Barack Obama is jumping back into campaign-mode with a visit to a once-solid Republican stronghold in California, promoting Democratic congressional candidates and reminding voters of the stakes in the November elections. His appearance Saturday in Orange County comes on the heels of his strongly worded critique of his successor in the White House, saying President Donald Trump was "capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years.

Obama was to share billing with seven Democratic candidates in competitive US House districts across California that are considered crucial to the party's efforts to oust Republicans from control. Four of those districts are at least partly in Orange County, a formerly reliable GOP area that went for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. In Obama's comments Friday in a speech in Illinois, he noted the history of former presidents avoiding the rough and tumble of politics after leaving office.