WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama will release a video message to try to reinvigorate the grass-roots effort that helped propel him and Democrats into office.
The video is the first by Obama during the midterm elections as the Democratic Party, seeking to keep control in the House and Senate, embarks on a strategy to appeal to independent voters, The Washington Post reported Monday.
The keystone of the Democratic National Committee's $50 million plan for the midterms -- to be unveiled Wednesday -- is persuading the roughly 15 million first-time voters from November 2008 to return to the polls in November 2010. Traditionally, such voters sit out midterm elections, but party leaders said their participation this year could help Democrats in close contests.
The DNC's plan calls for reaching those first-time voters -- most of whom were registered independents, young or minorities -- through the same communications vehicles and volunteer network Obama used in 2008, internal party documents provided to the Post by the committee indicated.
In the video message to his supporters, Obama says his administration's success depends on the outcome of this Election Day, warning if Republican retake Congress, they could "undo all that we have accomplished," a transcript of his remarks indicates.
Besides direct communication with supporters, Obama will increase his fundraising efforts and will stump for Democrats in the fall, DNC Chairman Timothy Kaine said.
"Our story begins with: Democrats are results people and the Republicans are political obstructionists," Kaine told the Post. "Do we want to continue the direction that sees us climbing out of the recession or do we want to go back to the same policies that put us in the ditch in the first place?"
