President Obama will look to target another core Democratic group — women — with an economic address Thursday in Rhode Island, the latest in a series of speeches looking to rally voters ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“Ensuring the strength of our economy for women has been a top priority for the president throughout this administration and a key part of his Year of Action agenda for 2014,” press secretary Josh Earnest said. “The president will discuss these efforts and what additional common-sense steps we could take to strengthen our economy by expanding opportunity for women and for all Americans.”
{mosads}The address follows a similar speech a week ago delivered to millennials at a Santa Monica technology incubator.
Both were crucial components of the coalition that twice elected the president, and both represent populations that tend not to turn out at the same levels during the midterm elections.
Among women, the president holds a 46 percent approval rating, with 47 percent disapproving, according to a recent Economist/YouGov poll — far better than his 55 percent disapproval among men.
Similarly, 48 percent of respondents aged 18-29 said they approved of the president, with 42 percent disapproving. That was the best of any cohort; 52 percent of those aged 30-44; 59 percent of those aged 45-64; and 62 percent of those over 65 years old disapproved of Obama’s tenure.
But a new poll from Gallup finds Democrats are less enthusiastic in 2014 than any of the previous four elections.
Like other recent appearances by the president, though, it doesn’t appear that the Rhode Island event will be an explicit campaign rally.
The White House on Tuesday said Obama “has been focused on some pretty core national security priorities” by way of explanation for the president being largely absent from the campaign trail. But, Earnest said, Obama can “handle more than one priority at the time” and he expects more campaign events “in the weeks ahead.”
“Stay tuned,” Earnest said.