Obama speech latest chapter in two-decade Harris relationship

Former President Barack Obama will return to the Democratic National Convention stage in his hometown of Chicago to deliver the keynote address on Tuesday, 20 years after his convention debut thrust him into the national spotlight.

It’s a tricky moment for one of the party’s most popular figures.

He will use his speech to touch on the historic nature of Kamala Harris’s candidacy – the first female of colour to lead the ticket – as a continuation of his legacy. But he must also pay tribute to his own vice-president and the man responsible for her rise – President Joe Biden.

Mr Obama, 63, and Ms Harris, 59, have moved in overlapping political orbits as early as his days as an Illinois state senator running for the US Senate. The two, both on the rise in their nascent political careers, met at a California fundraiser in 2004.

As an early supporter, Ms Harris would later volunteer for his presidential campaign and help power his first victory in 2008. Buoyed by party enthusiasm for Ms Harris’s campaign, Mr Obama – and his popular wife Michelle Obama – will try to return the favour and help propel her to the Oval Office.

“I think he can excite people about her and about the stakes [of the election] and I think that’s what he intends to do today,” David Plouffe, Mr Obama’s 2008 campaign manager and a now Harris campaign adviser, told Axios.

Here’s a look at key moments in their two-decade relationship.