Obama returning to Ohio next week

President Barack Obama waves as boards Air Force One ASSOCIATED PRESS Enlarge

President Obama is expected to return next week to campaign for re-election in Ohio, where a new poll shows him gaining momentum among voters.

The two-day road trip through Pennsylvania and Ohio, two key battleground states in the November election, kicks off July 5, an Obama campaign official said.

Ohio and Pennsylvania, with 38 electoral votes between them, are crucial to the president’s re-election bid. Mr. Obama won both states in 2008, but Republican rival Mitt Romney is expected to make a strong play for each.

The Obama campaign has not said where the President will stop.

The President was in Ohio June 14, speaking at a community college in Cleveland. Next week’s trip would be his 23rd to the state since taking office in January, 2009.

A poll by Quinnipiac University today showed Mr. Obama opening up a 9-point lead in Ohio over Mr. Romney.

The planned visit was panned in advance by the Ohio campaign for Mr. Romney. Campaign spokesman Chris Maloney dubbed it the “Broken Promises Tour.”

“President Obama’s upcoming ‘Broken Promises’ tour will offer him the opportunity to see first-hand the devastating impact his administration’s policies are having on job creators and communities across northern Ohio,” Mr. Maloney said.

The campaign for the presidency will have a new topic by that time. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision Thursday on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, the national health care law signed by President Obama in 2010.

Ohio is one of 26 states that have joined in a lawsuit to overturn the law’s individual mandate that requires every American to buy insurance.

Contact Tom Troy at tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058.