Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), a top surrogate for the Romney campaign, said Thursday that she believed it was appropriate for both candidates to re-emerge on the campaign trail despite an Atlantic seaboard still grappling with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
"I think that it's appropriate to get back out and campaign," Blackburn told CNN's "Starting Point." "All of us, our hearts and our thoughts and our prayers are with those that have been devastated and certainly those of us in Tennessee have great empathy for what they're going through because of the 2010 floods that we endured."
President Obama will return to the trail for the first time since Saturday with stops Thursday in Wisconsin, Colorado and Nevada. Mitt Romney, meanwhile, is expected to sharpen his criticism of the president during a trio of campaign stops in Virginia after largely avoiding direct attacks on the president over the past two days.
Blackburn also said that Republicans were encouraged by "a continuing shift in momentum" in battleground states among undecided voters. And the Tennessee lawmaker said women — a stronghold for President Obama throughout the campaign — were "breaking for Mitt Romney."
"The reason is the focus is on jobs and the economy, dealing with the debt and the deficit," Blackburn said. "I have talked to so many women who say the No. 1 reason that they're voting for Mitt Romney is $16 trillion in debt."
Blackburn added that she and other Republicans in safely red states were working to encourage turnout in both their own states, as well as the battlegrounds, in order to prevent a split between the Electoral College and popular vote.
"It's our job to make certain that in these battleground states we get the message out and that we do win those votes, both the popular vote and the Electoral College," Blackburn said. "That's the goal."
