President Barack Obama told a South Dakota television station that he’ll visit the state in May -- making it the 50th state he’s visited as president.
Obama told KSFY that he will deliver the 2015 commencement speech May 8 at Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown.
“I’m making news right here with you now,” Obama told anchor Nancy Naeve.
The station said Obama, who has made technical and vocational education a priority, cited the school’s “strong graduation rate” as a reason for the visit.
“We’re the only state that he hasn’t been to yet and I’m guessing that’s going to be one of your first questions,” one of her colleagues asked Naeve before her interview. She said she did plan to ask him, “when are you going to come to South Dakota?”
She also had some suggestions for Obama to visit in South Dakota, including the Corn Palace.
Obama has made quick work this year making sure that he hit all 50, getting to his 47th state in January when he flew to Idaho to promote his State of the Union address. That left just South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah as the states he had yet to visit.
The interview was one of five, four-minute local TV station interviews Obama taped Monday as part of a push for middle class economics.
Obama also did interviews with WCSH in Portland, Me., WBNS in Columbus, Ohio, WGAL in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and WMTV in Madison, Wisc.