As the nation mulls similarities between Melania Trump’s Monday night speech and Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech, little has been said about Darryl Glenn’s use of a phrase made famous by then-candidate Barack Obama. Glenn’s campaign says the move – in prime time before a national audience at the Republican National Convention – was deliberate.

“Darryl was throwing Obama’s own words back in his face. That was the point,” said Katey Price, a spokeswoman for Glenn’s campaign.

“Mr. President, I have a message,” Glenn said Monday night as he addressed the convention in Cleveland. “This is not about black America, white America or brown America, this is about the United States of America.”

The delivery won Glenn a standing ovation and chants of “U.S.A.”

A similar line worked well for Obama, then a little-known junior senator from Illinois, at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

“There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America. There’s the United States of America,” Obama said in a keynote speech that propelled him to national prominence.

Glenn has used the line several times, including at the Colorado State Assembly in Colorado Springs, where his speech is credited with knocking a dozen candidates off the ballot.

Melania Trump took the stage just 20 minutes after Glenn. Critics quickly pointed out several lines of her speech that were nearly identical to a speech Michelle Obama gave at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Donald Trump’s campaign responded that the words and themes were common.

Darryl Glenn, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Colorado, speaks during the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Monday, July 18, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

J. Scott Applewhite