CHICAGO — The last time Michelle Obama took the stage at the Democratic National Convention, in support of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, she stole the show with inarguably the most memorable line of the week: “When they go low, we go high.”
Since then, Obama has all but disappeared from the political spotlight, reemerging only when the moment calls for her voice.
But when she takes the stage Tuesday night, she will give the crowd a glimpse of the party’s fantasy candidate.
“She would never run,” said one aide who worked in the Obama White House. “And yet, she’s everyone’s favorite Democrat, even more than her husband sometimes. And I think he knows that.”
When she spoke virtually during the 2020 Democratic convention, she yielded more online engagement than any of the other speakers, according to NewsWhip, a website that monitors social media and digital traffic.
Polls routinely show the former first lady as the most popular Democrat in the country, and she has routinely given Republicans a scare when she has been floated as a potential candidate.
Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons called her “the biggest rock star in the party.”
“She sold out arenas on her book tour,” Simmons said. “Her voice will be even more powerful because she hasn’t done much politics lately.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll of registered voters in July found Michelle Obama was the only Democrat who beat former President Trump as an alternative to President Biden in a hypothetical match-up. She garnered 50 percent support compared to Trump’s 39 percent, while Vice President Harris drew 42 percent support compared to Trump’s 43 percent.
Political oddsmakers slightly increased Michelle Obama’s odds of running for president after Biden’s disastrous debate in Atlanta, and she has been the subject of draft rumors for years.
But Democrats who know the former first lady personally say a presidential run was never a remote possibility, given her personal distaste for being constantly in the political spotlight.
“If you know Michelle Obama, you know it was never on the table,” former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said. “She’s fabulous, smart, gifted communicator, wonderful woman. She’s a tremendous leader in her own right, but she never really loved” public life.
“She just doesn’t love politics,” she added. “She was a great political spouse and very supportive of Barack, but once they got out of the White House, I think she saw that as a time when they could have a more full relationship and spend more time with the girls.
“For those of us who have had the privilege of being around her, we all knew that this was not a realistic thing,” McCaskill said of a Michelle Obama presidential run.
Former President Obama acknowledged in 2023 that he didn’t fully appreciate how Michelle took care of their two daughters, Sasha and Malia, while he was consumed by the rigors of the presidency.
He acknowledged the “stress and tensions for her” knowing that her family was under extreme scrutiny and that they were “raising our daughters in a kind of situation that just wasn’t normal.”
The Obamas have largely receded from the public spotlight after the 2016 election, in which Trump shocked President Obama’s chosen successor, former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
They bought an $11.75 million house on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., and enjoyed a quieter life with celebrity friends, including Jay-Z, Beyoncé Knowles, George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey.
The Obamas will make their return to their old stomping grounds of the Windy City on Tuesday. And Democrats say the former first lady is the perfect surrogate to make the case for Harris as she seeks to tell her story to the American public as the clock inches closer to Election Day.
“For someone who is a leader in the conversation about women, race, and power, if Michelle Obama were to stay private right now, in this moment when a Black woman is at the top of the ticket, that would be really hard politically, and I suspect personally as well,” said Nayyera Haq, a former Obama White House aide.
Nearly a decade after her husband left office, the former first lady holds “symbolic significance” to the Democratic Party, Democratic strategist Joel Payne said.
“She has the unique ability to define the political moment without dividing people, and she’s the type of validator that will continue to build enthusiasm for Vice President Harris headed into the fall,” Payne added.
During the convention in 2020, Michelle Obama sought to remain above the fray when speaking about Trump, her husband’s successor.
“Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country,” she said at the time. “He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head.
“He cannot meet this moment,” she continued. “He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.”
Aides who worked for Obama were torn about whether the former first lady would underline her message from 2016 about taking the high road when it comes to dealing with Republicans.
In recent weeks, Democrats including vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, have all but ignored that approach.
But Haq said she expects the former first lady to take a different tack this time around.
“The steps in the arena say ‘when we fight, we win,’” Haq said. “People want a fight.”
A Democratic senator who attended Monday evening’s speeches at the United Center said there was never any serious discussion of drafting Michelle Obama to run for president during the tense discussions Democrats had about the future of their party after Biden flubbed his debate against Trump.
“I never actually heard any serious support on Capitol Hill, but every cycle there are individuals who are so respected by the general public” who generate buzz about a potential White House run.
The senator said many voters, including Democrats and independents, are attracted to the former first lady’s “integrity,” “decency” and “common sense.”
McCaskill told The Hill that many people are eager for Obama to jump into politics in her own right because “she’s genuine, she’s authentic, you get a sense of the depth of her commitment to her values.”
“She has all the natural leadership traits that we look for in a president, but she doesn’t like the political part of it that much,” she said.
Updated at 7:56 a.m. EDT