President Barack Obama will make one of the final speeches of his reelection campaign in Madison in an attempt to fire up his supporters in a swing state just one day before Election Day.
Monday, the president will speak at a Madison location that was not disclosed by press time Thursday night. Musical guest Bruce Springsteen will introduce him at the event.
At the beginning of October, Obama gave a speech on the University of Wisconsin campus that drew about 30,000 attendees.
An email sent by the campaign did not specify the time of the event, but it said Obama would “kick off the day” of campaigning in Madison before going to Columbus, Ohio, and Des Moines, Iowa.
Obama made a campaign stop in Green Bay Thursday, and Saturday, he will be in Milwaukee, where Katy Perry will join him. Obama’s opponent, former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., is scheduled to speak this morning in West Allis.
Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes are fewer than other states, such as Ohio’s 18, Michigan’s 16, Virginia’s 16 and Florida’s 29 electoral votes.
UW political science professor David Canon noted those states are more important due to the number of electoral votes, but he said Wisconsin is in the “next tier of states” both Obama and Romney need to win.
“Both campaigns think that Wisconsin is one of the key states they need to carry and that we’re still a battleground state,” Canon said.
He said if Obama wins Ohio, then Wisconsin and various other battleground states like Colorado or Nevada would become “must-win” states for Romney.
Although Canon said an Obama win in Ohio means he would likely not need Wisconsin to win the Electoral College, Wisconsin would become much more important if Obama loses Ohio.
The Obama campaign’s email said the president would emphasize in his speeches his commitment to a strong economy and middle class.
“President Obama will continue to share his vision to create an economy that’s built to last and highlighting his concrete and specific second-term plan to continue restoring economic security to the middle class and avoid returning to the same policies that crashed the economy,” the email said.
According to the email, Obama will be telling supporters during his speeches he has fought to ensure everybody has the same opportunity to succeed. The email said he would tell the attendees, “It’s time to finish what we’ve started.”
According to College Republicans Chair Jeff Snow, recent polls and a trend of conservatism in the state have frightened Obama into coming to Wisconsin more often. He added Obama has no plans to deliver to Wisconsinites, only a “failed record and attacks on Mitt Romney.”
“The Obama campaign is scared of the fact they won the state by 14 points in 2008 yet it’s so close here in 2012 with Mitt Romney,” Snow said. “When you look at what’s happening in Wisconsin, especially over the past couple of years, the state is leaning more Republican. The Obama campaign realizes Mitt Romney is within striking distance.”
