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Michelle Obama attends fundraiser, visits victims

BOSTON (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama headlined a Boston fundraiser for Massachusetts U.S. Senate hopeful Edward Markey on Wednesday, where she urged his supporters to do all they can over the next four weeks to help get him elected.

Obama was also reunited with some victims of the Boston Marathon bombings whom she first met in the days immediately after the attack.

Obama spoke at the fundraiser at Boston's Taj Hotel for the Markey Senate Victory committee, which benefits Markey and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. A Markey aide estimated the event raised about $600,000.

Obama told the crowd Markey would be "a phenomenal senator" and would make the environment and the middle class his top priorities.

"You simply cannot elect Barack Obama by a landslide and then lose this Senate seat. That makes no sense at all," she said. "My husband needs Ed Markey in the Senate."

The first lady also said that Markey "has stood up time and again for a woman's right to choose" and "has been a leader in the fight for sensible gun laws to keep all of our children safe."

Markey is running against Republican Gabriel Gomez in the state's special U.S. Senate election on June 25.

Markey introduced Obama saying that, along with her husband, the first lady "gives a powerful, passionate voice to middle class families and their needs."

U.S. Senators William "Mo" Cowan and Elizabeth Warren also attended the fundraiser.

Warren called Gomez "a Republican who sides with Wall Street" and "a Republican who opposes common sense gun control."

Gomez spent part of Wednesday campaigning in Worcester, where he picked up the endorsement of a local police union.