President Barack Obama gave a feel-good campaign-style speech at a gymnasium packed with screaming high school students on Friday, sketching out the main points of his populist agenda ahead of a special election in Florida on Tuesday, the Associated Press.
Obama did not mention the race for the House of Representatives seat that had been held by the late Republican Bill Young in a congressional district that includes St. Petersburg, a city north of Miami, according to the AP.
The White House said it was a coincidence that his speech came just before the election, the AP reported. Obama and his family plan to spend the rest of his weekend in Florida, at a lush Key Largo private resort.
After he and his wife Michelle toured Coral Reef Senior High School, where students were working on federal student aid applications, he talked to students about his "opportunity agenda" focused on education, training and job measures, according to the AP.
Democrats hope that agenda will resonate with voters in the November congressional elections, the AP reported.
"What binds us together is this idea that if you work hard you can make it, that there's opportunity for all," Obama said, according to the AP. "And we've got to restore that idea for your generation, that everybody has the same chance Michelle and I did."
A prelude to the midterm elections comes on Tuesday, in a hard-fought race between Republican David Jolly and Democrat Alex Sink, the AP reported.
The bellwether race will not alter the balance of power in the House of Representatives, where Republicans have a majority. But it is viewed as a trial run of messaging ahead of November, according to the AP.
A Republican win in the district, which Obama narrowly carried in the 2012 presidential election, could signal their attacks on his signature healthcare reforms known as Obamacare are resonating with voters, the AP reported.
Obama referred to his reforms only very briefly in his speech, but first lady Michelle Obama spoke about healthcare extensively in a trip to Miami on Wednesday, visiting a community health center where counselors were helping people enroll for health insurance on the HealthCare.gov website, according to the AP.
While the president's popularity has been hurt by the rocky rollout of his healthcare law, the first lady's polls remain strong, the AP reported. A Gallup poll this week found 66 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the first lady, compared with 52 percent for her husband.
Obama has stressed that he wants to do all he can to support Democrats ahead of the November ballot, and has warned them that they need to invest time, money and energy into the election, or risk losing their Senate majority, according to the AP.
