WASHINGTON ( AP) — President Barack Obama is turning his political sights on New Hampshire, the small but strategically important general election battleground where his campaign hopes to shore up voter support.

Though Obama easily carried New Hampshire in 2008, the president and his surrogates have paid particular political attention to the state in recent months.

Obama is expected to promote his efforts to boost domestic energy production in a speech today in Nashua, N.H. The trip marks the president’s second visit to the state in about three months. Vice President Joe Biden has been a frequent visitor to New Hampshire, and first lady Michelle Obama held a conference call with campaign volunteers in the state Wednesday.

In Nashua, Obama was planning to renew his call for Congress to end some $4 billion in annual subsidies for oil and gas companies, aides reported. Obama has said these breaks are unwarranted at a time of burgeoning profits and rising domestic production.

Though New Hampshire offers only four electoral votes in the November election, Democrats have been eyeing the state warily following its sharp shift to the right in the 2010 midterm elections.

Further fueling concerns for Democrats are GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney’s personal ties to New Hampshire. Romney served as governor of neighboring Massachusetts, owns a vacation home in New Hampshire and scored an overwhelming victory in the state’s Republican primary in January.

However, a poll conducted in New Hampshire in early February showed Obama beating Romney by 10 percentage points in a hypothetical matchup. Other GOP presidential candidates also trailed Obama in the WMUR Granite State poll. It gave Obama an 8-point advantage over Texas Rep. Ron Paul.