Associated Press

Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., speaks at a Women for Obama luncheon Monday, July, 28, 2008, in Chicago. After a bitter primary, Obama is trying to win over supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and increase a lead among women. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

RICHMOND -- Michelle Obama acts as her husband's proxy for a sit-down with military spouses in Norfolk today, then spends an evening raising money with a potential Obama running mate.

Barack Obama's wife will be mining for votes and money in the shadow of the world's largest U.S. Navy base -- turf that should belong to former Navy pilot John McCain -- in Virginia, a new electoral battleground.

But Michelle Obama arrives in Hampton Roads to find Gov. Tim Kaine at her elbow, deepening widespread speculation that he might join Obama on the Democratic national ticket.

Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee, is scheduled to be in Indiana today.

Michelle Obama's presence as early as August illustrates the Democrats' resolve to fight for Virginia, even though it hasn't backed a Democrat for president in 44 years.

That Obama is taking his campaign into Hampton Roads, home to the Norfolk Naval Station, makes it clear that the GOP will have to spend time and money in every region of the state this year.

"You don't have to win over everybody to gain from a campaign stop," said Jesse Richman, a political science professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, site of Michelle Obama's roundtable discussion with military families.

While the large military presence gives Republicans a base in southeastern Virginia's culturally and racially diverse seaport region, it's not a lock for the GOP.

"The military is not monolithic. It leans Republican but it doesn't mean there aren't people in the military and military spouses who might be persuaded to support Obama," Richman said.

More intriguing politically is the fundraising event afterward in Norfolk with Kaine and his wife, Anne Holton, as guests of honor.

Kaine is among three or four Democrats reportedly asked by Obama's vice-presidential vetting committee to provide personal documents. Kaine and Obama are personally close.