President Barack Obama is set to officially launch his re-election campaign next week in Columbus, Ohio and Richmond, Virginia with First Lady Michelle Obama.

According to the Chicago Tribune, officers from Obama's campaign say the President will make speeches at events in those cities that will stress "how far we've come, and lay out the very real stakes in this election: whether we choose to keep moving our country forward, or go back to the failed policies that crashed our economy and left the middle class struggling to catch up."

Ohio and Virginia are expected to be two of the most hotly-contentious states in November's presidential election.