Update from 6 p.m. Friday

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (WSAZ) -- Charleston, W.Va., and the Mountain State were well represented at a Barack Obama rally Friday morning in southern Ohio.

Front and center among the estimated 3,000 people gathered at the Ross County Courthouse in Chillicothe were about a dozen West Virginia union coal miners. They came to hear the candidate get specific on creating, maintaining and finding better American jobs, as well as to support the Senator’s backing of the pending employee free choice act, a federal bill that would make it easier for workers to organize unions.

The union coal miners said Senator Obama is a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, which he has promised to sign into law if he wins the presidency.

Original story

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (WSAZ) -- Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama focused on the economy and health care in his visit to Southern Ohio Thursday night.

Obama spoke at Shawnee State University to a crowd of supporters, but also people who considered themselves undecided voters.

Nikki Chandler showed up to hear about education.

"I want to know what they're going to do on education. I am an educator and I want to know who is going to do best for the schools," Nikki Chandler said.

Obama criticized the plan by his opponent, Republican John McCain, to buy bad mortgages and refinance them at their current value for homeowners.

"We have to do it in a responsible way. That means making sure we're not overpaying for these mortgages or rewarding the very lenders who very recklessness helped cause this crisis," Obama said.

An article from the Associated Press recently questioned whether race would play a role in Scioto County's choice for a president, but some dismissed that claim Thursday night.

"The majority now, they're not looking at race, they're not even looking at their arguments, they're looking at what we need," Brenda Drown said. "And I think they see that Obama is bringing us what we need -- not McCain."

Obama plans a visit to Chillicothe Friday morning before attending a rally in Columbus that afternoon.