For the second time in less than a week, Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama sent surrogates through Lawrence to drum up Sunflower State support.

Of course, one of his surrogates was already in the state.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle rallied a crowd Monday afternoon at Kansas University’s Woodruff Auditorium as part of the pair’s swing across Kansas college campuses in advance of today’s Super Tuesday caucus.

“We’re all watching very, very carefully to see what happens (today),” Doyle said. “The fate of the nation rests on your shoulders.”

Kansas Democrats will head today to 50 sites across the state – three in Douglas County – to express their preference for a Democratic presidential candidate.

Sebelius said college campuses were targeted because young people nationwide have turned out in droves to support Obama.

“(Obama) has touched young people in this country and inspired them in a way I haven’t seen in a long time,” Sebelius said.

Drawing parallels to John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy (one of the last presidential candidates to stop at KU) and Martin Luther King Jr., Sebelius said she believed in Obama’s use of King’s phrase, “the fierce urgency of now,” which King used in stating his opposition to the Vietnam War.

“We’re almost too late now,” Sebelius said.

Christine Johnson was one of dozens of KU students who waited 35 minutes for the event to get off to a late start and then cheered through about 50 minutes of speeches and a few questions.

The Topeka junior called herself a staunch Obama backer.

“I think having Kathleen Sebelius supporting Barack Obama is a great thing,” she said. “Maybe it will change the minds of some Kansans.”

In addition to the stop at KU, Sebelius stopped at Kansas State. After the KU stop, Sebelius and Doyle went to Topeka for an appearance at Washburn University. Both Doyle and Sebelius said they’d been impressed with the turnouts around the state.

In a sign that perhaps Obama’s months on the ground may be to his benefit today, Dan Lykins, Kansas Democratic Party treasurer and a major backer of Hillary Clinton, on Monday said he did not expect Clinton to win.