DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are working feverishly for an increasingly smaller but crucial slice of the electorate: white, working-class voters.
From Iowa's tiny manufacturing cities to Virginia's coal country, these voters are considered the potential tipping point in battleground states that will decide the winner on Nov. 6.
Romney is trying to expand what polls show is an advantage for him. Obama hopes to narrow the gap.
Both are trying to pit these voters against their opponent by stoking a sense of economic and social unfairness.
It's why Romney has seized on Obama's decision to give states greater flexibility on welfare work requirements and why Obama turned to former President Bill Clinton, long popular with working-class voters, to make the case for his second-term bid.