DES MOINES (AP) — Republican-leaning areas in states vital to President Barack Obama’s re-election prospects are drawing top-tier Democratic congressional candidates who, even if they lose, could help turn out the vote and boost Obama’s chances of winning a second term.

The best example of the trend is former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack, challenging GOP Rep. Steve King in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.

Christie Vilsack, the wife of former two-term governor Tom Vilsack — now Obama’s agriculture secretary — moved more than 100 miles away from her home to run in a largely rural tract of GOP-heavy northern and western Iowa, where Obama lost in 2008 despite winning the state.