Obama presses presidential run in Virginia

MANASSAS, Va., June 5 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the presumptive Democratic nominee, pressed his bid for the presidency Thursday in Virginia, GOP country for years.

Virginia has not gone Democratic since Lyndon Johnson carried the state in 1964. An Obama spokesman told CNN Virginia will play a "pivotal" role in the November election.

Obama will be trying to make up ground in the one region of the state that he lost handily during his primary win Feb. 12 -- the heart of rural southwest Virginia.

Obama's campaign opener will be an evening rally at the Nissan Pavilion, a 25,000-seat concert hall in Manassas.

He moves on to Bristol, a town on the Tennessee border, for another rally on Friday.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has a Monday rally scheduled in Richmond.