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and around the world, i'm anna coren in hong kong. this hour on "cnn newsroom." millions across america have already cast their ballots in the midterms and election day is more than two weeks away. ahead, why so many are voting early this year. xi jinping will lead china for five more years after securing a historic third term. we will tell you what this means for china and the world ahead in a live report from beijing. and later the viral respiratory illness known as rsv the symptoms that parents need to be aware of and what to do if your child has it. in just over two weeks u.s. voters will head to the polls and determine which party will control the house and senate. in 39 states nearly 6 million people have already cast early ballots and to win over those who haven't, politicians have been heating the campaign trail with urgency, among them

president joe biden who will visit south florida on tuesday to take part in a rally for the democratic national committee. in the state of georgia voters have been casting early ballots in record numbers. so far about 660,000 people have shown up to vote in-person with more than 140,000 going to the polls on friday alone. officials say the numbers have shattered previous turnout records. cnn's nadia romero has more from atlanta. >> reporter: and here we're talking about key races, we have a gubernatorial race with our incumbent governor, brian kemp, with a rematch with democratic challenger stacey abrams. people are keeping a close watch on our senate race because of the national implications and that's why people tell me they came out to vote. take a listen to two voters who explain the issues that matter most to them. >> i think it has turned into a circus if you want to be honest. some of the things that are being said, you don't even know if they could even be true, you

know, some of the things, but i know that that is an important race because if the wrong person gets into office, then even more things could change just for my community. >> i think stacey abrams and warnock is a great team together and that they will put their best foot forward as to look out for not just the democrat but the republican as well. >> reporter: another reason voters tell me they want to participate in the early voting process is because of the key issues that matter most to them. people tell me it's the abortion issue, it's inflation, it's the economy, it's health care. that's what's driving people to come out to the polls and vote early as well. >> nadia romero reporting there. among the most closely watched contest is the senate showdown in pennsylvania. it's one that could determine who holds the balance of power in that chamber and it's been costly. last week republican nominee dr. mehmet oz loaned his campaign an

additional $1 million in an effort to catch up to his democratic opponent. cnn's dan merica has more on what remains a very tight race. >> reporter: that is right, john fetterman wrapped up an event in chester county, pennsylvania a key county outside philadelphia that will be determinative of the race between fetterman the democrat and oz, mehmet oz, the republican in in race. the event was a very unique one forgetter man who had a stroke in may, returned to the campaign trail over the summer and has since focused mostly on rallies where he has had notes and prepared remarks and a stump speech to give. this was an intimate affair, he sat on stage with amy klobuchar, spoke to her back and forth and used closed captioning, technology that allows fetterman to see what klobuchar is saying as she says t that is effectively a dry run for the key debate upcoming in pennsylvania on tuesday where the same technology will be used. fetterman touched on a number of

issues including the economy and abortion, but take a listen to how he pushed back on the crime attacks that are dominating this race in pennsylvania. >> he literally doesn't have a plan, other than to -- to talk and that's been a hallmark of his campaign, just not any plans, just cheap photo ops or empty kinds of arguments. >> reporter: it is not happenness stands that this happened in the collar counties around philadelphia. as recently as 2012 this county voted for a republican presidential candidate. that is why john fetterman is here, he and his campaign aides know this will be critical to his success in november and as polls show this race is tightening. dan merica, cnn, chester county, pennsylvania. former president barack obama is getting ready to hit the campaign trail in four battleground states but first he's hitting the airwaves and

the internet with political ads endorsing democratic candidates for governor and senate. >> pennsylvania, you've got some important choices to make this year, including who represents you in the u.s. senate. that's why i'm asking you to vote for john fetterman this election day, november 8th. wisconsin, you've got a big responsibility this year, control of the senate is in your hands. that's why i'm proud to endorse mandella barnes. >> a spokesman for the former president says more ads are expected to be released next week. after ten years in power xi jinping appears well on his way to ruling china for life. a few hours ago the chinese communist party appointed mr. xi to an unprecedented third term as communist party leader. that ensures he will remain in power well into the future. uggs president vladimir putin was among the first to send his congratulations, telling mr. xi it would be a

pleasure to continue russia's strategic alliance with china. let's get right to it with cnn beijing bureau chief steven jeng. it would appear that the ccp is now a party of one, the party of xi, but really that should come as no surprise. >> reporter: that's right, anna. even before this congress we had pretty much known this would be a norms busting event but just not sure to what degree. this latest lineup unveiling is really the most powerful proof of xi's absolute power over this party of more than 96 million members, but also by extension, as you said, over this nation of 1.4 billion people, because with him staying on for another five years and possibly ruling china for life, he has gotten away with the two terms, two five-year terms limit, and also abandoned are age norms. collective leadership,

meritocracy as well as anything that we had thought long to be an institutionalized in the party's power structure when it comes to leadership succession and promotion of senior officials. when you look at this lineup the number two official in the party lee chung standing behind him when they talked out earlier he is extremely unpopular as the party chief because of his handling of the two month long very brutal lockdown in the city because of covid. there are a lot of videos online of angry residents shouting at him and blaming him for mishandling and asking him how can we residents of the biggest and most wealthiest city in china starving, but still despite that he's now very much all but certain to be the next premiere of china in charge of the whole country's economy despite lacking national experience. what he does have and three additions of the powerful

committee is all these four men have worked closely with xi jinping either in the provinces or in beijing and three of them including lee chung have served as xi jinping's chief of staff or secretary. those are the men that xi feels closest to that he can trust the most. regardless of their capability, job performance or popularity they have now been installed in the most powerful decision-making party in china. anna? >> xi is certainly surrounded himself with loyalists. let's talk about the treatment of xi's predecessor who was removed from the party congress yesterday. state media saying that he was sick, but i don't think anyone is buying that. tell us, steven, what happened? >> yeah, it's interesting, state media set that he left to health reasons on its english language twitter account. twitter is blocking china so that message is not intended for domestic consumption and that

dramatic happened in saturday's closing session of the party congress when tao 79 years old basically ex courted out of the great hall of the people and you could see in the video how he had a brief conversation with the two men who eventually led him out and also an exchange of words with xi jinping and patting on the shoulder of the current premiere, but all of that -- through all of that you could see at least initially he was quite reluctant to leave. we are not sure about exact circumstances surrounding his exit given the murky nature of chinese politics but one thing that stood out is such a symbolic moment of gone is the eric of tao's collective leadership era and also look at the lack of emotion all the faces there, they know that era is gone and that they have to stay stoic not to have any display of emotions used against them in xi's china. >> they are saying that tao's

action has been set straight and put in its place. a very humiliating moment for the former predecessor. steven jiang, many thanks to you. as conservative party leaders in the uk prepare to vote this week for their next leader and prime minister british media are reporting two of the top contenders, boris johnson and rishi sunak held summit talks saturday evening. neither one was formally announced their intention to enter the race. the third top contender penny mordaunt has thrown her name into the ring. let's bring in anna stewart live from london to tell us more. the sunak and johnson camps remaining tight lipped about what was discussed in the meeting. we do know whoever does become leader needs to unite the conservative party and put an end to this circus. >> absolutely. i think the secret summit has lots of people wondering whether that is what's front of mind,

perhaps trying to find a way to unite the party and perhaps only have one candidate go through tomorrow, perhaps we will have a prime minister very soon. others suggest that the secret summit between sunak and johnson could be a power sharing, i think it's unlikely that sunak was the chancellor and boris johnson, the job he wants is prime minister and boris johnson has already had the top job so it's hard to see him in any other role particularly in a government run by the man who was his chancellor and whose resignation was one of the final pivotal moments in his own downfall. i think that's unlikely. perhaps, though, at this stage boris johnson doesn't have the votes he needs from within the party. each candidate needs 100 mps to back them before 2:00 p.m. in london tomorrow time. at that stage anyone with over 100 mp support will go through to the members of the conservative party for a vote. as you say at this stage people

question whether in the interest of unity when it becomes clear who has the support of the mps perhaps the other members will back out and we can get back to business or some sort of level of functioning government and business in the uk. >> certainly needs to happen very soon. many thanks. ukraine's power system takes a major hit from russian drones and missiles. concerns are growing about power shortages this winter. a live report from kyiv. plus the u.s. federal court puts a hold on the biden administration's plans to cancel student loan debt. we will have a report on what's at stake for millions of people. e and our ancestors had ambition. born in 1847, formalally enslaved, starteted buying land, wawas in the house of representatives. we didn't know our family was part of black reconstruction. exactly. okay, seriously. finding out this family history,

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could be the worst series of attacks on its power system since the war began. on saturday russia sent a barrage of drones and missiles at power facilities across the country. the end result was more than a third -- more than 1.5 million homes and businesses left in the dark, about a third of the country. the state power company says more rolling blackouts will be needed just as the country heads into its harsh winter.

nic robertson joins us from kyiv. tell us about these latest strikes and how the power outages are affecting ukrainians and the war effort. >> reporter: ukrainian officials are assessing that the russian military is working with russian power engineers because they are systematically and very strategically targeting the weaker points within the energy infrastructure rather than sort of trying to blow up the big power generators that are inside the buildings, you know, bricks and concrete protect those big pieces of equipment which of course russia would like to destroy as part of this campaign to reduce and turn off the lights here in ukraine. what they're doing is hitting the transformers, high voltage or low voltage transformers, the switching gear, the equipment at the output of the power plant. so those cables and big boxes that you see on the outside of electricity power generating plants, that's what's being targeted.

of course, the battle here for ukraine is reduce electricity usage while it tries to repair them and these big items are not that easy to repair if they're heavily damaged or even replaced. so that's the challenge at the moment. but president zelenskyy is now appealing to everyone in the country, asking them to do their bit, to save electricity, not use a high power equipment if they don't have to, turn off lights. this is how he's framing it. >> translator: the main target for russian terrorists is energy. therefore, please consume electricity even more consciously than before. the stability of our state energy industry depends on each city and district of ukraine. >> reporter: so the biggest cities like kyiv, like lviv in the west, odesa in the south have better air defense systems it seems because they're able to shoot down almost all the incoming missiles but other

areas seem to be the weaker spots within the air defense network and that's what russia has been targeting. five towns in the west of the country, one of those just to give you an example about how the electricity is affecting people there, it's the electricity supplying the power -- supplying the air defense warning system, that's not working, so police have to drive around with loud speakers when there are air raids on. the hospital doesn't have water so they need to bus water to the hospital in another area in the center of ukraine the electricity has been taken out that feeds the coal mine, the coal mine can't produce coal, the electricity power generating network here is hungry for coal, needs that coal. this is why ukrainian officials feel that russia is being very strategic, hitting the bits of the network that will have the maximum impact and in the case of the coal mines take down or further reduce more of the power grid. >> nic robertson, we will have to leave it there.

we appreciate the update. for a closer look at the military situation in ukraine we're now joined by mick ryan a retired major general of the australian army. mick, great to have you with us. i want to start by asking for your assessment of this war eight months in. >> well, hello. it's good to be with you again. well, what we're seeing at the moment, particularly from this new russian commander is a campaign against the ukrainian people because he can't lay a hand on the ukrainian army on the battlefield. the russian army has lost all momentum in every area of ukraine and in many respects these missile attacks are about the only thing he can do against ukrainians at the moment while he builds strength through the mobilization program. >> but he's certainly being very effective by taking out the power grid or certainly -- certain energy infrastructure. that has a psychological effect

as well as obviously a physical effect on the ground in ukraine. >> it certainly does, it has a psychological impact and it's going to cause a humanitarian tragedy potentially in the winter in ukraine. i think importantly it also has an economic impact because the russians are trying to strangle the ukrainian economy and if they don't have power businesses can't operate and it will reduce the economic output of ukraine. >> mick, the southern city of kherson taking by the russians early on in the war looks to be preparing for battle. the pro moscow original administration is calling on civilians to evacuate while russian forces also withdrawing across the dnipro river. are ukrainians on the break of another breakthrough or do you believe that this is a tactical retreat from the russians? >> well, the new russian commander certainly has to cede some ground, he can't defend all

the territory that he already has. at the west bank of the dnipro river is vulnerable. the ukrainians have cut off logistic resupply in there and over the winter the problems will get worse. i expect we are highly likely to see a withdraw of russian forces in dnipro in the coming weeks, whether they will hold on to kherson city is an issue. that would be a political problem for putin given that he just annexed that province. >> the russians say they have erected large scale defensive fortifications in that area. what's your take on that statement and how effective will it be? >> there's two ways we might read this, one the russians might want to defend kherson city but if they decide to stay and fight they won't be leaving, the ukrainians will rip them out and destroy them in detail if they decide to stay. what's possible is this is a deception measure to get as many

soldiers across the dnipro to the eastern side to preserve their army for the fighting next year. we will wait and see. the commander probably has a couple tricks up his sleeve here. >> such as what? can you elaborate? >> he will certainly be trying to hurt the ukrainians between now and the campaigning season next year, he will be strengthening his logistics, he will probably be trying to use these missile attacks against the power stations to get the ukrainians to redeploy air defense from the front line back to these power stations which will allow him to use his air force more freely against the ukrainians in the front lines. he has only just started his command. i think we will see a different style of command from this commander over the next few months. >> let's talk a little bit more about how he is targeting this energy infrastructure. obviously we're coming into cooler months, it will be winter

very soon and it will be a harsh winter in ukraine. do you expect him to continue targeting energy infrastructure and how will this affect ukraine's war effort and morale within the country? >> there's no reason to expect he will stop doing something that he thinks he's been successful at. i guarantee that this is getting applauded back in moscow from hardliners and putin. putin can finally be seen to be doing something in ukraine at least from a russian perspective appears to be working but the reality is these kind of bombing campaigns have not been successful historically and what it's also appears to be doing is strengthening european resolve to support ukraine, which is the very opposite of what putin wanted for this energy warfare that he's perpetrating against the ukrainians. >> mick, do you envision

sustained fighting throughout the winter? >> i think this is a war that will continue on through the winter. we may see a lower tempo but the ukrainians have a sniff of victory in places like ukraine -- in kherson and in northern luhansk. i don't see any reason why they would want to slow down. they may not be able to go as fast as they'd like in the winter months but i believe they will continue fighting, particularly as the russians are exhausted. they will be changing out experienced troops for less experienced mobilized troops. they will see opportunities over the coming months that they will want to exploit. they won't want to wait for the spring. >> okay. fascinating analysis and we appreciate your time and your insight. retired major general mick ryan joining us from brisbane in australia. many thanks. a pie tepgs alley serious respiratory virus a showing up in more and more children. coming up, a pediatrician explains the symptoms that could mean your child needs medical care. plus, former u.s. president

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♪ welcome back to our viewers in the united states and around the world, i'm anna coren. this is "cnn newsroom." former u.s. president donald trump held a rally in south texas saturday night, he spoke for nearly an hour and a half repeating his false claims about his 2020 election loss and calling the committee investigating the january 6th capitol attack political hacks and thugs. trump also strongly implied using perhaps his bluntest

language yet that he plans to launch a third presidential campaign. >> and now in order to make our country successful, safe and glorious again, i will probably have to do it again. but first we have to win a historic victory for the republican party this november. >> the rally comes just 17 days before crucial midterm elections that will determine the balance of power in the u.s. congress. the former president has been served with a subpoena from the january 6th committee requesting documents and testimony under oath. on friday the committee publicly released the entire subpoena. cnn's annie graham has more on what it says and the response so far from team trump. >> reporter: the january 6th committee's subpoena to donald trump really outlines how the committee believes trump was at the center of a multifaceted

scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the subpoena that the committee issued yesterday really relies on evidence that its presented throughout its hearings to make that point. it says that donald trump enacted a wide-ranging pressure campaign across the government from the department of justice to state officials to even his former vice president mike pence to get help in this scheme. it says that donald trump oversaw the fake elector plot where states submitted fake batches of electors to congress on trump's behalf. and it says that donald trump summoned the mob to the capitol on january 6th because he knew that some of the protesters in the crowd were armed and yet he didn't call off the violence on january 6th for hours as he was watching it on television. so in addition to laying all of

that out the committee is asking trump for a wide range of documents to turn over that includes all of the conversations that he has had on january 6th and whether or not trump has spoken to any of the other witnesses whose contacted the committee. all of those documents are due by november 4th and the committee is asking trump to sit for a deposition under oath either in-person or virtually november 14th. but the question here is how is donald trump going to respond and we don't really know the answer to that yet. trump's lawyers who have been assigned to handle the subpoena from acknowledged its receipt and have said that they're going through their response now, but we know this is going to be a lengthy legal battle. and time is not really on the committee's side because the committee is supposed to finish its work by the end this have calendar year. the committee views trump as an important witness to the investigation and is willing to do anything to secure his testimony.

take a listen to what democratic congresswoman zoe lofgren had to say about trump. >> he has a legal obligation to come in and talk to us, just as importantly as a legal obligation to respond to the documents that we've ordered him to produce, all of which are important to finishing our investigation. so let's see if he lives up to what the law requires of him. >> annie grayer reporting there. the u.s. education secretary is urging people to continue submitting online applications despite a federal appeals court temporarily pausing president biden's student loan forgiveness program. cnn's joe johns has this report. >> reporter: the message from the biden administration on their student loan relief program is that they're not

backing down and that they plan o stay on course, even though the eighth circuit court of appeals put a hold on the program. now, the administration says they're going to continue to take applications and they're continuing to review those applications even though they're not allowed at least at this stage to start canceling some of that debt. the education secretary put out an op-ed in "usa today" that reads in part, amid some republicans trying every which way to block the biden administration's debt relief program the department is moving full speed ahead with preparations for the lawful implementation of our program so we can deliver relief to borrowers who need it most. the president speaking at delaware state university on friday slammed the critics of the program. >> republican members of congress and republican governors are doing everything they can to deny this relief even to their own constituents. as soon as i announced my administration's plan on student debt they started attack tg

saying all kinds of things. their outrage is wrong and it's hypocritical, but -- you know we're not letting them get away with it. >> reporter: the setting for that speech delaware state is a historically black university where the vast majority of students get financial aid including student loans. the government is required to file a response to the request for an injunction on monday and on tuesday the six states that sued must file a reply. meanwhile, the white house announced that the president will be attending a rally for the democratic national committee on tuesday, november 1st, in south florida. joe johns, cnn, rehoboth beach, delaware. a viral respiratory illness known as rsv is spreading much faster than expected among infants and small children. 7,300 cases were reported in the u.s. in a single week this month. that's the highest number for any week in the past two years.

this data is likely just a small fraction of the total number. while rsv is similar to the common cold, it can cause serious illness, especially in the very young. take a listen. >> that's where you start to see the child being really upset, they can't get air in, they're huffing and puffing, they might be panting or even grunting. so it looks like maybe they've been running a marathon, even though these kids are tiny. you might see lips turning blue. if you have a pulse oximeter it would start reading in the low 90s or even lower than that. those are lots of warning signs that you need to seek care. >> rsv is most common in children under the anyone of two and experts believe the spike in cases is due to fewer people wearing face masks. police in texas have identified the man accused of shooting and killing two workers at methodist dallas medical center on saturday. 30-year-old nester hernandez now

faces capital murder charges. hernandez was on parole for aggravated robbery and had an active ankle monitor on. there's no word on what may have led to the shooting. authorities are still investigating. cnn national security analyst juliet came. >> where were they in the hospital? if they are on the seventh floor and not the first floor someone was looking for either them or the place where they were working. >> the hospital issued a statement saying the methodist health system family a heartbroken at the loss of two of our beloved team members. our entire organization is grieving this unimaginable tragedy. still ahead, the very latest on hurricane roslyn. the category 4 storm is bearing down on the western coast of mexico as we speak. our meteorologist derek van dam will join us to let us know how bad it's going to be.

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category 4 storm and bearing down on mexico's west coast. derek van dam joins us now from cnn weather center to tell us more. derek, how bad is it going to get over the next few hours? >> anna, what they're experiencing in puerto vallarta as well as the states in west central mexico is about as bad as it's going to get as the storm makes its final approach to land and makes landfall here within the next three to six hours. we are getting some of the latest information from the national hurricane center, you said it was a category 4 and that was true up to about three minutes ago. it has just changed, it has now weakened, okay, to a category 3 but this is still a formidable storm, we are talking about a 5 mile an hour difference in intensity, we are really splitting hairs on what the storm could potentially do.

i want to show you this really quickly, here is the forecast projected path of roslyn. i want you to see what is next to it, that line is hurricane orlene, that was from october 3rd, we are talking about a very similar location for a land falling hurricane within a three-week period. in puerto vallarta you will see late saturday night people boarding up their homes and doing whatever precautions they can to protect their life, to protect their property and to protect their businesses as well. you can see the boards in the windows, people walk ago away and saying we've done as much as we possibly could, let's get to a safer location. they are doing the necessary steps to make sure that their businesses are intact when they return to them after the storm moves inland and moves away from the coastline. that's what we do in advance of a hurricane. this is the latest forecast track, again, now a category 3,

it is just to the northwest of puerto vallarta. it will make landfall across the state here within the next three hours, quickly weaken into a category 1, start to rain itself out and basically dissipate as it moves across western and central portions of mexico. going back 24 hours it is remarkable to see how quickly this storm strengthened. there was a 24-hour period in the life span of this storm where it rapidly intensified gaining 60 miles per hour in strength in just a day's time. incredible. we have hurricane warnings where you see that shading of red, basically watches and warnings extend from mazatlan southward through puerto vallarta all the way into the jalisco state. there is the wind forecast, a small center of circulation, small eye. we are talking about a 30 mile in diameter wide eye that -- well, i should say hurricane force wind diameter so a very compact storm and that means it's going to lesson the damage

potential along the coastline but still a formidable threat here with heavy rainfall that will lead to localized flash flooding as well as landslides. we can't forget about the storm surge possibility with this land falling hurricane. >> we certainly appreciate the update. i know you will be well and truly across this as it continues to move across the coast. derek, thank you. hurricane ian hit southwest florida three weeks ago. many people in the area still don't have power, water or sewer services back. thousands of survivors are only at the start of a long road to recovery. it's even more difficult for older floridians. some of whom have lost homes, they bought through retirement. cnn's gabe cohen has this story. >> reporter: more than three weeks after hurricane ian made landfall in florida -- >> here is your truck? >> reporter: johnny is still sleeping in his pickup truck. >> i play my guitar, read my

bible. it's all good. >> reporter: the storm flooded his house outside fort myers, there's little left beyond this damp couch where he rests his back after long days of cleanup. >> it helps me feel like this is still a home and it's my home. so probably more of a symbol than anything that says that i'm here and it's coming back. >> reporter: the 76-year-old bought this home for retirement. >> breaks your heart. breaks your heart. >> reporter: as he picks up the pieces he says he has no insurance to help. >> i'm not leaving. >> do you know how you're going to afford to rebuild? >> we have fema out there and so i'm hoping to get some help there. >> reporter: a sprawl of destruction lined so many streets in southwest south florida, the remnants of wrecked homes waiting to be hauled away. thousands of floridians are just starting their recovery and relief groups say seniors were hit especially hard. >> florida is where people come

to retire. there is a large elderly population that really are facing their darkest hours. >> i'm sorry i didn't tidy up for you. >> reporter: lisa's home in arcadia is gutted down to the studs. >> the water level was up to here. >> reporter: the items that made this house a home are piled by the curb. >> i can't replace that. the house is a house, but those things -- i still have the memory, though, so it's okay. >> reporter: the 62-year-old and her boyfriend are living in their friend's rv, expecting the rebuild could cost as much as $80,000 and take months at least. >> have you thought about relocating? >> no, this is what i wanted. this is what i always wanted. so i'm going to stick with it. >> reporter: they have flood insurance, but don't know how much they will get back. lisa retired last year, now she says she may have to go back to work. >> to put out that kind of money would be very tough on me right now. >> reporter: the storm displaced thousands of floridians, few had

flood insurance and rebuilding isn't an option for everyone. >> i'm going to be stuck here for a while if not forever. >> reporter: 77-year-old toby freeman is in buffalo, new york, where his daughter lives after he says 7 feet of water wrecked his home. his wife karen is still recovering in a rehab center in florida. >> the only thing i got out of that house was the clothing on my back and i had to throw it away. >> reporter: they say they have little savings and no insurance so they're moving to buffalo. christa is dipping into her retirement funds to help them find a home. >> i have to take care of my family. i wouldn't have it any other way. >> reporter: alice and richard johnson aren't leaving florida, but they're moving into their rv full-time. they didn't have flood insurance they say and a lot of their retirement funds are tied up in this house. >> was that a difficult decision? >> probably one of the most difficult decisions i have ever made in my life. >> reporter: alice turns 85 next week and they want to focus on

enjoying life together. >> how many good years do i have left to live? i don't want to spend the next two years rebuilding a house, dealing with contractors, doing work ourselves, going -- even picking out furniture. for what? for who? for me? i think that we would rather sell it and live for the next couple years. >> reporter: gabe cohen, cnn, fort myers beach, florida. as georgia's u.s. senate race hits the home stretch cnn visits the hometown of football legend herschel walker to hear what people there have to say about his candidacy. some of their answers may surprise you. but she had enoug. she took mucinex instasoothe sore throat lozenges. show your sore throat who's boss. mucinex instasasoothe. works in s seconds, lasts for hours.

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in georgia's u.s. senate race polls have tightened between former football star herschel walker and incumbent senator rafael warnock. in walker's hometown voters are split about his candidacy. cnn's dianne gallagher has more. >> reporter: even before the sun rises the hottest topic in town comes up in conversation at the cornbread café. >> i like her she will because

he is all business. >> reporter: for more than 40 years the tiny town of wrightsville, georgia, has been talking about herschel walker. >> he is a local boy that's done good. >> reporter: he has a street, a park, a high school field named after him here. >> i was number one fan when he played football. >> from the university of georgia, herschel walker. >> reporter: in the he have proclaimed friend least town in georgia it's easy to find support for walker's senate campaign. >> i think he is the man for the job. >> reporter: nearly 70% of johnson county voted for republican donald trump in the 2020 presidential election. >> her she will is not going to back down. he is a fighter. >> i've been a lot of places but in wrightsville i learned important lessons. >> reporter: on the trail walker is quick to mention his wrightsville roots. >> i'm from wrightsville, georgia. >> he has always participated in our famous fourth of july parade that we have every year. he has done camps for youth here, for football. >> reporter: but not everyone in

this rural 3,500-person town is cheering him on. >> he's still our county's favorite son but most of the people in johnson county don't believe he is the right person to be running for senate. >> i hope warnock wins. >> reporter: this woman doesn't feel the multimillionaire former resident has done enough to help writes shell, specifically the black community now. >> we see him once a year when he come for the parade. >> he is yet to campaign in the black community. >> reporter: curtis dixon walker's tenth grade world history teacher and coach on his state championship high school football team described him as a good, polite kid who has given back to the community as an i adult. sounds like he liked her she will as a player and as a student. >> still do, but, you know, this is business. >> you don't feel like he's ready? >> he's not ready. >> reporter: readiness is a concern even for those who say they will still probably vote for walker.

>> i think he ought to just wait and look inside before running to see what it would take. >> herschel walker paid for an abortion for his then girlfriend. >> reporter: reports about walker's turbulent past including newly surfaced allegations he paid for an ex-girlfriend's abortion decades ago were not major topics around here. walker has denied the allegations. the residents we have spoken with who said they knew walker did say they were surprised by his public acknowledgment in june that he had four children. jerry is a supporter who has already cast his ballot for walker but laments the cost that the campaign has taken on the candidate personally. >> i wish he wouldn't have run. >> why not? >> because he is too good for politics. it hurt him with his family. >> reporter: dixon worries about the impact the race has had on walker's family but struggles to reconcile the candidate he sees today with the kid he knew

decades ago. >> the face is there, the hair is there, it's gotten a little grayer but i sometimes wonder if that's the same person. >> reporter: dianne gallagher, cnn, wrightsville, georgia. well, that wraps this hour of "cnn newsroom." thanks for your company, i'm anna coren, we will have more on the u.s. midterms coming up after a short break.

(classical piano music) - in terms of the hate crimes. i think there is so much more work to be done to make that choice, to continue to love.

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