Liz Shuler, the highest ranking woman in the labor movement, aims to mobilize Seacoast voters in support of Obama and local candidates.

In the final couple of weeks before the general election on Nov. 6, both presidential campaigns are ramping up their footwork in battleground states. According to Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Laborers and Congress of Industrial Organizations, none of those states is more important than New Hampshire.

“New Hampshire is actually becoming the focus,” Shuler said. “It literally could come down to New Hampshire in the election because it is so razor close.”

Shuler, the highest-ranking woman in the national labor movement, visited New Hampshire on Oct. 21 to rally local workers in support of President Barack Obama and several state candidates. She then joined them on a door-to-door canvass of the Seacoast.

Shuler represents two key voting demographics for Obama—union members and women. Although the AFL-CIO has endorsed Obama, many of its members may still be undecided. And recent polls have shown support for the president has dwindled significantly among women, who could well decide the outcome of the election.

According to exit polls in 2008, women preferred Obama over Republican John McCain 56 to 43 percent. As recently as mid September, polling by the Pew Research Center found that women favored Obama over Republican Mitt Romney by nearly 20 percentage points. 

But, following Obama’s sluggish performance in the first presidential debate on Oct. 3, that lead has all but vanished. A poll conducted by Pew just days after the debate found that women voters were evenly divided between Obama and Romney.

According to polling by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, that trend has held true in the Granite State, as well. While a poll released on Oct. 1 found that women in New Hampshire preferred Obama by 27 percentage points, another poll released on Oct. 8 showed that lead had shrunk to just eight percentage points.

Speaking to The Wire by phone in advance of her local appearance, Shuler blamed those losses on the first debate, which did not directly address women’s issues. The topic did come up during the second debate on Oct. 16, however, and Shuler believes the president made gains—especially after Romney’s now infamous “binders full of women” remark.

But there’s a danger in assuming women voters are exclusively concerned with “women’s issues” such as reproductive rights and pay equality, Shuler warned. In fact, some women may resent being pigeon-holed as voters who hinge on only a handful of specific gender issues, when their top priority—like most Americans—is the economy.

“They’ve been paying close attention to the policies that candidates have on creating jobs, investments in infrastructure, their position on unemployment insurance, and some of the bills that could have passed but didn’t, like the Jobs Act,” she said.

Both candidates have actively been courting women voters in recent weeks, knowing they will likely decide the election. While Obama has been trumpeting issues like contraceptive coverage and funding for Planned Parenthood, Romney has been hammering home the message that the president’s economic policies have been bad for women.

To Shuler, Romney’s talk on the economy is an attempt to “redirect” voters’ attention away from his unpopular positions on women’s issues, and she’s confident they won’t be fooled. She believes Obama is the stronger candidate on the economy, too.

“I don’t think the president has run away from economic issues,” Shuler said. “He has a lot to point to with the positions he’s taken and the work that he’s done and the bills that he’s advocated for.”

The key to victory, she said, is spreading the president’s message in swing states with grassroots efforts on the ground. In New Hampshire, she spoke to a group of more than 50 union workers at the Laborers International Union of North America Local #976 Hall in Portsmouth. The group then fanned out to knock on doors in Rye, Hampton, Stratham and North Hampton. In addition to stumping for Obama, they canvassed on behalf of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Maggie Hassan of Exeter, Congressional candidate Carol Shea-Porter of Rochester, and state Senate candidate Bev Hollingworth of Hampton. 

Many of the issues Shuler has been raising across the nation overlap with local races, including right-to-work legislation, which would weaken union bargaining rights. Republicans in the N.H. Legislature have unsuccessfully attempted to pass right-to-work bills in each of the last two years, and they intend to try again in 2013.

“Right-to-work has been just resurfacing over and over again in New Hampshire. With very, very slim margins, we’ve been able to stave it off, and (Gov. John Lynch) has been such an ally on this. Without him, we would be in a very different place right now,” Shuler said.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ovide Lamontagne supports right-to-work legislation, while Hassan opposes it. Partly for that reason, Shuler said, the governor’s race is “as important or even more important” than the presidential race.

“Working people are aware of the issue and what kind of impact it would have on the economy in New Hampshire, so that’s been a real rallying cry for working people, and for women as well, because I think they recognize how important preserving the middle class is.”

The labor movement has also focused much of its campaign efforts on simply getting people to the polls, especially in states, like New Hampshire, that have enacted new voter identification laws. For the first time on Nov. 6, voters in the Granite State will be required to show photo ID at the polls or else sign a challenged voter affidavit.

“We really do strongly believe that part of the Republican playbook is, whereas we want to get people out to vote, they want to prevent people from voting,” Shuler said. “This voter ID law ends up being a barrier to people.”

She has therefore been working to educate voters about how to register and what they need to bring to the polls. The issue is especially important for young voters, who overwhelmingly supported Obama in 2008 but do not appear to be as motivated this time.

“If we don’t get them out, I mean, that’s the margin right there,” she said.

Shuler has also led rallies in Colorado, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Washington. After leaving New Hampshire, she planned to return to Colorado, then head to events in Minnesota, Missouri and Iowa. Everywhere she goes, she reminds people that their votes matter, and that they have the power to swing elections.

“We can’t afford to run tons of super PAC ads on television. We basically use our people power,” she said. “We’re just, again, focusing on showing that you can make the difference, that these votes are definitely going to make the margin, especially in a state like New Hampshire where literally every vote makes a difference.”

She believes her efforts are already paying off, and that voters are getting motivated to take part in what promises to be an extremely close election.

“In the last week or so, I really feel like the energy and the momentum has been heightened,” she said.