Speaking to a crowd of more than 15,000 people at the “Moving Massachusetts Forward” rally last Saturday, President Barack Obama urged voters to flock to the polls to reelect Governor Deval L. Patrick ’78 and Lieutenant Governor Tim P. Murray on November 2.

The rally, which was held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, was sponsored by the Massachusetts Democratic Party and the Patrick-Murray campaign and featured a lineup of Democrats speaking in support of the incumbents.

With a little more than two weeks before the election, the rally sought to close the gap in enthusiasm between Democratic and Republican voters.

“This will be the largest get-out-the-vote operation in the history of this state, but only if you do your part,” Obama said.

According to Obama, Republicans have exploited the electorate’s frustration.

Republicans thought that if they “said no to policies that they have historically said yes to, they could ride peoples’ frustration and anger to the ballots,” Obama said.

The president added that “Deval Patrick chose to lead in the toughest of times.”

The rally reeled in 7,500 new volunteers who will “ensure that voters get out and vote for Deval Patrick and Tim Murray on election day,” according to a press release.

Obama said that a Democratic win would prevent the country from reverting to “backward” Republican ideas on jobs, education, and health care—areas where the Patrick-Murray administration has made significant strides, the president added.

“The biggest mistake we can make right now is, out of hurt and confusion, to go back to the past,” Obama said.

According to 10th-district congressional candidate James Kennedy—who also spoke at the rally—although Massachusetts ranked 48th nationally in manufacturing jobs four years ago, “[Patrick] led the state to the number-one recovering economy in the U.S.”

Steve Grossman, the Democratic candidate for state treasurer, said at the rally that the Patrick-Murray administration has been able to add 65,000 more jobs in the past seven months and that the state is now ranked as the fifth-best for business.

“We’re the ones who have the best ideas to create jobs. We stand for jobs. We stand for small businesses,” Grossman said.

According to Patrick, his state’s economy has been growing at twice the rate as the rest of the country since the recession.

“For the first time in 20 years, families are moving in the Commonwealth faster than they are moving out,” the governor said.