--- title: Midterm Election 2014: Obama Will Appear at Only 7 Campaign Events description: The president will appear at only 7 campaign events before November's midterm election canonical: https://time.com/3510112/obama-midterm-election-democrat/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-15T14:33:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:48:05.801Z article:section: Politics og:title: Midterm Election 2014: Obama Will Appear at Only 7 Campaign Events og:description: The president will appear at only 7 campaign events before November's midterm election og:url: https://time.com/3510112/obama-midterm-election-democrat/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd519c823a742c1d/698760e0428a9e0d54cc48ab/barack-obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Obama heads to the Marine One helicopter to travel to Andrews Air Force Base for a meeting with foreign defense chiefs from more than 20 countries including Turkey and Saudi Arabia on strategies for fighting Islamic State, in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Midterm Election 2014: Obama Will Appear at Only 7 Campaign Events twitter:description: The president will appear at only 7 campaign events before November's midterm election twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd519c823a742c1d/698760e0428a9e0d54cc48ab/barack-obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Sightings Will Be Rare This Election Season by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Oct 15, 2014 2:33 PM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama heads to the Marine One helicopter to travel from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base for a meeting with foreign defense chiefs from more than 20 countries including Turkey and Saudi Arabia on strategies for fighting Islamic State, in Washington D.C. on Oct. 14, 2014. U.S. President Barack Obama heads to the Marine One helicopter to travel from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base for a meeting with foreign defense chiefs from more than 20 countries including Turkey and Saudi Arabia on strategies for fighting Islamic State, in Washington D.C. on Oct. 14, 2014.Jim Bourg—REUTERS by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Oct 15, 2014 2:33 PM UTC President Barack Obama will be all but absent from the Democratic campaign trail this midterm election season, appearing in just seven campaign rallies in blue-leaning states before election day Nov. 4. Increasingly a political liability for his party, Obama will appear with just one Democratic candidate for the Senate, Gary Peters in Michigan, as his party struggles to hold onto a majority, a White House official said. The president’s poll numbers are near historic lows, and in contested races, Democrats believe Obama’s endorsement would be a lead weight for their candidates. Republicans have run tens of millions in ads tying Democrats to Obama, as Democratic candidates have tried to argue their [independence from him](http://time.com/3507165/alison-grimes-barack-obama-midterm-elections/). On Wednesday, Obama will travel to Connecticut to campaign alongside Gov. Dan Malloy, and on Saturday he will hold a rally with Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn in Chicago and in Maryland with gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov Anthony Brown. During the final full week of the campaign, Obama will hold rallies with Democratic gubernatorial candidates Mary Burke in Milwaukee, WI., Tom Wolf in Philadelphia, Mike Michaud in Portland, ME., and with Peters and gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer in the Detroit area. Democratic governors may prove to be the bright note in an Election night forecast to be generally dismal for the party next month, with Republican odds of taking the Senate increasing and House Democrats preparing for a net loss of seats. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3510112/obama-midterm-election-democrat/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3510112/obama-midterm-election-democrat/"},"headline":"Obama Sightings Will Be Rare This Election Season","datePublished":"2014-10-15T14:33:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:48:05.801Z","description":"The president will appear at only 7 campaign events before November's midterm election","url":"https://time.com/3510112/obama-midterm-election-democrat/","keywords":["2014 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd519c823a742c1d/698760e0428a9e0d54cc48ab/barack-obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd519c823a742c1d/698760e0428a9e0d54cc48ab/barack-obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama heads to the Marine One helicopter to travel to Andrews Air Force Base for a meeting with foreign defense chiefs from more than 20 countries including Turkey and Saudi Arabia on strategies for fighting Islamic State, in Washington","caption":"President Obama heads to the Marine One helicopter to travel to Andrews Air Force Base for a meeting with foreign defense chiefs from more than 20 countries including Turkey and Saudi Arabia on strategies for fighting Islamic State, in Washington","creditText":"Jim Bourg—REUTERS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2014-election/","name":"2014 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3510112/obama-midterm-election-democrat/","name":"Obama Sightings Will Be Rare This Election Season"}}]}] ```