Trying to jump-start his re-election with hometown fund-raisers and rallies, President Barack Obama told 500 cheering fans Wednesday, “Everything that we fought for is now at stake in this election.”

He repeated the message at more intimate gatherings in private homes in Lake View and Kenwood. He fired up the troops in his very first visit to his national headquarters in the Prudential Building. And he even stopped in to his own home for 20 minutes at the end of the night before flying back to Washington, D.C.

He hopes the fund-raisers bring in more than $2 million for what he told donors would be a “close race.”

“If you’re willing to work even harder in this election than you did in the last election, I promise you, change will come. God bless you Chicago, I love you!” he told the 500 fans at the UIC Forum after R&B singer Janelle Monae warmed them up. So did Obama’s Harvard Law School classmate CSI NY Star Hill Harper, while about 100 protesters shouted outside.