Obama: Dems must focus on state, governor races

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says Democrats must turn their focus to the states and to races for governor this year if they want to ensure that the party's policies succeed.

Obama says the challenge in politics is that national races get all the attention. He says Democrats wind up in trouble in midterm years because they don't think state races are, in his words, "sexy enough."

But he says those races are where much of the action is.

Obama is addressing donors at a fundraiser for the Democratic Governors Association at a ritzy hotel near the White House. He says unlike Democrats, Republican governors are cutting investments for the middle class, curtailing voting rights and squeezing unions. He says their strategy is to tell Americans falsely that Obama's policies aren't working.