On Monday, which was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, former First Lady Michelle Obama shared a message on Twitter honoring the occasion and encouraging action in support of registering to vote among her followers.
Obama has helped lead outreach to voters in the past through an organization called When We All Vote, and she shared resources associated with that org, which she helped bring into existence, this week. “Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for justice took patience and perseverance, leadership and compassion, and a love for humanity that all of us should strive for,” she said. “This #MLKDay, I hope you will join me in honoring the life and legacy of Dr. King by taking at least one action to support your community. You can start by texting three friends and reminding them to check their voter registration with @WhenWeAllVote.” In the posts, she shared resources — including the website https://whenweallvote.org/verify-registration/ — by which readers could do so with ease.
Relatedly, former President Barack Obama appeared at a series of rallies before the midterm elections last year at which he helped lay out the case to voters of the seriousness of what was at stake. In states around the country, candidates who supported — often very directly — Trump’s lies about U.S. elections were on the ballot, and should they have succeeded, they could have held the kind of political power necessary to turn that support for conspiracy theories into dangerously destabilizing action in 2024. A series of candidates who were aligned with Trump on that issue lost, including in races for governor in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, and the Senate race in Nevada, where the Democratic incumbent’s narrow re-election win helped mean Dems actually expanded their majority in the Senate after flipping partisan control of a seat in Pennsylvania.
The message from the former First Lady starkly contrasts with what Trump spent early Monday discussing online. Via his account on Truth Social, which is his alternative social media platform, he shared what were just outright lies and deception about Biden’s handling of classified docs found at a personal residence of his. Among other examples, he characterized the garage at that residence as totally unsecured. In general, there is actually Secret Service protection for the premises — just like Trump’s southern Florida resort.
This #MLKDay, I hope you will join me in honoring the life and legacy of Dr. King by taking at least one action to support your community. You can start by texting three friends and reminding them to check their voter registration with @WhenWeAllVote. https://t.co/LqTAmvFQzX pic.twitter.com/gowIVscDvx
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) January 16, 2023
