Former President Barack Obama is visiting closely divided Ohio to campaign for gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray and other Democrats.
Cordray, the former federal consumer watchdog, faces Republican state Attorney General Mike DeWine in one of the season’s most anticipated governor’s races. President Trump visited Ohio in August to campaign speak at a rally for DeWine.
Republican Gov. John Kasich is term-limited, and Democrats, who are currently out of power at every level of Ohio government, hope to win the governorship.
Also appearing with Obama at the Cleveland rally Thursday will be U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who faces a challenge from Republican Jim Renacci, a congressman from Wadsworth.
The appearance is part of a swing across the country by Obama to boost Democrats’ efforts to win House seats and state elections. Obama kicked off his midterm campaigning earlier this month with a speech at University of Illinois at Urbana Champlain. In this speech, he urged people to become active, saying “you need to vote because our democracy depends on it.”
He also decried the Republican Party, saying that Mr. Trump was a “symptom, but not the cause” of extreme partisanship in the country.
Obama’s second campaign appearance was at a rally in Anaheim, California, on Saturday in support of seven Democratic congressional candidates in largely Republican Orange County. He spoke for a much briefer period than in his address the previous day.
“They stepped up, they’re fired up, they’re ready to go,” Obama said about the candidates, repeating a campaign slogan from his 2008 campaign.
© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
