Obama to visit Republican-leaning states

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama plans to travel next week to two Republican-leaning states - Nebraska and Louisiana - to promote the themes of his final State of the Union address, the White House said on Friday.

Obama, who has begun his last year in the Oval Office, will give the annual televised address to Congress on Tuesday at 9pm (0200 GMT on Wednesday).

"It’s my last one," the Democratic president said in a short video preview on the White House website.

Obama said the speech would focus on "not just the remarkable progress we’ve made, not just what I want to get done in the year ahead, but what we all need to do together in the years to come."

White House officials have said the speech will be less of a list of legislative goals, focusing instead on what Obama can do on his own to cement his legacy on the economy, healthcare, climate and foreign policy.

On Wednesday, Obama will travel to Omaha, Nebraska, only his second visit to that state as president.

On Thursday, he will travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a state he has visited 10 times since taking office in 2009. He did not carry either state in his two presidential election victories.

The White House provided few details about his events in the states, but noted each of them had benefited from the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature healthcare reforms, and from a strengthening economy since the recession early in his presidency.