Obama returns to political spotlight with Illinois speech previewing midterms

The speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign comes ahead of Obama's first campaign events of the midterms: a rally for a handful of Democratic congressional candidates in California on Saturday and an event for Richard Cordray, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Ohio, next Thursday.

Obama is also planning campaign trips to Pennsylvania in September, an Obama official said, as well as a New York fundraiser for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, an organization led by former Attorney General Eric Holder, Obama's longtime friend.

Obama's office announced his first round of endorsements earlier this year and the official said his second round will be released in coming weeks.

While Obama is traveling back to the state he once represented in the Senate to accept the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government from the university, a top Obama adviser tells CNN the former president has long been eyeing the forum as the best place to deliver his opening salvo in the midterms.

"We thought it was important to find a setting where he can find a cogent, rational argument outside of the more chaotic campaign appearances that come this fall," the adviser said. "The speech will lay down a frame and his message for fall. He will lay out his views about where we are and where we go from here."

The speech will be "a pointed" critique of the current state of affairs in Washington, one Obama adviser said, in which the Democratic heavyweight will be "much more, much more pointed about what's at stake right now" and how "people need to take their responsibility seriously."

Obama's speech in the university's 1,300-person auditorium has seen sizable interest from the school's student body, according to university spokesman Jon Davis, who said they had received around 22,000 requests for tickets.

Obama has spent much of 2018 away from the political fray, focusing on writing his book and raising money for his post-presidency foundation. The distance has annoyed some Democrats, who believe their most potent weapon is sitting out the midterms in an effort to maintain decorum that has long since left politics.

Obama has made some appearances since Trump took office -- including headlining a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee earlier this year -- but the Trump era has complicated Obama's post-presidency. A series of former presidents have avoided critiquing their successors, and Obama has attempted to keep that tradition since he left office in January 2017.

Trump has not honored that tradition and has shown little to no regard for his predecessors, regularly bashing them on Twitter, to the media and at rallies. Obama's latest foray into politics is likely to ignite Republicans, including Trump.

Obama never said Trump's name during his fundraising speech for the DNC and instead urged Democrats to stop "moping" and get to work for candidates.

An Obama office official said before the speech that they could not say whether the former president would mention Trump directly in Illinois but added that "regardless of whether he mentions him by name, it will be very clear who he is talking about."

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