ELKHART, Ind. -- President Barack Obama will return to Indiana next month to talk about the economy's recovery since he first visited in 2009.
Elkhart, Indiana, was the first city Obama visited as president. At the time, the city, and the nation, was in the grips of an economic downturn that would later be referred to as the Great Recession.
BREAKING: @POTUS to return to Elkhart June 1 to talk economic recovery @rtv6 pic.twitter.com/w9vSd6JvLc
— #IndyThisWeek (@IndyThisWeek) May 25, 2016
"Folks there had been hit harder by the recession than almost anywhere else in America," Obama said in a statement Tuesday. "The unemployment rate was on its way to nearly 20 percent. Companies that had sustained that community for years were shedding jobs at an alarming speed – and hardworking families were losing their homes and healthcare along with those jobs."
Obama said he promised the people of Elkhart that through cooperation, the country could pull itself out of the recession.
"Today, thanks to the hard work of people in Elkhart and in communities across the country, America has recovered from crisis and we're on the cusp of resurgence," Obama said.
Obama will appear in Elkhart June 1 at a town hall event at the Lerner Theatre.
