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Democrats arent exactly rushing to share the stage with President Barack Obama these days, especially those in tight races.

But his unpopularity didnt deter Michigan Rep. Gary Peters, who is running for an open Senate seat, from appearing alongside Mr. Obama during a stop Wednesday in Ann Arbor to press Congress to raise the federal minimum wage.

Thats because Democrats are banking heavily on the minimum-wage fight to drive turnout this fall, highlighting the issue to energize their base and to paint the GOP as a party that doesnt care about the middle class.

The debate assumes greater significance in Michigan because it is one of four Senate battlegrounds including Alaska, Arkansas and South Dakota where voters will get the chance later this year to decide whether the state should increase its own minimum wage.

These types of ballot measures often serve to rally partisans, giving the party faithful more motivation to vote in an election when the president wont be on the ballot, and the minimum-wage increase garners strong support from Democrats. In a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 81% of Democrats said they would be more likely to back a candidate who supported raising the minimum wage.

Perhaps more encouraging to Democrats is that roughly seven-in-10 independents expressed a similar view.

In Michigan, where Mr. Peters is locked in a tight race with likely Republican nominee Terri Lynn Land, the Democrat needs to rally the partys core constituencies. Mr. Obama won the state by 10 percentage points in 2012. The fall ballot measure raising the minimum wage from $7.40 an hour to $10.10 should give Democrats in union-heavy Michigan another reason to vote in November.

Its not quite that simple in Arkansas, another Senate battleground where voters will decide whether to raise the state minimum wage from $6.25 an hour to $8.50. Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor, who faces a tough re-election, wants to raise the state threshold, but not the federal one, arguing the jump to $10.10 is too fast.

While Mr. Pryor needs Democrats to support him in November, he also needs to create as much daylight as possible between himself and the president.

The issue gets even more complicated when you consider Alaska, another state where voters will get the chance to raise the minimum wage later this year. Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, who, like Mr. Pryor, is seeking re-election in a state where the president remains deeply unpopular, supports the federal increase and has even signed onto the Senate bill.

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Democrats Bank on Minimum-Wage Fight to Drive Voter Turnout

Democrats on Capitol Hill are treading carefully in the wake of this weeks surprise enrollment success for President Obamas healthcare reform law.

While lawmakers are hailing the news that 7.1 million people have gained insurance through ObamaCare exchanges ahead of the first enrollment deadline a number exceeding the initial goal set by the administration many are also eager to direct the focus away from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and concentrate instead on bread-and-butter economic issues ahead of Novembers midterms.

House Democratic leaders emerged Wednesday from their weekly caucus meeting to trumpet an economic agenda that focuses on raising the minimum wage, extending jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and overhauling the nations immigration system. And while a handful of Senate Democrats staged a Tuesday press briefing to cheer Obama-Care enrollment, there were, notably, no vulnerable Democrats in attendance.

Their desire to shift the emphasis, even after a week of good press is, at least in part, a concession that the healthcare law remains a liability for Democrats, particularly in swing areas theyre hoping to pick up in the House and keep in the Senate.

And its a political liability some members readily acknowledge, even as theyre defending the laws underlying policies and touting its benefits.

When you consider that the ACA has been trashed for four years, and people have been led to believe there are really death panels, and youre going to end up with rationed healthcare, a substantial portion of the American public still believes that stuff, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said Wednesday. Our goal is to win the election.

Cleaver said hell soon head to Arizona to campaign for an unnamed Democrat in a close race and hell be avoiding the topic of ObamaCare.

Im not going out there talking about the Affordable Care Act, he said. Im not going to go to a district thats just on the line a possibility for us and start damaging people. Thats crazy.

Obama on Tuesday was quick to trumpet the new enrollment figures, which came at the end of an open enrollment period that was severely crippled by the botched rollout of the administrations online marketplace. The president went after the critics for cheering for the law to fail.

I dont get it, Obama said from the Rose Garden. Why are folks working so hard for people not to have health insurance? Why are they so mad about folks having health insurance?

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Democrats dont spike ball on ObamaCare

Democrats fighting to retain control of the U.S. Senate know their success could hinge on motivating women supporters to vote in the November election.

To that end, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is teeing up a slate of measures designed to appeal to women voters and to cast Republican candidates as insensitive -- or even hostile -- to them. The effort will ramp up next week with legislation aimed at closing the gender wage gap.

We know that when women vote, we win, said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, a member of the Democratic leadership who led her partys 2012 Senate campaign effort.

Republicans need a net gain of six seats in the midterm election to take the Senate majority, something that analysts say looks increasingly possible -- especially as Democrats are defending 21 seats compared with 15 for Republicans.

Democrats are trying to avoid a repeat of the 2010 midterms, in which Republicans capitalized on sentiment against President Barack Obama and the health-care law passed that year to win control of the House and additional seats in the Senate.

That year, 51 percent of women voters supported a Republican House candidate, the first time that proportion surpassed 50 percent since exit polls began measuring backing for congressional candidates in 1982. Political experts attributed the shift to unusually low turnout among women voters, especially single women.

The 2010 midterms were a sharp departure from 2008 and 2012 when Obama was on the ballot and Democratic candidates benefited from his campaigns voter-mobilization efforts. With women voters nationwide, Democratic House candidates registered a 14-point edge in 2008 and an 11-point advantage four years later, according to exit polls.

Given the importance of womens votes, the Democrats strategy makes perfect sense, said Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington.

There are a lot of women up, there are a number of prominent women candidates, Duffy said, adding that Democrats also need to change the subject from the botched health-care law rollout.

North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan, one of the chambers most vulnerable incumbents on the ballot this year, said a measure strengthening rules that employers show that wage disparity is based on job performance and not gender is certainly an issue that would help get women to the polls.

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Paycheck Issues Top Senate Agenda in Bid for Womens Vote

Roaming the U.S.: Immigration Reform and Military Spending
House Democrats Attempt to Use Discharge Petition to move Immigration Reform Forward On Wednesday, House Democrats used a procedure called "discharge petitio...

By: VOR America

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Roaming the U.S.: Immigration Reform and Military Spending - Video

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mahoney;JOE MAHONEY

VCU students walk past a tent pitched in Monroe Park set up by "Fast for Families Across America," a 30-state, 14,000 mile campaign to urge congress to enact common sense immigration reform. The crosses represent people who died in their border crossing attempts.

JOE MAHONEY

Lapel ribbons by "Fast for Families Across America," a 30-state, 14,000 mile campaign to urge congress to enact common sense immigration reform.

JOE MAHONEY

Visitor Kathy Collins, C, of Richmond listens as Heidi Pendergast, L, explains the objects on an altar that represent articles picked up along the Mexico-U.S. border left behind by immigrants making their way into the U.S. The altar is in a tent set up in Monroe Park by "Fast for Families Across America," a 30-state, 14,000 mile campaign to urge congress to enact common sense immigration reform.

Posted: Friday, April 4, 2014 12:00 am

Immigration reform advocates begin fast in Va. Associated Press |

Advocates for immigration reform have begun a four-day hunger strike in Richmond.

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Immigration reform advocates begin fast in Va.