First lady reaches out to blue-collar voters

First lady Michelle Obama is stepping up her role in the president’s re-election campaign, attracting high-dollar donors to star-studded fundraisers, courting women at house parties across the country, and relating her husband’s life experiences to the everyday struggles of the blue-collar voters so reluctant to embrace him.

Traveling to battleground states like Ohio, Florida and Virginia, Obama has raised millions this year for her husband’s re-election campaign at nearly two dozen fundraisers, roughly half the number her husband has attended.