Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
Former President Barack Obama surprised a number Texas Democrats with his endorsement. Among those he endorsed are two member of the Texas House LGBT Caucus — Jessica Gonzalez of Dallas and Erin Zwiener of Driftwood.
Zwiener expressed her surprise at the endorsement on Twitter. “Well this is quite a surprise for the morning!” she tweeted. “Thank you @BarackObama for acknowledging the importance of the Texas House, and I’m honored to have your endorsement!” Other endorsements included Wendy Davis who’s running for a central Texas congressional seat and LGBT candidate Gina Ortiz Jones running to replace Rep.
Will Hurd in West Texas. In the 2018 election, Jones came within a few hundred votes of beating Hurd. Locally, Obama also endorsed Rep.