<p>Former President Barack Obama is set to break his post-White House seclusion this week as he hits the campaign trail in support of Democratic ;candidates running for federal and state positions this November. ;</p>
<p>Obama&rsquo;s midterm campaign will kick off with a speech this Friday at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he will &ldquo;echo his call to reject the rising strain of authoritarian politics and policies,&rdquo; says Katie Hill, his communications director. &ldquo;And he will preview arguments he&rsquo;ll make this fall, specifically that Americans must not fall victim to our own apathy by refusing to do the most fundamental thing demanded of us as citizens: vote.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>But for some Democrats, support from Obama is something of a liability. ;</strong></p>
<p>&ldquo;Surrogates are fine but we don&rsquo;t need them,&rdquo; says Senator Jon Tester (D-MT), whose state in 2016 overwhelmingly voted for Trump over Hillary. ;&ldquo;The race is myself and Matt Rosendale and that&rsquo;s the way we want to keep it.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The primary concern for Democratic Senators running in ;red states is that support from Obama will fire up Trump&#8217;s voter base and lead to increased turnout on the other side. Other candidates worry that support from Obama could harm their chances of attracting Independent voters. ;</p>
<p>The former concern is probably why Obama has eschewed ;Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who represents ;a state Trump won by 8 points in 2016.</p>
<p>When asked, Brown said he had ;&lsquo;no idea&rsquo; why his name was missing from ;the former president&#8217;s endorsement list. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d love for him to come to Ohio and help us with voter turnout for Cordray and for me,&rdquo; said Brown, referring to gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray.</p>
<p>Obama ;did not ;weigh in on ;Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill&#8217;s race against GOP Attorney General Josh Hawley in Missouri, nor did he endorse Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly in his contest with former state lawmaker Mike Braun in Indiana. ;</p>
<p>And while Obama has formally endorsed two House candidates and three state House candidates in Pennsylvania, he has refrained from endorsing Senator Bob Casey (D-PA).</p>
<p>&ldquo;Both of those senators are doing well [with] their respective states and they don&rsquo;t exactly need Obama&rsquo;s seal of approval,&rdquo; said one strategist, referring to Sherrod and Casey. &ldquo;Obama is still popular with certain folks in those states but he&rsquo;s not exactly popular with some others.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Sources close to Obama have suggested that he is not ;finished announcing his endorsements ;and that he does have plans to ;campaign with Casey in Pennsylvania &#8211; a state Trump won by less than 1 point in 2016. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We look forward to campaigning with him, we hope, in the fall,&rdquo; said Casey, adding that Obama seems to be prioritizing local races in order to give the party more influence in ;2020 congressional redistricting. ;</p>
<p><em>The midterm elections, which take place November 6th, will decide ;control of the House, Senate, and more than 30 ;gubernatorial contests.</em></p>