U.S. President Barack Obama makes remarks in the southern U.S. state of Texas Tuesday, a state where the governor, Rick Perry, is vying to become the Republican nominee in 2012 presidential elections.

Mr. Obama is set to give two speeches during his one-day visit to the heavily Republican state. He is to make an appearance at a community college in Mesquite, Texas, where he will once again urge Congress approve his jobs-creation plan.

He is slated to attend to campaign fundraisers in Dallas and in St. Louis, Missouri, later in the day before returning to Washington.

On Monday, the president said he does not consider himself to be the favorite to win the country’s 2012 presidential elections, telling a television interviewer that the faltering economy has “absolutely” made him an underdog in his bid to win a second term as president.

Speaking to ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos, President Obama said that he does not think that most Americans are better off economically than they were four years ago before he was elected.

However, while admitting that the country’s jobless rate of 9.1 percent was “still way too high,” Mr. Obama defended his economic policies, saying his administration has made “steady progress to stabilize the economy.”

Stephanopoulos, conducting the interview for ABC and the Internet site Yahoo!, cited a new poll suggesting that a majority of Americans think Mr. Obama will be defeated in the 2012 presidential election.