OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Joe Biden slowly but steadily walked onto the stage in Omaha on Friday. As he did, 800 people in the downtown Hilton ballroom rose to their feet cheering.

“Did you see the results Tuesday?” he asked, igniting another round of cheers as he listed Democratic victories from governorships in New Jersey and Virginia to the mayoral seat in New York to a redistricting decision in California.

It was a joyful return to the political stage for the former president, whose party’s effort to remain in the White House was rejected just over a year ago. Biden called for a political comeback, though not for himself, but to an audience hungry for a fight.

“You know what it feels like to be outnumbered,” he told Democrats in Nebraska, where Republicans have carried the state in every presidential election since 1968. “But every election, you put up the yard signs and you make your voices heard. The country needs you badly.”

It was the kind of pep talk that sells in a place where Democrats lose statewide but have staged winning races for the Omaha area’s 2nd District electoral vote, elected a Democratic mayor for the first time since 2009 and feel energized about capturing the 2nd District seat in 2026.

Biden heaped on the encouragement, but returned repeatedly to his view of his lone term’s high points, curbing COVID-19 and beginning the economic recovery from the epidemic.

He didn’t touch the difficulties he had last year, nor the year of debate Democrats have engaged in over how they lost the presidency to Republican Donald Trump.

In the summer of 2024, Biden waited more than three weeks from his disastrous debate performance in June with Trump, prompting panic among Democrats, before announcing in July he would not seek another term, and then endorsing then-Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor on the ticket.

Harris had written in a book published in September that she and others in Biden’s orbit should have been more aggressive in encouraging him to consider stepping aside sooner.

The closest Biden came to acknowledging the difficult decision was an oblique joke.

“I have the dubious distinction. I’m the youngest ever man elected to the U.S. Senate and I’m the oldest damn president,” he playfully rued.

Although Biden’s delivery was quiet but upbeat, he at times garbled his words and was sometimes so quiet he was inaudible from the amplified podium. Yet he would come charging back with fiery attacks on the Trump administration and calls for action.

“What we have to do is repair our faults, and that’s what we began to do on Tuesday,” he shouted.

Tuesday’s victories, a boon to Democrats across the country, were a timely lift for Biden.

But he also benefited from an atmosphere of respect.

Earlier in the program, he remained seated but beamed when the audience stood after Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, also a guest at the fundraiser, hailed him “for a lifetime of service to our country.”

“He was a president who governed not for red states, not for blue states but for the entire United States,” said Beshear.

Throughout Biden’s 30-minute remarks, the audience rose cheering. He returned to well-worn campaign themes promoting the middle class, equality and the nation’s responsibility as an example to other nations.

He called them principles “we’ve never walked away from.” Straining to punctuate by raising his voice, he said, “We’re not going to walk away from them now.”

It was Biden’s second public appearance in the past week, and second since completing a round of radiation therapy treatment in October for the aggressive form of prostate cancer he was diagnosed with after leaving office. He said nothing of his health, and when he mentioned cancer it was not about his own. It was about his late son Beau, who died in 2015.

It was the first purely political appearance for Biden since Labor Day 2024, when he appeared with Harris for a labor event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a full two months before the Nov. 5, 2024, election.

If his decision making about the 2024 race were in question in the audience Friday, it seemed a distant memory as he wrapped his speech.

“Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!” they chatted as he left the stage.

Thomas Beaumont, The Associated Press