The Obama campaign has underscored its intent to flip red state Virginia to blue in November this year by kicking off the general election with an appearance today in the state’s southwestern Appalachian region, courting the votes of the Scots-Irish, a group that voted against him in huge margins in Democratic primaries in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania:

Obama won the Virginia primary [on Feb. 12] by a 64-35 margin, but he lost overwhelmingly to Hillary Clinton in the state’s rural Ninth Congressional District by 33 points, one of the first signs of a pattern of vulnerability among white working-class voters that continued to nag him throughout later primary states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

David “Mudcat” Saunders, the Roanoke-based political strategist who has advised prominent politicians on how to reach out to rural voters, said southwest Virginia is “a logical place for him to start” because Obama will need to appeal to those voters not just in Virginia, but in other crucial battleground states.

“If Virginia truly is in play, it’s a practical move for him because he can get the western Pennsylvania bunch, the southeast Ohio bunch,” Saunders said. “It’s the same region. It’s the same bunch of people, they just live in different states.”

“These are the people around the country who decide the president of the United States, and they are neglected,” he added. “The Republicans take them for granted, and the Democrats don’t try to come get ‘em. God bless Barack Obama for for trying to go get ‘em.”

Obama will be campaigning in Bristol with former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, a Democrat who did well in Virginia’s southern mountains. Warner is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by John Warner, a Republican. No word whether Sen. Jim Webb, a leading advocate of Scots-Irish culture, will campaign with Obama.

Both Webb and Warner have been mentioned as possible running mates for Obama.