Outgoing-State Rep. Phillip Ensler (D-Montgomery), the Democrat nominee for Lt. Governor, is blasting a pre-recorded robocall from former President Barack Obama to “tens of thousands of low-propensity Democratic voters” across Alabama before Tuesday’s election.
Ensler announced the call in an email to supporters on Monday and called Obama “my former boss.”
“I’m deeply honored to have the support of my former boss, President Barack Obama,” Ensler wrote. “President Obama recently recorded a robocall on my behalf, which our campaign is sending out to tens of thousands of low-propensity Democratic voters throughout the state in the final days of the campaign.”
Ensler, a New York native, worked in the Obama administration in 2011. He faces former Alabama Republican Party chairman John Wahl, who received an endorsement from President Donald Trump’s before he even officially announced his campaign.
In the call, according to the email, Obama tells voters Ensler will “fight to lower costs, strengthen public schools, and protect the rights of the people of Alabama.”
“President Obama knows what I stand for,” Ensler wrote. “I worked in his administration in 2011, and he showed me that real leaders treat everyone with kindness and empathy, and that public service is about trying to make a positive difference in the lives of others. This is the kind of leadership that Alabama desperately needs, and we’ve been working hard to make it happen.”
Obama recorded a robocall in Alabama once before, for Doug Jones in the December 2017 U.S. Senate special election. Jones is now the Democrat nominee for governor, and he and Ensler have campaigned together for most of the year.
Republicans have held the lieutenant governor’s office since the 2010 election. Wahl and Ensler met on Wednesday in Alabama’s first televised general election debate between major-party statewide nominees since that year.
“We couldn’t have made it this far without the backing of thousands of supporters like you,” Ensler wrote. “Let’s win this on Tuesday!”
Polls open Tuesday at 7 a.m.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
