On September 28, 2010, The National played in front of over 25,000 people before a speech by President Obama at a rally in Madison, Wisconsin. On September 1, 2012, the band opened for the President at a campaign rally in Urbandale, Iowa in front of a crowd in excess of 10,000 people. In October, the band traveled to Ohio where they played two free shows and visited university campuses as part of Barack Obama's GottaVote campaign to encourage young adults to register to vote and to cast their vote for Obama.