President Obama, Hillary Clinton to hold Charlotte campaign event at convention center

President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will campaign together Tuesday during a 3 p.m. event at the Charlotte Convention Center.

It will be their first joint campaign appearance in 2016.

An announcement Wednesday about their visit didn’t disclose details but said Obama and the Democratic presidential candidate “will discuss building on the progress we’ve made and their vision for an America that is stronger together.”

Doors for the event will open at 1 p.m. The Charlotte Convention Center is at 501 S. College St.

Members of the public interested in attending should RSVP here.

In endorsing Clinton earlier this month, Obama said: “I’ve seen her determination to give every American a fair shot at opportunity, no matter how tough the fight – that’s what’s always driven her, and still does.”

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate for governor, will join Obama and Clinton. So will Deborah Ross, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.

Both were absent during Clinton’s campaign stop in Raleigh last week.

The joint appearance Tuesday by Obama and Clinton is clear proof that North Carolina will again be a major battleground state in the 2016 presidential race. Besides Clinton’s speech in Raleigh last week, her campaign has blanketed North Carolina airwaves with TV ads criticizing presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Trump has no TV ads up in North Carolina yet, but he did headline a rally in Greensboro earlier this month.

A CBS News poll of battleground states released last weekend found Clinton slightly ahead of Trump in North Carolina, 44 percent to 42 percent.

And a poll of likely N.C. voters released Wednesday by the Republican-leaning Civitas Institute in Raleigh also had Clinton with a slight lead over Trump, 42 percent to 40 percent. Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson was the choice of 6 percent of those surveyed, and 10 percent were undecided.

The Clinton campaign has been running more than $10 million worth of TV ads in North Carolina. One that started Monday cost nearly $192,000 in the Charlotte market alone, according to a contract with WBTV.

This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 7:41 PM with the headline "President Obama, Hillary Clinton to hold Charlotte campaign event at convention center."