President Barack Obama made a final push on Sunday to help struggling Democrats before this week's midterm elections, making campaign stops in Connecticut and Pennsylvania to try to avert a "shellacking" at the polls like the one in 2010.

After a 2014 political season spent mostly behind the scenes at high-dollar fundraisers, Obama spent the past several days on the road, making appearances in states where his low popularity ratings are seen as less of an albatross to Democrats running for office than in other close races across the country.

On Sunday, he began in Connecticut, where Democratic Gov. Dan Malloy is in a tight race with Republican challenger Tom Foley. A RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Malloy up 0.7 of a point.