EmailABC News’ Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama will campaign in Missouri, Florida and Michigan over the next few weeks — another sign that his campaign is already executing a general election strategy.
On Tuesday while voters in West Virginia are heading to the polls, Obama will be campaigning in Missouri, a state which held its primary on February 5th.
While polls are closing Obama will fly then to Michigan in advance of campaign events in the state on Wednesday. Next week Obama heads to Florida to fundraise, marking Obama’s first visit to each of the two states since singing a pledge to not campaign there in the primary due the states violation of party rules.
At a press conference on Saturday in Bend, Oregon Obama spoke to the shift towards a general election, “We’re not going to have a lot of time to pivot. And John McCain’s been getting a free pass.”
With six remaining contests on the Democratic side, the campaign is taking on two races at once. He will be campaigning in the yet to vote Democratic primary states of Oregon, South Dakota and Montana later this week in addition.
Campaign manager, David Plouffe, in an email to supporters signaled the shift that the campaign is making, “Senator Clinton intends to compete vigorously in the remaining contests; at the same time we face increasing attacks from Senator McCain and the Republican attack machine.”
Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that the schedule is strategic, “Our schedule reflects the fact that we are still fighting for votes and delegates in the remaining contests but also that we are going to places that are going to be competitive in the fall.”
Obama spends his day today in West Virginia, only his second visit to the state that Clinton is anticipated to handily win.