(AP Photo/Steven Senne)

President Obama is set to kick off his re-election campaign this weekend in Richmond, but presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney certainly isn’t leaving the Old Dominion to the Democrats.

Romney is campaigning locally today, reports CNN, attending a trade show in Chantilly. As it was in 2008, Virginia is emerging as one of the key swing states, and each candidate will be going after “swingy” voters in Northern Virginia:

The densely populated suburban swath outside Washington is hardly the only piece of the Virginia political puzzle — the Richmond metro area and Hampton Roads in the southeast are also critical — but because of the number of voters and their swingy tendencies, northern Virginia is guaranteed to be showered with attention from the presidential campaigns.

…

[Gov. Bob] McDonnell called the Washington suburbs, heavy with small business owners and contractors for government agencies and the military, “tremendously important” for Romney.

“You’ve got a million people in Fairfax alone,” he said. “You’ve got a couple million in those ring counties. Republicans must do well and at least break even up there to win. You can’t get blown out there, as has happened in a couple past elections.”

Not surprisingly, McDonnell—whose name has been floated as a potential vice-presidential contender—will be campaigning with Romney as he, well, swings through the Old Dominion.