Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick at PSU Thursday

Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick will be at Portland State Thursday at noon as Merkley’s campaign for the U.S. Senate heads into the final stretch.

Novick and Merkley will take part in a question and answer session in the Park Blocks designed to highlight Novick’s support of Merkley, said Mike Westling, press secretary for the Merkley campaign.

“Steve’s been doing a lot of things with Jeff throughout the campaign,” Westling said. “He thought this was an opportunity to reach out to students, especially PSU students.”

Westling said Novick and Merkley share several common goals, including protecting the environment and women’s reproductive rights, and ensuring students have access to sufficient financial aid.

“Students are going to be huge in this election,” Westling said. “People are really looking for a change in Washington. We’ve heard that from people all over Oregon.”

Merkley recently concluded his tour of 100 Oregon towns, which included visits to the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.

Westling said Novick would most likely speak to Merkley’s experience with Habitat for Humanity and his time as a national security policy analyst for the Pentagon. Westling also said that healthcare has been a dominant topic on the campaign trail and would likely come up Thursday as well.

“Healthcare is huge right now for families,” he said. “Families that have healthcare are still wondering how they are going to pay for it. Families that don’t are wondering what they’re going to do if their kids get sick.”

Merkley’s campaign has been gaining momentum in recent weeks. A recent poll conducted by The Portland Tribune showed Merkley leading his opponent, Sen. Gordon Smith-R, 45 percent to 40 percent with 12 percent undecided.

“It’s going really well these days. We’ve had a lot of polls come out this week showing Jeff’s momentum increasing,” Westling said. “Things are looking really good.”