In his first campaign event since leaving the White House, former President Barack Obama will hit the campaign trail with Democrat Phil Murphy in Newark this Thursday.

Obama will join Democratic nominee for governor Murphy – who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany during the Obama years – and LG candidate Sheila Oliver for a canvas kickoff at the Robert Treat Hotel on Thursday afternoon.

The former President has deep political roots in the state, where U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), the former mayor of Newark, served as the co-chair of his 2008 presidential campaign. Obama lost New Jersey to Hillary Clinton in that primary, but won the state big in both general elections he waged here, in 2008 and 2012.

Obama campaigned for himself here throughout 2007 and 2008, at events in Jersey City, the War Memorial in Trenton, and with the late Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy in Bergen County. In 2009, he came back to the Garden State on at least two occasions to campaign for Governor Jon Corzine, launching his Affordable Care Act initiative at a Corzine rally at the PNC Bank Center, and joining Corzine at the Rock on the weekend prior to Election Day.

He also received Gov. Chris Christie’s hug of 2012 infamy in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. which some Republicans absorbed as the dagger thrust that finished off Mitt Romney’s presidential chances.