President aims to woo NASCAR voters with Southern convention
LYNN SWEET blogs.suntimes.com/sweet January 18, 2012 1:22PM
CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 14: A general view of the Chicago Bears versus the Carolina Panthers during their game at Bank of America Stadium on September 14, 2008 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
Updated: February 19, 2012 8:23AM
WASHINGTON — The Obama re-election team is using the Charlotte, N.C., nominating convention to target, woo and deliver NASCAR voters in key battleground states.
Convention organizers announced Tuesday the convention will kick off Labor Day at the giant Charlotte Motor Speedway, making public a plan that has been in the works for months to pitch President Obama to a demographic he will need in November. The speedway has a seating capacity of 140,000, which means that tens of thousands of non-convention delegates can be invited to the event, a massive organizing tool.
A Labor Day kickoff, of course, is also a hat tip to organized labor, a major part of the Democratic base.
At the 2008 convention in Denver, Obama accepted the nomination before about 84,000 people at Invesco Field, a football stadium in Denver. The outdoor venue allowed the campaign to involve tens of thousands of non-delegates to a historic event, collect their emails and set the stage for further campaign contact and engagement.
Using Obama’s acceptance speech as an organizing event helped him win battleground Colorado in 2008.
The Obama team is reprising the successful strategy in 2012. Obama will deliver his second acceptance speech on Sept. 6 at the Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers with a seating capacity of about 74,000.
Republicans hold their convention Aug. 27-30 in Tampa, Fla.
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