Five states where Obama could help Clinton
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President Obama is ready to make an aggressive push for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign between now and Election Day.
Ensuring that Clinton becomes his successor is a top goal for Obama, who is eager to protect his legacy.
The president is expected stump for the Democratic nominee at least a dozen times during the final stretch of the campaign, according to The New York Times.
Here are the five states where the president can help Clinton most.
North Carolina
Obama and Clinton chose Charlotte, N.C., for their first joint campaign appearance, a sign that Democrats are serious about putting the Tar Heel State back in their column.
To accomplish that, they’ll need the support of African-American voters. The Clinton campaign believes there’s no better figure to rally them than the first black president.
In 2008, Obama became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win North Carolina since 1976. That year, nearly a quarter of the state’s electorate was black and 95 percent voted for Obama, according to exit polls.
Clinton will need to maintain those numbers to have a shot at winning the state. She currently holds a narrow lead over Republican nominee Donald Trump there, according to recent polls, and she is winning more than nine in ten African-American voters nationwide.
But it’s unclear if she can rekindle the same enthusiasm among the state’s black voters they had for Obama.
Her supporters are hoping that direct appeals from the president — combined with a Supreme Court ruling against the state’s voter ID laws — will help.
Iowa
The Hawkeye State has long been a trouble spot for Clinton, but her campaign is hoping Obama will help change that.
She lost to Obama in the 2008 Iowa caucuses and barely eked out a victory this year against her primary challenger, Bernie Sanders. Trump holds a 1-point lead in the state over Clinton,according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
Obama has often mused about his fondness for Iowa, and voters there seem to feel the same way about him.
He won the battleground state in both 2008 and 2012. More than half of Iowa voters views Obama favorably, according to an August Quinnipiac University poll, compared to 37 percent who have a favorable view of Clinton.
“I was missing you guys,” the president told the crowd at a town hall in Des Moines last September. “You know, I landed at the airport and saw the Hampton Inn there that — I must have stayed there like a hundred days. I'm sure I've got some points or something.”
Florida
The Sunshine State is once again a prime battleground; polls show a neck-and-neck race between Clinton and Donald Trump.
Personal visits by the president could boost Clinton’s chances. Obama pulled off narrow victories in 2008 and 2012 to win Florida’s crucial 29 electoral votes.
Obama could help widen Clinton’s advantage among the state’s growing population of Latinos, who now make up 18 percent of the electorate.
An August survey conducted by New Latino Voice found that just 13 percent of Hispanics in the state back the Republican nominee. By comparison, 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney won nearly four in 10 Florida Latino voters while losing the state by 1 percentage point.
Obama cut into Republicans’ traditional advantage in South Florida’s influential Cuban-American community and he’s likely to campaign in their stronghold of Miami-Dade County.
He could also appear in the Tampa and Orlando areas, which have a growing population of Puerto Rican voters.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has been solid Democratic territory for more than two decades.
But Trump is making a concerted push to win the state’s 20 electoral votes, hoping to tap into discontent among white, working-class voters in former industrial hubs.
Clinton has opened up a comfortable lead over Trump after running close with him there for weeks. But she’s not leaving anything to chance.
Obama is scheduled to make his first solo campaign stop for Clinton in Philadelphia on Sept. 13.
Clinton has tapped Vice President Biden to blunt Trump’s pitch to blue-collar voters in both Pennsylvania and neighboring Ohio.
But she is counting on Obama to motivate African-Americans, young people and suburban woman to vote for her in those states.
Nevada
Clinton is clinging to a narrow lead over Trump in Nevada, a state that many pundits expect her to win.
Obama won the state twice by wide margins, and the Democrats are thought to have significant demographic and organizational advantages over Republicans there.
But Trump won the state’s caucuses earlier this year. He has appealed to conservative and libertarian voters, many of whom are still suffering the aftereffects of the economic recession.
The Nevada unemployment rate was 6.5 percent in July, well above the national rate of 4.9 percent.
Enter Obama, who could help lift Clinton’s campaign by appealing to Nevada’s Mexican-American population. Those voters have bristled at Trump’s hard-line rhetoric on immigration and criticism of a federal judge of Mexican descent.
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“I know for a fact he plays well in Nevada,” said Jim Manley, a former senior adviser to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), said of Obama.
In addition to the presidential race, Reid is retiring from Congress. His Senate seat is the only one held by Democrats that is considered a toss-up by the independent Cook Political Report.
“Nevada, by all accounts, is going to be one of the toughest places out there,” said Manley. “Sen. Reid is going to do everything he can to keep that seat, and if he asks the president to lend a hand, I have no doubt he would be happy to do it.”
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