U.S. President Barack Obama begins a bus tour of two southern states on Monday, hoping to rally public support for his calls on Congress to pass his recent proposal for creating jobs.

Mr. Obama’s first stop is Asheville, North Carolina. He is expected to spend the next three days touring North Carolina and Virginia, two traditionally Republican-leaning states that he won in his 2008 election and hopes to win again in his bid for a second term next year. But, polls show his public approval has declined in both states as the U.S. economic recovery has faltered.

Obama aides say this week’s bus tour is about his jobs proposal, not his re-election campaign. They say the president will urge Congress to first approve $35 billion in aid to state and local governments to help them avoid laying off teachers, police officers and firefighters.

The U.S. Senate’s Republican minority blocked Mr. Obama’s full jobs package last week, prompting him to call for the provisions in the bill to be passed by lawmakers piece by piece. Republicans have expressed support for some of those provisions, but complained that the complete $447 billion package contained wasteful spending and job-killing tax increases on wealthy Americans.

The road trip is Mr. Obama’s second in the armored bus since he toured the U.S. Midwest in August on a similar campaign to pressure Congress into enacting his economic agenda.