Former US President Barack Obama is endorsing 81 candidates ahead of November's Midterm elections and plans to hit the campaign trail, his office announced.
"I'm proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of Democratic candidates - leaders as diverse, patriotic, and big-hearted as the America they're running to represent," Obama said.
Among the candidates on the list - the first of two waves of endorsements - are several Obama Administration and campaign alumni. Notably, nearly half of the 81 candidates who have received his blessing are running for seats in state legislatures.
But the list is drawing attention for its omissions as much as for who made the cut. No incumbents are included among Obama's endorsed candidates; neither are Democrats running in several high-profile races across the country. Only one Senate candidate, Representative Jacky Rosen in Nevada, appears on the list.
Noticeably absent is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old rising star and self-described democratic socialist who bested longtime Congressman Joseph Crowley in June's Democratic primary in New York's 14th Congressional District.
