CLARKSTON, Ga. — Vice President Kamala Harris, drawing on some of the Democratic Party’s biggest stars and supporters to energize voters in the final days of her campaign, is set to host former president Barack Obama and legendary rock artist Bruce Springsteen at a rally outside Atlanta on Thursday night.

Obama has been barnstorming the battleground states in recent days, seeking to motivate Democrats as early voting begins in those states, but Thursday’s rally will mark his first joint appearance with Harris.

On Friday, Harris will head to Houston for another rally, where she will be joined by pop superstar Beyoncé. The nominee will continue to Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday for an event with former first lady Michelle Obama, one of the party’s most popular figures.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris waves with former President Barack Obama at a campaign rally at James R. Hallford Stadium on Thursday, in Clarkston, Ga. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press

As the campaign heads into its final days, it plans to deploy star power to create a sense of momentum and energy that Harris’s team hopes will give her an edge in a contest that polls suggest is essentially tied nationally as well as in the seven battleground states. Harris’s campaign began with a surge of energy after President Biden made the stunning decision to withdraw from the race on July 21, enabling her to pull even with former president Donald Trump, but the race has remained largely static since then.

Harris has spent the past few days holding smaller events and participating in television interviews, as she has ramped up her outreach to moderate Republicans and undecided voters. She appeared in the three “blue wall” states – Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – with former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney on Monday, and she took questions from undecided voters at a CNN town hall outside Philadelphia on Wednesday.

In the final stretch, Harris is returning to large-scale rallies that are largely aimed at mobilizing the party’s base. The goal is to generate the largest possible turnout in metropolitan areas to offset Democrats’ perennial struggles in more rural regions.

The campaign is tapping both political and musical icons in hopes of electrifying that base.

Democrats believe Barack and Michelle Obama are especially helpful in that regard. Despite leaving office eight years ago, the former president remains among the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, skilled at both soaring oratory and scathing criticism, and his advisers say he is best deployed near the end of a campaign cycle to help with get-out-the-vote efforts.

Bruce Springsteen performs at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday, in Clarkston, Ga.  Mike Stewart/Associated Press

“You would be worried if your grandpa was acting like this,” Obama said at a recent rally in Tucson of Trump’s Oct. 14 town hall appearance, in which he stopped taking questions and instead swayed to music onstage for more than a half-hour. “Tucson, we do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails.”

Obama himself finds the rallies cathartic, former aides say. He has long disdained Trump and remains deeply worried that the Republican nominee could win a second term next month.

Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention was especially well-received, even prompting some delegates to break into tears.

From the beginning of her highly compressed campaign, Harris has relied on an atmosphere of music, dancing and energy at her rallies to speak to a cultural moment beyond politics. Taylor Swift, perhaps the only megastar who can compete with Beyoncé for sheer popularity, endorsed Harris in September.