With only two weeks left until a special election is held in Massachusetts to fill the Senate vacancy left by John Kerry becoming secretary of state President Barack Obama was in Roxbury to help campaign for long time congressman Edward Markey, according to The New York Times.
While Rep. Markey holds a 7 point lead over former Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez according to recent polls Democrats in the bay state still have fresh memories of a special election gone wrong in 2010. After the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy Democrats assumed that they had the seat wrapped up and failed to see Scott Brown coming as the Republican won a shocking victory, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The key to the election for the Democrats is to make sure they can get people to go to the polls in the heavily blue state. Jennifer Duffy, a campaign tracker for the Cook Political Report, told the Los Angeles Times that the Democrats have reason to be worried.
"I can understand why they're nervous," Duffy said. "Turnout is going to be pretty low."
That's why President Obama made the trip to Massachusetts, to stir up voters. At a South Boston diner President Obama tried to encourage people to vote for Markey after eating a burger and fries.
"I want to make sure you know that there's going to be an election coming up for Congressman Markey to send him to the Senate," President Obama said. "I want to make sure everybody turns out and votes. All right?"
Later in the day the president spoke at Roxbury Crossing to a crowd of Markey supporters, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"This election is going to come down to turnout," President Obama said. "We've got a whole lot of Democrats in this state and a whole lot of Obama voters, but you can't just turn out during a presidential election."
Despite being a Republican in a very Democratic state Gomez has been able to keep things close. Much of the time Gomez attempts to distance himself from the Republican Party; he believes in gun control, promised to not work to change abortion laws and supports raising the minimum wage, according to The New York Times.
"It's closer than national Democrats would like it to be, so it makes sense to send in the big guns to motivate the Democratic base," Rob Gray, a Republican consultant, told The New York Times.
Speaking at a fundraiser in Florida later on Wednesday President Obama emphasized how important it was to him and to the Democratic Party to hold on to the Massachusetts Senate seat.
"It'd be a lot easier if I had a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate," President Obama said. "Sadly all too often we're not getting too much cooperation from the other side. They seem more interested in winning the next election than helping the next generation."
