U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin is using her spotlight at the Democratic National Convention to take aim at prominent Wisconsin Republicans, saying they don't understand the state and that candidates like her will fight for the middle class.

Baldwin's speech Thursday evening came just hours before President Barack Obama was scheduled to speak.

Baldwin says Gov. Scott Walker and her Senate opponent, former Gov. Tommy Thompson, don't speak for Wisconsin. She said the same of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan.

Baldwin took a specific jab at Thompson, a former lobbyist, saying he "went to Washington, cashed in on his special interest connections and never really came back."

The most recent poll on her race shows her trailing Thompson by 9 points.

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin gets a chance to raise her profile and make her case against Republican Tommy Thompson during a prime time speaking slot at her party's national convention.

Baldwin is slated to speak Thursday night in the 7 p.m. hour, shortly before President Barack Obama takes the stage.

It's a high profile slot in a race that could help determine whether Democrats maintain majority control of the Senate.

Polls show Thompson, the former four-term governor, with a lead over Baldwin, who has been in Congress since 1999.

Obama won Wisconsin by 14 points in 2008, but polls show the race is much tighter this year against Republican Mitt Romney and his running mate, Wisconsin native Paul Ryan.