Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will not rally in Madison Thursday as previously planned and will instead travel to Hawaii to visit his sick grandmother, campaign officials confirmed Monday.
Obama was scheduled to rally near the state Capitol Thursday, but a city employee disclosed Monday afternoon the campaign had canceled Thursday's event.
Robert Gibbs, a spokesperson for Obama, said in a statement Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has become ill in recent weeks and the illness has grown very serious. He said Obama changed his Thursday and Friday schedules in order to spend time with her.
According to Gibbs, Dunham has helped raise Obama and is one of the most important people in his life.""
""Along with his mother and his grandfather, she raised him in Hawaii from the time he was born until the moment he left for college. As he said at the Democratic Convention, she poured everything she had into him,"" Gibbs said.
