said, Its going to be very difficult to get me to a yes.

As early as Thursday, the Senate will take a momentous vote to repeal the health law, and for Republicans from states that expanded their Medicaid program, the options are anything but palatable.

If the effort fails, the party risks being tarred as feckless: in control of the House, the Senate and the White House, but unable to come through with a promise that Republicans have been making from the day Mr. Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010.

If the effort succeeds, expansion-state Republicans face the prospects of political hellfire: blame for every potential glitch in the health care system, from premium increases to canceled health plans and benefit losses.

The fact remains that Dean Heller owns his partys destructive health care repeal effort, William McCurdy II, chairman of the Nevada State Democratic Party, said in a prepared statement. He added, The damage to Dean Hellers flailing re-election campaign was already done long before this desperate press conference. Mr. Heller did not respond through his spokeswoman.

Mr. Heller, 57, represents the sort of state, both rural and working class, that has much to lose from the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Nevada was once a national leader in the number of uninsured, but now the program has insured tens of thousands of its residents.

The state, like many around the country, has suffered a prescription drug crisis, and has among the highest rates of prescription painkillers sold and drug overdose deaths per capita. It also has a growing population of residents over the age of 55, a group particularly hammered by the Senate bill. All this has led Mr. Sandoval to take an unusually aggressive position for a Republican governor to preserve the current law.

Other Republican senators like Mr. Heller notably Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Rob Portman of Ohio come from states with similar populations and problems and have expressed skepticism about aspects of the bill.

Further complicating the matter are the four conservative Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin who have already declared that they cannot support the health bill without changes to make it even more frugal. That put Senate leaders on notice that any move to placate the Dean Hellers of the Senate might only alienate other lawmakers still further.

Mr. McConnell continues to project confidence, even as the enthusiasm for the bill is largely muted. Im pleased that we were able to arrive at a draft that incorporates input from so many different members who represent so many different constituents who are facing so many different challenges, Mr. McConnell said last week. He added: There will be ample time to analyze, discuss and provide thoughts before legislation comes to the floor. And I hope every senator takes that opportunity.

In fact, on the day last week that the bill was rolled out, Mr. Heller posted on Twitter a photo of himself sitting in an ornate chair plowing through it, a considerable feat of reading given the arcana of the bills statutory language. But in spite of his earnest decoding of phrases like the applicable median cost benchmark plan, what Nevadans have to say will probably have more impact especially Mr. Sandoval, the most popular public official in the state, to whom Mr. Heller owes much.

The governor appointed Mr. Heller to the Senate seat in 2011 after the resignation of fellow Republican John Ensign and supported him during his successful run for a full term in 2012.

Here is one thing that people dont talk about a lot with Heller: He doesnt like the job, said Jon Ralston, editor of the Nevada Independent, a nonprofit news organization. He was planning to run for governor.

But Adam Paul Laxalt, the current Nevada attorney general, the grandson of former Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada and the son of former Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico is widely expected to run and has more or less pushed Mr. Heller out of the way.

Mr. Heller has never been the sort of rainmaker for the state that Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate minority leader from 2015 until early this year, was. Nor has he been a legislative leader. The bottom line with Nevadans historically had been if you took care of the home issues, then how you voted in D.C. on the other stuff was less important, said Michael Green, an associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Mr. Heller appears to be running for re-election on a dogged effort to prevent the Trump administration from restarting licensing activities at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump outside of Las Vegas. Beyond that, he has few other issues to lean on, and is stuck swatting away at critics from the left and the right as he struggles to define himself on health care, come what may.

Now he in this position of his own making, Mr. Ralston said, pressed by Trump people on one side, so he has a base problem, while the other side is running the most relentless digital protest campaign on any piece of legislation I have ever seen in this state.

The threat on Mr. Hellers right flank is real, as shown by former Representative Joe Heck, who during his race for a Senate seat in Nevada last year openly opposed Mr. Trump. Conservative voters stayed home and Mr. Heck lost to a Democrat.

Democrats have already recruited a Nevada freshman, Representative Jacky Rosen, to take Mr. Heller on. Representative Dina Titus is also looking at a possible run. This is probably going to be the last decision I make in my political career, Ms. Titus said. I want it to be the right one.

In the meantime, Mr. Heller has a long week in Washington awaiting.

A version of this article appears in print on June 25, 2017, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: G.O.P. Senator With No Place To Take Cover.

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Health Law Repeal Leaves Nevada Republican Torn Between Lawmakers - New York Times

No one seems to like the Senate health care bill. Liberal wonks detest it. At least four Republican senators claim they arent prepared to support it, while other colleagues grumble about it. The White House, whose chief executive promised he wouldnt cut Medicaid, as this bill does, is balking.

But the Senate bill is very similar to the bill passed last month by the House. And the reason for that similarity is pretty basic: Both bills accomplish what Republicans want.

Despite the periodic dramas of reactionary versus conservative factions, Republicans are united around a couple of key goals. Both versions of the Republican health care legislation accomplish those goals, albeit in slightly different ways along slightly different timelines. Thats why, all the wailing aside, Congress will probably put a bill on President Donald Trumps desk that grievously damages Obamacare, if not precisely repealing it.

Both Senate and House versions will transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from poor and middle-class people, in the form of health care, to rich people in the form of tax cuts.

The wealthiest Americans, who have a disproportionate role in managing the economy, have famously awarded themselves a gargantuan share of its gains in recent decades. But Republicans continue to insist that gargantuan is less than sufficient. According to the liberal (and reliable) Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the House health care bill would provide the 400 highest-income families in the U.S. with tax cuts worth about $7 million annually.

Thus health care legislation is a vehicle to achieve a preeminent goal of the Republican Party transferring more wealth to the wealthy. In addition, by changing the baseline for federal revenues, the legislation will facilitate another round of tax cuts later this year.

Another paramount goal is destroying Barack Obamas presidency. Since Republicans were unable to accomplish that in real time, they hope to do it retroactively. The Republican legislation keeps much of the architecture of Obamacare. But by cashing in its funding base, Republicans can seriously damage it.

The third goal the Republican legislation accomplishes is the rollback of an entitlement and a reversal of the trend toward universal health care.

Government support Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid tends to go on and on. Historical Republican opposition to all three of those programs long precedes their obsession with high-end tax cuts. If Obamacare laid the track for universal health care, Trumpcare promises to blow up the railroad bridge and send the whole enterprise plunging into a ravine, albeit in slow motion.

The Republican senators currently expressing their displeasure with the plan could easily thwart it. But will they? Majority Leader Mitch McConnell knows his troops. He knows what they want and, more important, what they will settle for. Opioid treatment funding, maybe, for Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, whose states have serious addiction problems. Perhaps a more aggressive retreat from Obamacare regulations for Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.

The chorus of boos heightens the political drama but it doesnt stop the play. Concessions are made. Victories are claimed. The legislation moves toward conclusion.

How many Republicans will really abandon the twin pillars that have upheld the GOP for nearly a decade tax cuts for the rich and the repudiation of Obama? How many will walk away from the cause of multiple generations of Republicans rolling back the welfare state?

Im betting fewer than three.

Francis Wilkinson is a columnist for Bloomberg View.

Published June 24, 2017, midnight in: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, entitlements, medicaid, Obamacare, Sen. Mitch McConnell, trumpcare, welfare

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Wilkinson: Republicans will pass Trumpcare - The Spokesman-Review

Vice President Mike Pence stopped in Chicago on Saturday, rallying top Republican officials to support the party's health care plan amid deep concerns among some rank-and-file senators over a plan poised for a vote soon.

"This is our moment. Now is the time. Every moment Obamacare survives is another day America suffers," Pence posted on his personal Twitter account about his remarks to a gathering of the Republican National Committee at a downtown hotel.

"Before summer's out, we'll repeal/replace Obamacare w(ith)/system based on personal responsibility, free market competition & state-based reform," the former Indiana governor tweeted. His posts often accompanied by photos of his appearance in a hotel ballroom.

Pence added, "That's the Republican way. That's the American way. And that's the way we're going to reform health care in the 21st Century."

Pence's visit comes as Senate Republicans review a new health care plan and weigh the political benefits and liabilities of moving forward. The proposal differs in some aspects from a House measure approved earlier this year. It includes provisions that would affect those lower-income or disabled individuals who gained health coverage through an expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, as well as premium spikes for older Americans not yet eligible for Medicare.

John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune

The issue is acute for many states that expanded healthcare eligibility under the joint federal-state Medicaid program. The Senate GOP plan would give states three years to adjust to a sizable loss of federal reimbursement for Medicaid expansion.

But some GOP senators representing states that rapidly expanded Medicaid health care coverage have said the time frame is too short to adjust budgets. Currently, the federal government pays 95 percent of the costs of the expanded enrollment. At least five Republican senators have said they can't vote for the latest version in its present form. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell can't lose more than two and still pass the plan.

In Illinois, about 650,000 residents could lose Medicaid coverage under the Senate bill, and subsequent effects of state law, in 2021.

Some Republican governors who agreed to the Medicaid expansion have voiced concerns to the Senate and President Donald Trump's administration, such as Ohio Gov. John Kasich. In Illinois, which is undergoing a deep budget crisis, Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration has only said it has "concerns" as it reviews the plan, a response eliciting scorn from Democrats including prospective challengers next year.

The vice president also noted recent special election congressional victories by Republican candidates, including last week's victory by Karen Handel in suburban Atlanta over a strong challenge mounted by Democrat John Ossoff.

"I've got Georgia on my mind & it's driving nat'l media crazy," Pence tweeted. In a follow up post, he added, "The President promised we'd get tired of winning & a lot of people in the media are getting tired, but they better get used to it."

Pence left Chicago on Air Force Two in the afternoon to join Trump at the wedding of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Illinois State Police said his motorcade may have caused a temporary traffic holdup but that the roads were clear as of 2:30 p.m.

Chicago Tribune's Marwa Eltagouri contributed.

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Pence stops in Chicago to meet with top Republicans - Chicago Tribune