President Barack Obama is pitching a plan for universal child care at a liberal stronghold deep in Republican territory, promoting his Democratic party agenda while calling for less partisanship in Washington.

He says that with two working parents in many U.S. households, high-quality child care programs “are not just nice-to-haves, these are must-haves.”

Obama told a crowd at the University of Kansas: “I don’t want anybody being daycare poor.”

He acknowledged losing Kansas twice during his presidential campaigns, though he added cheerily that he probably won some sectors of the university town of Lawrence.

Obama was on the second day of a two-day trip to conservative states where he was making the case for initiatives that he outlined in his State of the Union speech Tuesday.

Complete Obama KU Speech Audio

Complete Obama KU Speech Video