President Obama on Thursday night exhorted supporters at a Democratic fundraiser in California to help him spread the party’s message, expressing some frustration that he could not meet more voters himself.
“In a place like California, frankly, as many people as I meet when I travel here, I can’t meet everybody,” Obama said. “At some point, we’re going to have to be able to get the message out, and you help us do that.”
Obama was speaking to about 50 big-dollar donors in the Palo Alto home of Google executive Marissa Mayer and Zachary Bogue. Each attendee paid as much as $30,400 to attend, and the Democratic National Committee expected to raise $1.8 million from that event and one other similar fundraiser nearby Thursday evening.
Obama is in the middle of a multi-day trip to California, Washington and Nevada to help incumbent Sen.’s Barbara Boxer, Patty Murray and Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader. Obama also did events for Oregon gubernatorial candidate John Kitzhaber, and will do the same Saturday for Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton.
Obama will go to Rhode Island on Monday for an official non-campaign event, though Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio, the state’s general treasurer, is in a tight race and will no doubt be helped by an appearance with the president.
The president will spend some portion of next week in Washington, but will travel to three cities — Philadelphia, Bridgeport, Conn. and Chicago — on Saturday, and will hold a rally in Cleveland on Sunday, two days before the election, with Vice President Joe Biden.
The White House has not announced any plans for Obama to travel anywhere the day before or the day of the election. But first lady Michelle Obama is scheduled to hit Philadelphia and Las Vegas on Monday, Nov. 1.