of ohio. and about 45 minutes, we will talk to cleveland.com reporter, henry gomez. then the democratic and republican chairs. ♪ morning.d it is friday, october 28. topping today's headlines, the u.s. supreme court is emerging as the top election issue after senator ted cruz and other republican lawmakers suggested they may stall appointments to the court if hillary clinton wins. senator cruz's remarks drew criticism from the white house. josh earnest called it "the same kind of dysfunction that has infected washington for the last six years." calls thehomas

supreme court process broken and it threatens to undermine americans confidence in the institution. today's question is do you have confidence in the supreme court? republicans can: -- democrats can call -- -- pendence, those supporting third-party candidates can call -- you can reach us on social media, on twitter and on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. good morning. let's take a look at a little bit of what clarence thomas have to say wednesday speaking it a heritage foundation event, when he was asked what he says to people who have lost confidence in the supreme court. >> i don't think people are

confident. i think it is something we earned. that you try to do your job in a way that they can have confidence in what you can do. you try to do the hard thing, but they should not be doing in a way that they can have .onfidence, that you can trust perhaps, we should ask ourselves what we have done to not earn it or to earn it. i am not so sure i have the answers. is youthe things i say try to live up to the old. you took an old to show fidelity to the constitution any live up to it. he took an oath to judge people impartially, and you live up to it. in this city, it does not go for much. you take heat forward but that is a part of the job. .ou are supposed to do your job

run uply, some one will to you one day with your federal marathon commission and have a lot of confidence. that doesn't sound like a whole lot. probably most people don't care, but it does mean something to you when an average citizen has confidence that you did your job fairly. as best you could. you do not say he agreed with you but he agreed -- but he understood it. clarence thomas speaking wednesday about confidence. the subject of today's question. do you have confidence in the supreme court? while we wait for your calls, a little more about the headlines about senator cruz's comments about an indefinite block on supreme court appointments if hillary clinton wins the white

house according to washington post. senator cruz speak to reporters after a campaign rally for a republican u.s. senate in colorado that there was a precedent with fewer than nine justices, appearing to suggest that the blockade on merrick garland could last past the election. he said, "i think there will be plenty of time for debate on that issue." certainly long historical precedent for a supreme court with fewer justices. i would note that justice breyer observed that the vacancy is not impacting the ability of the court to do its job. that is a debate that we are going to have." that was more from ted cruz's comments.

right now, we have a call from canonsburg, pennsylvania on our democratic line. do you have confidence? caller: absolutely. i think we have millions of people in america who cannot even name two or three of the justices in the supreme court and they complain about it. they don't know anything about civics or problems of democracy, so they only know the supreme court is the third branch of the federal government. when all of these republicans howpundits talk about horrible it would be to have a liberal supreme court, the republicans have been the since 1968. all of these horrible liberal and theke roe v wade same-sex marriage have been decided by a

republican-controlled supreme court. that is why a lot of people don't do their research. i have a lot of confidence and thank you very much for letting me talk. host: a little bit more about republican reaction to the process that might come next year. they are split on the issue not coming to a full consensus on what they will do. republican senator jeff blake of arizona thursday said he would work to advance the confirmation process for supreme court nominee merrick garland if hillary clinton wins the white house. his comments for shadow a growing desire about what to do with garlands long nomination when congress returns, november 14 for the lame-duck session after the election. i'll bit more from rollcall. john mccain of arizona in october said in an interview that republicans would

next, we have paul calling in from pennsylvania on our republican line. caller: how're you? host: do you have confidence in the supreme court? caller: not at the moment, no. i don't ever want to see it go -- i'm a staunch conservative, so i am voting for donald trump. i would like to see it wait until after the first of the year, before any confirmation is done. trumpin reason i am for and for conservative is because lies that went on

with the other side. the good lord did not put me here to judge people, but hope every thing that is going on, i don't want to see the democrats maybe put these people into the supreme court. host: let me ask you about the contention from senator cruz that if hillary clinton wins the presidency, the reluctance may stall all of the appointments. do you agree with that? caller: what was that? senator cruz suggested that republicans may stall any nominee put forth by hillary clinton if she wins. do you agree? if she puts people up, i think the senate would be honest -- if a good person is put up, i think they will put

them in. if not, i think they are going to go against it. host: and he is calling in from lake butler, florida, on our democratic line. caller: good morning. host: are you confident in the u.s. supreme court? caller: no, i am not. the supreme court has not been , since the last eight years. -- they haveourt been fighting democrats. anything they do, they have been fighting against it. look at obama. he put somebody up there, i -- i am kind of sick, i am sorry. they were going against everything.

president obama have done, the senate have fought against it. the current stalled nomination of judge merrick garland, is that caused you to lose faith in the congress and the executive branch? or does that carry over into your feelings about the supreme it carriesf? caller: over into my feelings about the supreme court. supreme court judge clarence is not fair. he is not fair at all. youen, how would they say put donald trump up there, and .e know nothing about politics he is going to tear this whirl of just tear this world up. host: calling in from alexandria, virginia. caller: i think you and i and

most colors do not have a permanent job. at some point we are supposed to retire. it will be for the betterment of the company. of the three branches of government, the supreme court seems to be entitled to have a lifetime position. governmentranches of have officials that can be elected or elected out of office, then they should be given the same. they should not be up to stay for a lifetime. as much as anything, a lot of fight -- orwe can't the judges can no longer relate to. a different age from many of them grew up in, it is a different world. at some point you have to move on. i think their experience would

be needed, especially on college campuses in teaching. i don't think staying in a position for that long, it -- which is what we don't need. host: let's take a look at some other headlines related to the supreme court. in the washington post, it report that justice thomas has been accused of groping a woman. it

we are continuing our discussion about confidence in the u.s. supreme court. james is calling in from alabama on our democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am glad you are talking about clarence thomas because he was put into office by joe biden. haveis is the problem we with our political system. tip o'neill work with ronald reagan. they affirmed ronald reagan's judges. there was a bipartisanship. the democrats did not push back. with bush -- this is the reason why bush was allowed to do --

the democrats with nancy pelosi did not push back. the point of clinton was in office, and the tokens which back -- the republicans pushed back. james, can i ask you a question. for supreme court justices nominations, bill clinton nominated ruth bader ginsburg. she was confirmed unanimously to the court. you think things have changed since then? caller: yes. [inaudible] host: a little bit more about the latest allegations against justice thomas. i need a hill has called for an investigation into that allegation according to the national law journal. anita hill whose testimony at

justice clarence thomas's hearing in 1991 will open a nationwide conversation about sexual harassment in the -- place next, we have lead calling in from escondido, california on our republican line. are you confident? caller: no, i am not.

ever since thurgood marshall said he considered his duty to tear up the constitution or destroy the constitution, it seems like the democratic party has set out to do just that. if you like being free, you do not like being a democrat, because the democratic party -- it is set out to destroy our constitution, bit by bit. host: do you believe that republicans should try to stop hillary clinton if she wins the presidency from appointing anyone to the supreme court? caller: i believe they should, --ause the democratic party they will lead you to help. -- to hell. do anything to stop the

democrats from getting another justice in their. host: marge is calling in from illinois on our democratic line. good morning. caller: i have been trying for weeks to get through. all i want to say is trump is getting by with murder. he has not turned in his income tax. he is calling all of these ladies liars. i think he should be persecuted to get that income tax in and everyone else has. i think they should make him take a lie detector test. host: march, where talking about the supreme court today. is the supreme court a big issue for you back up -- issue for you? caller: trump is what i am so angry about. he cheated on his first wife with marla and never remarried her until after the baby was born. i don't know who the interviewer

was, but he was standing there on tv and i watched him. he was telling the guy to get a book and tells of all of the women in it that i have had sex with. we don't want our young people to be seeing junk like that. host: let's take a look at a survey that was done for c-span a year ago about the public opinion of the u.s. supreme court. that was following several landmark cases. that national poll conducted by pension berlin suggest that 85% of americans believe that decisions made by the supreme court have an impact on everyday life as a citizen, including 83% of liberals, 84% of moderates and 87% of conservatives. people generally think the supreme court is very important. we're talking to you about confidence.

a caller from sacramento on our independent line. caller: good morning. host: are you confident in the supreme court? caller: originally, i was. this year, when justice ginsburg spoke out against donald trump, i think she broke with her party -- committed an error for a sitting supreme court justice to speak out against a nominee. that kind of upset me. i'm not a republican or democrat. ginsburg spoke out, it seems like our supreme court has become so hyper partisan that they cannot see past what they were elected to represent. when they are elected -- when they were elected, they was want to uphold the constitution, and written and it

should be interpreted -- host: me ask you a question -- let me ask you a question. other justices do speak outside of the supreme court. antonin scalia would quickly do interviews or speak where he gave views about things about abortion. you think no justice at all should speak outside of their role on the court? if it is an purview of the constitution and constitutional rights -- if it pertains to everyday rights, they should be up to speak out about it. when they get involved in a presidential race and politics of that race, i feel they are stepping outside of what they ise elected to do and that to interpret the constitution.

the citizens are not interested in hearing who they are going to be one for why donald trump is fit or why hillary clinton's e-mails are so bad that she should not become president. that is out of their purview. what if they were -- they were put on the supreme court to interpret the constitution and how that affects the loss in our .ountry and america as a whole of course it is going to affect our lives. partisan and too democrats and republicans, they are both sides of the same coin. we need to have an outside independent party that can get into the debates. it is very disheartening to see the supreme court get involved in the presidential election. host: some other headlines making the news. republicanernor and

vice president of candidate, mike pence's plane skidded off a runway in new york. it said that governor pence skidded off the runway shortly after landing at laguardia airport thursday night. the plane was carrying more than 40 people occluding members of his staff and reporters. there were no injuries. everyone got off the aircraft safely. mr. pence, the governor of indiana, could be seen shaking hands with first responders. he said he is so thankful everyone on the plane was safe, grateful for our first responders and the concerns and prayers of so many. back on the trail tomorrow. fromis calling in california on our democratic line. caller: good morning. host: do you have confidence in

the supreme court echo caller: -- supreme court? constitutionally, it is not operating properly. there is supposed to be nine justices. listen,people do not because they are allowing the senate to talk about what they are not going to do. that is their job. their job is to confirm. the president present and their job is to confirm. host: the constitution doesn't set a number of supreme court justices. caller: it does. it sets a number because when president roosevelt wanted more , that was voted down. he was not able to do that.

the supreme court is nine justices. i know it has increased and everything, but the importance of having the justices is to have an equal amount of people. -- qual amount of people host: let's take a look at a few more of justice thomas's comments. this is what he said when asked if there is any hope to improve the confirmation process. >> the city is broken. been in most of my adult life now. become veryave comfortable with not thinking things through, and debating. one of the things i love about the court, you can talk about things.

i think we have decided that rather than confront the disagreements and differences of opinion, we will simply annihilate the person who disagrees. i don't think that is going to work. i don't think that is going to work in a republic or civil society. at some point, we have got to recognize we are destroying our institutions and undermining our institutions. them. going to destroy the day is going to come when we are going to need the institutions and the integrity of the institutions. when you disagree with people, i do notice and my opinions, i do not attack personally my colleagues. i disagree with them strongly. i think it is important for me to leave them standing in the institution standing.

contrast.st have the i don't think that is going to change in the city until we get back to a notion that we are -- that we argue, debate and decide based on logic and fact and reason, as opposed to who yells the loudest or who has the best narrative or best meme or some other nonsense. >> some of the facts about the supreme court as reported by history.com, among them that has not always been nine justices on the court. the u.s. constitution established the supreme court but left to congress to decide how many justices. the judicial act of 17 a nine set the number at six

a little bit of the history of the u.s. supreme court and how we arrived at the nine justices we have. a vacancy early this year from justice antonin scalia. at 3:00 p.m., another supreme court justice elena kagan will be speaking about the supreme court and constitutional law. we'll carry that event on c-span, as well as on c-span.org and c-span radio. southcalling in from carolina on our independent line. are you confident? caller: no, i am not. climate,un political the progressive wing of the democrat party is trying to use the supreme court as a tool to get what they want without having to go through the legislative process.

the constitution says only that we shall have a supreme court, it should have a chief justice and the terms will be for life. it doesn't say how many people need to be on the court. i would rather have a supreme court that has gotten down to only three justices who are willing to uphold and defend the constitution, rather than have a supreme court of nine justices were five of them are actively trying to subvert and rewrite the constitution. it has gotten so blatant that they are trying to defang the bill of rights itself by nullifying the second amendment. host: is this one of the issues affecting how you plan to vote for president? and for the senate? caller: it is the number one issue, because once you know longer have a supreme court that

range people in -- a living constitution allows the ruling class to do whatever it wants as long as they can reinterpret the say just whatever they to mean whatever they say. when you get to that point and no longer have the constitution, because there are no restraints on government power, they simply reinterpret things to make it work their way, and they do whatever they want. that is a dangerous state of affairs for our country. it will mean the united states of america has degenerated into a banana republic. we will no longer be a nation of laws. it will be a nation of whatever is politically correct according to the ont: ok, now for an update congressional races happening

across the country. right now in campaign 2016, in the senate, democrats needed to itn for seats -- four seats hillary clinton wins and five seats in donald trump wins. would house, democrats need 30 seats to take a majority. a closer look at some of specific races, in missouri, vice president joe biden will appear at a rally with democratic u.s. senate candidate jason kander on friday. the latest indication that the missouri senate race has become a nationally watched showdown, according to st. louis today. he notes, c-span will be covering the event. check www.c-span.org rescheduling cash poor scheduling updates. is facing al ryan challenge not in his election

but in his speakership. senator paul ryan trounced his republican primary opponent by 68 point margin in august in wisconsin's first district, but him defeat is not stopping from challenging ryan. according to roll call, this time, he is fine for the speaker's gavel. the speaker does not have to be a sitting member of congress, although a nonmember has never been elected. turning to california, pamela by a 2-1 leading margin according to "the l.a. times," and with how it's already been cast, state attorney kamala harris leads by 2-1 margin according to a new poll by the public policy institute of california.

finally, in illinois, last night during the senate debate, there chargerges -- a racial during the debate. illinois senator is under fire for what is seen as a racially charged comments, questioning the military service of his democratic opponent congresswoman tammy duckworth. let's take a look at the exchange. [video clip] owne cannot do it on their and i went to be in the senate. my family has served the uniform going back to the revolution, i am a daughter of the american revolution. i bled for this nation and i still want to be than the senate when the drums of war sound because people are quick to sound those drums of war and i went to say that this is what it costs, this is what you're asking us to do, and if that is the case, i will go. families like mine are the ones who go first, but let's understand what we are engaging in. we cannot do it all. forgotten that your

parents came all the way from thailand to serve george washington. discussionnuing about the u.s. supreme court and whether you have confidence in the court. nick colling and on the republican line from california. good morning. caller: good morning. host: are you confident in the u.s. supreme court? confiden., i'm not no, i'm not-- confident. in the last 10 years, they have ,ecome too politicized especially from the republicans. both parties are to blame for the situation we're in now. they all think they know right for and what is everybody, when they do not. the supreme court has mentioned already, has become too politicized, they're more

their political party been taking care of the constitution of the united states. the supreme court is supposed to be separate from the rest of the federal government. to make sure that they do not screw over us like they have been doing. that theyou think problems with over politicizing the court has been reflected in the decisions that it makes or do think it is more an issue like we are seeing with pollingans trying to a -- trying to oppose democratic appointments to the court indefinitely? caller: both. court is the most important one. making morecome decisions based on the republican political party and and changing the

meaning of the constitution to what they want. it is like the nra is doing for gun permits. lorraine colleen from west virginia -- calling from west virginia. caller: first of all, i am a who wasmocrat personally conservative and socially liberal. i still believe that the constitution does say that the in thent shall appoint senate shall confirm or whatever it is exactly it says. it needs to be done, and for eight years, i think we will go down in history and be written did this congress everything they could do to

delegitimize this president. we have never had this in our history. as far as the supreme court -- yes, i believe in the supreme court. i do have confidence in it. it also calls down to people. certain ones believe that the constitution should be as written and other people believe breathing a living, documents, and that is what i believe. it is changing and evolving. if it wasn't, we would still have slavery, all of the things that originally -- i would not be able to vote. i could, because i'm a landowner, but of the people could not vote because they do not own land. it is a living and breathing document. for them to battle that -- for that they will not support it, hopefully, they will

be voted out and we get new blood in there. youngblood in the senate and house that really understand that they are coequal with the president. host: bryan's calling in from washington, d.c., independent voter. have -- do you have confidence in the u.s. supreme court? caller: i have not had confidence since they selected election ofthe george w. bush, which i don't think they ever should have. it should have been left up to the voters. the second issue they had was accepting the affordable care act, is all. those two decisions there in my they wereit so that getting involved in what they should not have. the first election of the

president was not elected in my mind and then the affordable care act. host: is that a big factor in your selection of who you vote for for president? yes and no, but yes in the sense that i believe it is the president's right. i do not think we should even have to wait. a few callers back said banana republic. i think we are deep devolved into that-- devolved with tom and they decided that this is the man they want -- with trump and they decided that man.wanted this america has reached a new level by allowing this man to be the representative. according to pew research, american opinions of the u.s. supreme court did a 30 year low last year after controversial decisions but have rebounded after a quieter term.

in july of 2015, the poll said 43% of americans regarded the supreme court unfavorably, a 30 year high, while what he percent had a positive opinion. time come up use of the court were strongly linked to how the americans felt about the courts upholding of the affordable care act and legalization of same-sex marriage. the court short digest is, there are fewer high-profile decisions and of the courtsws have improved. in august, 60% had a favorable view and 32% saw the court unfavorably. steve from nebraska, third-party supporter. good morning. i confident in the u.s. supreme court? caller: i lost my confidence in the supreme court when i found out that legally they are allowed to take junkets, paid for by third parties, and my big

issue is finance reform, removing the influence peddlers from the legislative process. i feel the same way about the supreme court. i think that anybody can be who haded by people their hand open, where they take something they did not earn. host: the supreme court is not bound by the same ethical rules that other federal judges are. would you like to see that change?to think that would restore your confidence and other people' is confidence in the court? caller: absolutely. happenstanceout by that they were not subject to the same rules that other federal judges were. if this was known -- when school

died, he was on the junket, -- when scalia died, he was on the junket, all expense trip paid for by i don't know who. like i said, finance reform is my big issue and influence peddling has to stop. bill is calling from michigan on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. this is in reference to the people like the lady from west virginia who stole my thunder but she was wrong in one respect. here it is -- if you want to make the supreme court as was originally written, no woman would be allowed to vote. to the woman in west virginia, no woman would be allowed to own property. no black person would be allowed to vote. this is absurd. it is a living document.

it must change with the times. on another matter, i want to remind everybody that it was george w. bush that granted china most favored nation .rading status in 2002 donald trump likes to remind everybody that clinton financed -- i wonder why he is strangely silent on the w. aboutlet me ask you supreme court appointments. is that a big issue for you when deciding who to vote for for the presidency? caller: yes, it is. i look at the republican party and they won't even give the an u or down vote. this is absurdp. i think the republican party is absurd and they have gone in the wrong direction. foruld vote occasionally republican in the past, but insistence on the second

amendment, well, they forget about the first part, a well regulated. when the constitution was written, we did not have army, navy -- airplanes were not invented, said the air force -- or marine corps. we relied on the citizens militia. the people carrying guns may be part of the militia, doubtful. people should have the right to fora gun and hunt with it home protection, whatever, but it has gotten out of hand. host: daniel calling from kentucky under independent mine. do you have confidence in the u.s. supreme court? caller: now, i do not. of these majorll i devices are split by that one person out going 5-4.

with it like it is, there is a lot of chance for a tie. if that happens, one happens to cases? the previous rulings get held up or goes into limbo again. the republicans in the senate need to realize one thing. then holding up that up or down vote makes them look bad, makes them look like they are wanting their best to not try and even get this country running right. pine chris is calling from hill, new jersey, independent line. i confident in the u.s. supreme court? caller: i have zero confidence in them. there is nothing they have ever done that i can think of that is good. let's start with 1973. they promote baby butchering in a woman's right to choose.

and that there was the shoving obamacare down our throats and now it is taxed, so they have taxed us and then sodomy, so, sodomy, abortion, taxation. they also promote the welfare of lacks against white -- blacks against white, i think at the expense of whites. i am white, sorry for living. i think it should be abolished. get rid of it. host: up next, we are going to begin our focus on the battleground state of ohio. we will talk about the latest from the campaign from the presidential and closely watched senate races in the buckeye state with henry gomez, chief medical reporter with cleveland.com. first, hillary clinton was in cleveland last week. about the cleveland indians, the cleveland cavaliers and her desire to see ohio flip the state senate seat up for election this fall.

[video clip] i am so excited to be here. what a time to be back in cleveland. [applause] the indians are going to the world series! [applause] the is after the cavs won championship. 20 -- what a year for cleveland. believe-land. i am hoping for a great lake .eries i spent a lot of days at wrigley field as a kid. to it be a dream come true have cleveland and chicago in the world series and for us to win -- ohio! [applause] i want to thank all of the today who are here because you have heard from some great folks.

i want to thank governor ted strickland. our candidate for the united states senate. [applause] i will tell you, we could really use the democratic senate to get things done for the people of ohio and america. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now from cleveland is henry gomez, the chief political reporter for cleveland.com. he is here to help us take a look at the battleground state of ohio and tell us who the voters are and get the latest on polling and other news from there. good morning. thank you for joining us. guest: good morning. of course. -- ohioeveland has gone has gone five times to democrats and where are the battle lines in the state? guest: there are a number of battle lines in the state and this year i think they are

different than in past cycles. going 5-5.ided state year, theis battlegrounds are little bit different within the battlegrounds. you are seeing donald trump spend a lot of time in eastern and southeastern ohio, which is chock filled with the working-class voters that he has tailored his campaign to. it is one of the areas in the state that supplies one of the lowest portions of the statewide vote but one where he could clip democratic counties, peeling the margins that democrats have traditionally stored there. he could do very well statewide. host: taking a look at some of the counties where hillary clinton and donald trump won their primaries. according to cleveland.com, it shows many counties to the east and south of the state. who do you think might win the edge in some of the different

counties? guest: i think what we will be looking at closely on election night are two counties in the northeastern part of the eastern slice, mahoning county in trumbull county, the youngstown area and overwhelmingly democratic and it has been for years. filled with the white working-class voters, blue-collar workers, who have become pressured with foreign trade deals and donald trump plays well there. he may not win while in the county or trumbull county, but he will cut into the democrat margins and the question is how much? if you go south, along the ohio river, these are counties that were democratic until the last two presidential elections. they started trending red with john mccain and then mitt romney . donald trump plays even better there than those candidates did. are there enough votes for him republican? back to

i am not sure because the sense is hillary clinton will do better in suburban counties, such as delaware county, north of columbus. it is an overwhelmingly republican county but still with suburban families, highly educated families, a high-income families, the types of independent or moderate republicans that my devoted to mitt romney but are not voting for donald trump. dear speaking -- host: we are speaking with henry gomez from the chief political reporter for cleveland.com, as we focus on the battleground state of ohio. callers from ohio can join a discussion at (202)-748-8000. all others can call (202)-748-8001. early can you explain voting in ohio and how it works? guest: sure. there are three weeks of early voting in ohio, a little different than four years ago, or there was a fourth week where

you could register to vote and vote at the same time. they called the golden week, but it was subject to lots of court challenges for republican groups and in the credit groups are thatigning hard to uphold week and it went away this year. early voting has been going on since october 12. of the votete a bit already income a lot of ballot request out there and you can vote from home by mail, return by mail come or go in person to your county's board of elections to vote in person doing set hours. we are at the point now in the calendar where the board of elections and in each of ohio's 88 counties are opened the last two weekends of this campaign. the democrats are very excited about that because the engineer concern point of turnout operation around the dates. host: turning to the senate race highly, also very contested in terms of

presidential, worsening the rob portman is going against former -- wherestrickland governor rob portman is going against former governor strickland. where does the race stand? guest: kind of disappointment if you were hoping for a close race. the republican incumbent has put this one away, one of the most colossal surprises if former governor strickland could come back and win this. he has not been able to raise money, he has not been a very energetic campaigner. he has made a lot of gas on the campaign trail and when a senator portman's allies, a lot -- a lot of outside spending groups, they have dumped a lot of money. nationalght up the bad and state economy during strickland's time as governor. they reinforced negative feelings about strickland going to work for a liberal ink tank in washington after he was governor. really, just buried strickland

in the hole and has not been able to climb out of it. he is leading by double digits in every poll i have seen. to portman's credit, he has run an outstanding campaign and has ticket splitting democrats and you cannot say enough about the great campaign that rob portman has run an the comparatively poor campaign that strickland has run. host: let's take a look at one of the ads from rob portman's campaign, focusing on the heroin epidemic in the state. [video clip] >> i am j mcdonald, president of the police of ohio, winning the senator who will have our backs. after examining the candidate records, we endorse rob portman. he has always been strong for law enforcement and no elected official in america is doing more to fight back against the heroin epidemic. please join the law-enforcement in supporting rob portman. he is on our side. >> rob portman, endorsed by the internal service of police --

fraternal order of police. host: we do have the caller, built from north carolina. you are on with henry gomez of cleveland.com. good morning. caller: good morning. how is everybody? host: we are good. go ahead, bill. caller: i grew up in hubbard, ohio, and i lived in youngstown for over 30 years on the north side. youngstown was an industrial powerhouse and a great place to live and it has just gone under the ways like to try. i call it many detroit. it is a crying shame. when i retired, fortunately, my house was not my biggest asset or never would have been able to get out because you practically have to give your house away. i was up there about one month ago, the first time i have been in the old neighborhood in 10 years, and i hate to say it, i felt like i needed a gun in my lap. it is disgusting the way things

have gone in this country. you can blame companies, unions, politicians. there is plenty of blame to go around. what has happened to many of the cities, including youngstown, is the biggest race. host: that's let henry gomez response of the that an issue resonating in the campaign? guest: i grew up in then spend myself, right outside, born and raised there, went to college there. i go back often because my family lives there. i do not feel unsafe when i'm around the city, but it certainly has seen better times. i think young's town is on the rebound, but law and order plays right into terms big campaign theme and he is targeting people that do you feel unsafe in inner cities like youngstown, cleveland. i think he would tear from the other side that he feels he drives stereotypes in those cases, but it is a theme that has resonated and donald trump

is sitting on that. host: we are speaking with henry gomez of cleveland.com, focusing on ohio. with 11 days to go before election day, we have aligned dedicated work ohio residents, (202)-748-8000. all others can call (202)-748-8001. from senator portman. let's take a look at an ad former governor ted strickland. [video clip] >> ted strickland! love this man. he is the first in his family to go to college, the minister and a public servant. when he was in congress, he fought for children's health insurance program, as governor, he froze public college tuition, and even though he took office as governor about when you before the recession, ohio was the fifth fastest growing economy in america. ted delivered and when it matters most, he has your back. >> i am ted strickland and i

approve this message. host: governor portman rescinded his endorsement of donald trump. heording to cleveland.com, rescinded his endorsement in the aftermath of the race of his 2005 video of donald trump making fogler and sexually aggressive comments. in a statement on his website, he said he will accept the voting for indiana governor mike pence. how has that worked out? how is the top of the ticket in general affected the senate race there? guest: not as much as democrats are hoping it would. has a two-pronged attack lately, president obama supports me and rob portman used to support donald trump. portman did not want to rescind his endorsement of donald trump. he struggled and was one of the last in that batch of republican senators who about their

endorsement after taxes hollywood tape came out. really talk to them a few weeks later for an endorsement interview, you could see that he struggled with the decision and he felt he needed to support the voters of his party led, needed donald trump for president. it was a decision he did not take lightly, even though just about every issue that comes out of donald trump spot, rob portman has is agreed with. when he made comments about women or minorities, the first to ask robters go is portman, do you agree with donald trump? and catholics a lot of -- and that puts a lot of republicans until positions. he has been able to bring some democrats into his coalition and is on top of the ticket. really, it has not been a problem. host: coleman called them from windsor mill, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning.

i would like to make the comments. i will be brief. for the people of ohio, i have been maybe two times or three times. 2008 and had the economy was when president barack obama took over. was working and they cut back on hours because the economy was bad. restaurants were not hiring. there was no employment. today, we can talk about the economy is growing and moving past. [indiscernible] i am only suggesting that people look at their vote. i would not mind if the current governor of ohio is on top of the ticket. i would vote for

him, but i cannot imagine myself voting for a man like donald trump, who does not have any single office before. just as a businessman and he cannot even release his taxes. host: henry gomez let's let respond. -- let's let henry gomez respond. guest: you brought up kasich and who did not end up winning and there have been some polls out recently, and i saw one that showed that if john kasich at the top of the republican ticket right now, they would be be dean heller clinton by 12 points but that is not what happened. -- there would be beating hillary clinton by 12 points, but that is not what happened. unemployment rate has been dropping a jobs have come back over the last eight years. president obama wins credit, republican john kasich wants credit for that, and that is not the race is which fat. it is spot on the segment of

population that feels they are underemployed, underpaid, and they're looking for more prosperity. those at the voters that donald trump has been playing to effectively in many cases. is, calling from ohio. caller: my question is [indiscernible] i have been living in ohio for the last 18 years, so a long time, but this election is a paradox to me. i'm more of an independent, no question. it is shocking that trump would be there. my question is in ohio, governor kasich was a republican, a reasonable man who everybody sees him. so hepopular in ohio, openly criticized donald trump

and everything against them, so how come he is a popular governor? twice, he is popular, but trump is winning? so people who like kasich are voting for term? if not -- for trump? if not, then trump should go down. this isdering how happening. host: let's let henry gomez respond. guest: it is fascinating, isn't it? you have these two dynamically republicans, but popular in ohio, remember, john kasich be donald trump year. donald trump year. john kasich would probably win ohio's electric boats over donald trump. i think donald trump is appealing to a lot of first-time voters are people who have not or four the last 2, 3

elections, appealing to democrats, independents, people disinfected from their own parties, so that is why he has been able to build a coalition in spite of governor kasich and not having governor kasich's support. host: we are talking with henry gomez of cleveland.com. he is a former staff reporter for cleveland business. later in the show, we would talk to the chairman of the republican and democratic parties in ohio. first, can you give us an idea about the ground game and how each party is doing? guest: there is really no contest. hillary clinton has the superior ground game in ohio. when the polls show us that donald trump has a slight edge, that is one thing to keep in mind. the other is that on election day and in the early weeks of early voting, hillary clinton and the democrats are far better

organized to mobilize voters through the process. at least since june, they have bad over 100 democratic staffers on the ground, working in harmony to elect the democratic ticket this fall. conversely, donald trump, and this is almost attributable to the fact that governor kasich does not support him, has had a hard time building his kasich controls the ohio republican party and that vast network of party insiders and activist and many of those people have been to take spots within the trump campaign. it's a cooperative on to announce the infrastructure in ohio. he and his ohio campaign manager have feuded openly with the chair the republican party, lots of tension there. national republican committee, has had trouble finding staffers that would want to work on the ground in ohio. tore have been

communications directors in ohio and both of them quit because of trump. the first one said that he did not want to work to elect someone like donald trump. the second kind a huge blowout , saidhe campaign manager that stuff matters. you do not seed in the polls they were looking at right now, but it absolutely matters when it comes to getting absentee ballots in the hands of voters in the future there returned to come sure people get up early voting at the election and making sure those people who have not done so before election get out on election day. democratston and the will have all the advantage when it comes to that. host: benjamin calling from washington, d.c., good morning. benjamin calling from washington, d.c., good morning. caller: good morning, how are you? host: i am good. you are on with henry gomez of cleveland.com. caller: henry, in 20 12 in the presidential election, the secretary of state of ohio, john has put, was really at the center of great controversy for a number of reasons.

primarily for backing away from his order that would have banned counties of early voting after being summoned to court in front of a federal judge, and he was still resentful after the election. he felt that he should of been allowed to do this. seemed likehe has he is putting his head down. i'm wondering what your perspective is on his role and intentions and pulling a maneuver in 2016? i know he has made statements against trump, but it is hard to the what is happening since act in 2012 was attempted to be done covertly. you seem to be plugged in. i'm interested in your thoughts. guest: great question. john has been fastened a little bit -- chase and a little bit from losing the high-profile

court battles over access to early voting. while he still holds true to his belief that it was really easy to vote early in ohio and expensive, you have not seen him push as much this cycle because he has lost earlier battles and has lost a few more this year that were not as high profile. hovering above all of this is the john houston wants to run for governor in 2018 and it will be a competitive primary between him, mike to wine, and possibly john kasich lieutenant governor. i think he is keeping his head down, great way of putting it because he wants it to be a smooth election. it is in his best interest to preside over the new collection because it is another notch in his boat to sell to voters if he runs for governor in 2018. host: taking a look at the spending that has been done in ohio. democrat hillary clinton and the democratic party has spent $4.5

million on ads in ohio this the 2.3arly twice million dollars that donald trump and the republicans will spend. is that disparity in the ads making a difference? guest: i think it is making some of a difference. i think it is what is keeping the race you are not seeing donald trump running away with in the polls and you have not seen hillary clinton runaway in the polls preaching needs to have those ads because trump does have advantages demographically in parts of the state. host: teresa from columbus, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. my comment is i'm very disappointed in rob portman and i voted for rob portman my entire voting life. i am an independent. i just cannot believe that it took him that long to come up with walking away from trump. forthright not been

with the voters of ohio in that respect and a quick comment on the earlier comment, i do not know if people are aware of this, but a lot of the blue counties in ohio have been taken off the election rolls to be counted as absentee ballots. heer the election because decided that is the way he wants to do with the voters of ohio. i think mr. husted will have quite the problem becoming governor after the election and once the people find out that their votes will not count because they have not voted in the last six years. host: let's get an update on that and then let henry gomez respond according to cleveland.com. ohio voters improperly removed can vote in november lastly, ohiod voters that were removed from the rolls after not casting about for several years will be

allowed to vote in the november general election. the federal appellate court ruled last month at the ohio's practice of occasionally canceling voter registrations after six years of inactivity was illegal. a u.s. district court issued a decision, mandating that voters purged since january 1, 2011, will be allowed to cast ballots. tell us a little bit about that and how that affects absentee voting. guest: i was one of the cases i alluded to with the last caller about how john husted has lost a couple battles and not as high profile. i think that is the one that the democrats argued this you, that the republicans, the state, including john husted, are not administering fair elections. this is something that husted consistent on. i'm not convinced it is having a

big effect on early voting but we have not seen any measurable data at this point. host: maureen is calling from gerard, ohio. caller: i would not vote for rob portman and i cannot wait until we go back [no audio] host: are you there? caller: yes. host: go ahead. caller: i cannot wait until some daily get read about governor and we go back to democratic governor perry i live in gerard, ohio. our roads stink. there is nothing but holes in the roads, and i hear on tv that john kasich has been so wonderful for the state of ohio. we would not have had collected bargaining. he tried to take that away a few years ago and we voted that down. i cannot see what john kasich has done. my husband works in pittsburgh. he was laid off as an electrical

engineer and cannot even find a job in ohio. i live in ohio. he lives in pittsburgh. it is rob portman and some of these republican governors and these republican people like to me oftte and pittsburgh, they go out and tell you they are for social security, all of these programs, and then when they go back to congress, they vote against everything. host: let's let henry gomez respond. how are they resonating? maur: marine brings up -- brings up a good point abouteen john kasich. brings up a good point about john kasich. they talk about republican employees and republican employee unions, and the overturn that in 2011 and since then, kasich has moved to the

middle and carved out an identity as a pragmatic governor perry as far as the issues brought up, yes, that is what you hear a lot, especially from democratic voters unhappy with the republican leadership's in ohio. that is the hillary clinton voted most likely. it is the feeling that the republicans controlling the state have not made things as well as they could. host: in addition to that spending advantage that democrats have over republicans, it seems that democrats have been sending high-profile surrogates to stump in ohio. according to cleveland.com, joe biden and jay-z arm of what they call a never-ending parade of presidential surrogates. it says that working at this time with 11 days left to election day, president joe anen dropped in for unexpected visit, as well as

jay-z will be hosting a concert, not the first time he has posted a concert there, despite that he is from brooklyn. what is it about the race that is drawing high-profile votes? it is such a more expanded battleground map this year. ohio, although it has been hugely important to the electoral college, there is a sense this you that states like north carolina, pennsylvania, possibly arizona, utah, georgia are more important than ohio is. we are not used to that. we always think we are so important and everybody should be here all the time. hillary clinton, in particular, her most viable resource is a time. her campaign is really mobilized, a lot of celebrities, high-profile democrats. the strategy there is not necessarily to get the headline on cleveland.com, although he covered those offense when they are warranted, but to get headlines in the youngstown

indicated there or some of the smaller town newspapers. that is a big deal, something the people in the town will be talking about for a long time. to me, that is the strategy there. you might bring someone out to an event that was not likely to go to an event otherwise. that person leaves the event more motivated to go vote, may be more voted -- more motivated to knock on doors and that feeds into the ground game we talked about earlier. host: david is calling in from north carolina. good one. caller: how are you doing today? mr. gomez drew a parallel to i frequenteda and ohio little bit, and our workers unions, like hillary clinton is a more diverse group of voters and some of the talking points that mr. trump

season the great country and has not been so upcoming, i mean, he will lose the women's vote, an important vote, although some women [indiscernible] when they get behind that curtain, they would think about those things. same for the latino vote. if we are breaking down the demographics of the voters, it is unbalanced. when you look at inconsistencies and the history of the republican party and how it has always been hijacked by donald trump, you know, they will have to rebuild because it will fall apart. host: that is a lot to unpack. but let henry gomez take a shot. guest: those are good and fair points and observations, especially on how the republican party will have a lot of soul-searching to do after the election. we said the same thing for years ago and it was a different

candidate, but one that did not the fill a whole lot of the gop part for 2012. it is interesting because when i covered donald trump events, when he is at this best is when he has a focus message, which is around the fact that people are frustrated that they're not making enough money, that they are not as employed as they should be and do not have the job that they want and nobody is looking out for them. when he sticks to that, it is the message that resonates. when he gets into these little sidebars by picking nonminorities, mexicans, talking crudely about women, that is not helpful and what the press writes about because that is the conflict. those of the headlines hurting him and preventing him from 35anding his base the on the percent to 40% of americans who are really tapped into that sort of anger right now. host: taking a look at more demographics of ohio. all statewide offices are held by republicans at the moment.

republicans also have the 6-1 majority on the ohio supreme court and democrats and republicans each hold one senate seat, but strongly republican. according to the latest real clear politics average, donald trump is averaging only at one lead over hillary clinton there. what this the difference between coders who like electing republicans? slicing up doing better? guest: -- why is he not doing better? guest: we are talking about different years, the midterm years and the electorate differs when you have a national election, the full weight of the party machinery the radically is wed up democrats who scre elections in ohio comes to the fact that you have had democrats on ground or months is showing up with hillary clinton because her people have been in the field knocking on doors.

that is showing up there. you may talk to david pepper, the chairman, later, but they have been down in the dumps for a long time. he is like the only democratic governor in 30 years in the state and only served one term. to have a tough time recruiting good candidates to run for statewide office. the gubernatorial government in 2014 was an epic disaster and they are still reeling from that. they're having a tough time recruiting candidates for 2018. host: steve calling from columbus, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a question. if the president of the united states during the inauguration has to switch uphold the constitution -- has to swear to uphold the constitution, many of the things donald trump has said throughout this campaign have made me question whether he would uphold the constitution,

so my question is, how could we ever consider collecting such a person? -- electing such a person? host: go ahead, henry. guest: [laughter] therefore the present to 45% of the people shows they are considering electing him, despite his weaknesses, sure, but i am not the best person to answer that. you would have to go to rallies, evidence to talk to voters and they feel that donald trump gets them and they recognize aims about him the other undesirable and he says things that are mean and inappropriate, but they are still voting for him in spite of that because they feel he is going to shake up the system in a way that hillary clinton will not. and then you talk to other more mainstream republicans, supporting donald trump and their issue is the supreme court. donald trump is unpredictable and they feel they have a 75% to 85% chance of donald trump

picking conservative justices and with hillary clinton, they feel the chances 0%. that is the thought process i hear from republicans i talk to. host: bob is calling from tennessee. can one. caller: yes, ma'am, thank you for taking my call. what it is. we are tired of what has been going on. that is why we are voting for trump. we are tired of liberalism, murder, lawlessness, all of the coverups. can i say one last thing? democrat christians, why won't you get on the right side of god and support not murdering them babies? are sidinguals, you with the devil, evilness. host: how are social issues like that playing in ohio in the presidential and senate races? not big. you hear the abortion issue

mentioned by a lot of mainstream republicans that i mentioned previously, who are worried about the makeup of the supreme court, but donald trump is not oddking -- that is an caller because he is not speaking to that interest rate in cleveland, donald trump talked about supporting lgbtq issues and people. he is not than the lot to back that up in terms of policy announcement, but donald trump is not that tried into an it comes to social issues. he has talked openly about being pro-choice. that to me is not factoring into the trunk coalition. host: we are talking with henry gomez, the chief political reporter from cleveland.com. can you talk about the urban versus rural divide in the state? about half of the voters in cal ceaseided nine and other hapless but that over

counties.ing 79 how does that play out in the senate and presidential race now? guest: we talk about there being for our five ohio's -- four or five ohio's, the east, south west, andral, north the campaign is spot on the big also encompassed the big media markets. hillary clinton is expending a lot of time in columbus, cleveland and lesser in cincinnati because those are the three major urban areas that will drive the share of the democratic vote, election day. whereas donald trump and mike pence, their strategy has been different. they're hitting the big cities to get media coverage. last night, donald trump campaigned in geneva, ohio, about one hour east of cleveland, but no presidential

candidate has visited there since jfk in 1960. it is a small county. fou years ago by doubler digits. if donald trump would flick that, it would not necessarily be the difference maker. mike pence the other day ohio,gned in ashland, republican territory. must've been a visit to make sure you get out to vote because noald trump and mike pence passion is in the world of pain right now, so they are focusing on more traditional republican base areas or democratic -- or blue-collar areas where they can chip away and haley clinton is focused on the larger areas where they can drive the vote. host: david is calling in from st. joseph, missouri. good morning. caller: good morning. i am sick of these marxist democrats and their mouthpieces in the media.

i fought for this country. my brothers and sisters but for this country and we are constantly he disrespected by you and put down because we dare to fight for what this country is all about. all you guys care about are blackthugs from the lives movement because they think they're entitled, no matter what race they are, and they want to promote the murder of unborn children are most god-awful reasons. i am just saying that even if others,ses,, and many will never surrender to marxist democrats. i did not pledge my life the way to see if illinois for greed, corruption and evil. host: henry, is that the sentiment you here on the ground in ohio? guest: not so much.

i have read stories about trump supporters at term for rallies expecting -- express and thoughts like that. there are questions of whether --ers will accept hillary's except the outcome of the election. that is the base of whether trouble except the election, but i think a lot of what the caller said is unfortunate and dangers rhetoric. i'm saddened to hear some of the hatefulness in his remarks. i am proud of my country, too. i'm a journalist and work every day great i am proud of what i do. it is sought to her that rhetoric and discourse, but we are hearing it a lot in this election. host: the later on, we will have the state republican chairman on matt borges on, but before, from your perspective, how has the rges and hiseen bo announcement that he is supporting donald trump, splitting from his previous

support for governor kasich, how race?t resonated in the guest: from an organization standpoint, not helpful, but a lot of the rank-and-file republicans have moved on and agreed to support donald trump. there was some unhappiness that matt borges was taking a public stance, not against trump, but coming out publicly and saying when he disagreed with donald trump. he talked with me in an interview that got under some of the republicans its games about the advice he given to donald trump. he waited rise donald trump not to have too harsh rhetoric when he comes to higher because ohioans do not want that. some of the others were not happy that he went public with tot, but what it did was create more dramatic headlines for the trump campaign. i do not know what they thought was helpful about going public with this feud there were having with matt borges because it promoted in ongoing storyline

that they are disorganized, that republicans in ohio to not like them, and the only thing i can think of is that it feeds into this narrative of what they're building that this system has been rigged against them, look no further than matt borges, john kasich successor, saying things that are dispatching about the trump campaign. that shows you how great the system is. it is not about the system, the people. it fits into that but i do think the headlines are ultimately helpful. host: mary calling in from potomac, maryland. you are on with henry gomez of cleveland.com. caller:? hello host: -- caller: hello? host: go ahead. caller: i am calling to say that donald trump is only for donald trump. donald trump has no plans, agenda to do anything for the american people besides even if he does proposed something, he is so terribly disliked by both proposeshat nothing he

has a chance of getting through, all he is doing telling uss just what is wrong with the system. host: let's give henry gomez a chance to respond. that this certainly one sentiment we hear from people not supporting donald trump. if he does get elected president, i think the electoral protests are not looking good, but if he is elected president in working with the republican congress, which of donald trump wins, he is working with a republican congress, i think he will be able to enact a lot of what he says he wants to do. there are things that he wants to do that a lot of republicans of being comfortable with in terms of lobbying reform and campaign finance reform and that's what a thing. host: don is calling.

caller: how are you doing? host: we only have a few seconds left. caller: i am a veteran and i heard the last caller. i think america cannot afford trip. trump has a contract on black americans. sorry about that trumpeters. guest: we deal with a lot of that. as i said earlier, i have been really impressed with the back-and-forth, we are polite and expressive and their opinions. host: henry gomez. we appreciate you joining us today. guest: thank you. host: we will be joined by the top state democratic party official, democratic state chairman david pepper to talk

about the race later on, we will head to columbus to round out our discussion with state republican party matt borges. first, ohio republican senator rob portman and his opponent held three debates. here are both of their closing arguments from their 35 debate. >> you see a real contrast tonight. he does not want to talk about his record. i would not want to talk about his record either. yes no real roadmap for the future. that is true. i talk about my independent voice for ohio. working across the aisle and getting things done. i am proud of that. i go to washington dc to represent the united states senate, taking with me the ohio values i learned growing up. when i was a kid, i was living

here in cleveland, ohio. updad decided to give it all and took a big risk and he took us back to cincinnati, ohio, his hometown. he gave up his health care. the house. could not get enough money to start the business. they had to go to my monopod -- mom's uncle. my mom was the bookkeeper. they persevered through hard work, sacrifice and an ethical approach to business to find their niche. i work to there. my brother worked there. my sister worked there. recently, i ran into a guy i have known almost my whole life. -- click senator portman, you need to wrap it up.

? peoplent to talk to the of ohio. there is a choice. born with awho was silver spawn in his mouth. he has spent his life looking down for people like him. the wall street bankers. story.a different i spend my life fighting for working people. that is why i oppose nafta. that is why i supported the auto rescue. raising thepposed retirement age in voucherizing medicare. he wants to raise the retirement age. he wants to privatize your social security. in terms of working people, he is opposed to raising the minimum wage. he voted to strip overtime pay for 6 million of you. 6 million of americans laws overpay because of this man.

i am fighting for you. i believe in working people. as senator bob portman represents everything you do not like. ultimate insider. he is taking care of those who are already well-to-do and i want to take care of regular, working ohioans, those who work for a living. cincinnating us from is david pepper, chairman of the ohio democratic party. he is here to take that to the teen our discussion about the battleground state in ohio. -- he is here to continue our discussion about the battleground state in ohio. good morning. guest: good morning. host: thank you for joining us. let's start talking about the presidential race. beenasn't hillary clinton able to get more of the separation from republican

donald trump in the state so far in your view? ohio, we view is in are always pretty close and that is not surprise to us. that is was we prepare for. it has been pretty consistent, we are stated demographically pretty tight. most people at this point are sticking with their parties. it is a close race. we expected. if you win ohio by four or five points, you route to your opponent. the pointed discloses not surprising. host: how is it different from other rust belt states where web seeing hillary clinton take the lead -- where we have seen hillary clinton take the lead? i do: if you look around, not want to claim to be an expert on every state, the polling to me looks like in pennsylvania, you look to have a bigger democratic margin. in michigan, and little better.

indiana going the other way. it seems like most days are in line. a couple of new swing states, great to see, searches bank -- surges for democrats. a lot of states in line. you expect ohio to be close. , it is aboutohio the ground game. who is more organized? who is going to get them out? that is how you win ohio knowing it will be a close states. what were seeing is in line with that. host: early voting is underway in ohio. tell us what you learned so far from the early voting numbers you have seen. guest: so far, we feel pretty good -- things are pretty much in line compared to 2012. sadly, the republicans successfully gotten rid of one week of early voting.

we suited them to stop it. it was clear they were doing it to target democrats, african-americans. for-afford tide, the supreme court cannot hear our case. court tiem the supreme could not hear our case. we are seeing higher returns, about 20% higher compared to the first 10 days in 2012 compared to the first 10 days this year, we are seeing really good numbers in some parts of the state. we have the first weekend of in person and then another weekend and that is when we see a surge of votes. one of the interesting trends -- one of the worries if you are in the donald trump campaigning in ohio is some of the suburban large republican counties has never warmed up to him not to the way they warmed up to mitt romney.

you have to when those counties if you're donald trump by big ohio.s if you are to win in warming county, you are seeing democrat votes up 50%, 60%. your see republicans not surge by as many. some of the softness for donald trump end of republican counties he has to win. a lot is probably independent republican women who are not impressed by what he has said. host: where talking with ohio democratic party leader david pepper as we go to your discussion about the battleground state of ohio. we have a line for ohio residents. -- others can call ilene is calling. good morning. caller: good morning. -- i was born and raised in

toledo, ohio. i was one of the people taken off the polls. that put a number for us to check. i was taken off the polls. the only -- the other thing i was concerned about is the district lines. in toledo, when they redistricted, they split us into two or three. those are my comments. host: go ahead. appreciate her bringing both of those issues. we had a secretary of state committed to making voting harder for years. ohio is is badly gerrymandered as in state. we are about a 50-50 state. we havemost guaranteed a congressional majority for republicans. counties have been split into multiple pieces.

the districts are absurd when you look at their shape. very goodh, we have candidates challenging republicans in the gerrymandered districts. it is an uphill battle. john houston, secretary of state, and others let a process to gerrymander ohio. worse than any time in ohio's history. to ohio insult democracy. on the second piece, same topic. we have gone to court and succeeded in showing that our secretary of state, to her point , for the last six years, he has been purging registered voters from the voting rolls in ohio. weret 2 million people purged. some of those people had passed away or moved, but many others were purged. the thing that trigger them was they voted in frequently. peopleed many, many because they had not voted in recent years.

the sixth circuit federal court ruled he had violated federal law for years. we are in the process -- we were in the process of trying to reregister many of the voters. like the woman who asked the question found out in other ways. up in thers can show next couple weeks and vote provisionally if they have now left their county, their vote count. we were hoping that will be fully restored. bottom line, we have seen terrible attacks on voting rights by the secretary of state and the republican legislature. i have met women and men who like to call -- who have been upset to learn the secretary of state decide to somehow he could proactively knock them off the voting rolls. we are working hard to make sure they get to vote. some votes lost. host: sorry for interrupting area in little bit more from the

story -- interrupting. a little bit more from a story. it said the ruling -- after the board of friday, elections not to reject absentee ballot request because soma wasn't a register vote as they awaited further guidance. is said purged voters will not debate to vote -- it said purged voters will not bend to vote by mail. how big of an impact will that have? guest: it is a big impact. i got word from a county before we got on of several military voters overseas who john houston purged and and now these people serving our country, they are out of the country, they cannot vote. he purged them. stonewalled, the court found his process violated

federal law for years. john houston stonewalled. resolved in the last couple weeks. and it is leaving like the military overseas, there votes are not going to count. he has a lot of answering to do. i do not want to voters to be confused. vote early and person. go vote on election day. if you were purged and they tell you that if you live in the county where you originally register, you get the vote provisionally. that is the good news. some groups took john houston to court and after a long battle showed hid violated federal law. news is he fought for so long, it was late in the game. there are questions. nobody should not show up.

if you were purged, as long as you are the county were your vote should count. by voting, you get yourself back registered. the whole process has been terrible. it has left a of people with questions. to have 2 members of our military overseas to be told john houston and they should not be voters and if they were purged and because they cannot vote here in person, that would have to vote by absentee, now they cannot vote at all. that is wrong. that is part of the problem. host: where talking with the david pepper, chairman of the ohio democratic party. we have jim calling from ohio. good morning, jim. caller: good morning. i am glad i was able to finally get through. i am 68 years old. i was in the vietnam era.

been politically alert my entire life, but never so much as i am right now. this is insanity. i talk to people, the main reason they seem to support donald trump is because he is not a politician. i said, really? is the problem we have with our politicians. rich, powerful businessmen controlling our political process. the last thing we need is more powerful, rich money in the political system. horse if i ever saw one. he is a con man. he wants control the washington, d.c. so we can little -- so we can eliminate the hassle of dealing with politicians. he can control with more power and vigor at the top. he is very vague on anything he says. he tells stories that of fence people. -- offends people.

he acts like a childish, rich, brett., -- host: is that the sentiment you are hearing? commentsappreciate his . i think the donald trump is a deeply troubling candidate for frankly any political office. for some of the reasons that were just explained. it is hard to know where to start. the idea of him being in charge of the nuclear arsenal is probably the scariest i can imagine. his record in business, if he were to run the country like he has run his business, the weather he has treated workers were sent jobs overseas or not pay taxes, you name it. i would not want him in charge of a good, legitimate business. and the way he has run his campaign, he has been very deceitful. he started off saying wages were too high.

now he is trying to change that. i will not trust his new answer. even today, he apparently has been telling his supporters and he has raised a lot of money from every -- from every day ohioans because he said he would triple match whatever contribution they ever made. it turns out he is not matched it. he is scamming people to give money to his campaign and has not matched the dollar. i think hillary clinton is far more prepared. she will bring our country together. she knows what it takes to build a strong economy. it starts with a strong middle class. it does not stop the kind of trickle-down economics. donald trump would take the top that has always failed our country. look at the bush recession. donald trump would put it on steroids.

thingsall of the crazy guess been saying, the policies he is lend out what not move is in the right direction. is the personn who will lead us in the right direction. are 28 counties in ohio were both hillary clinton and donald trump won their respective primaries. where does hillary clinton need to do well in order to win the state? guest: thank you for your question. the most basic way you win ohio is reenter giants the obama coalition -- re-energize the obama coalition that won for him. hamilton county, frankly county, akron,a county, youngstown, dayton, you have to do very well in those counties. you have to build up big numbers. we are seeing that.

i mentioned franklin county, the second biggest city. we are seeing early voting through the roof. 40% ahead of where it was four years ago. every 1200 democrats who show it to vote in franklin county, we are seeing 300 republicans. we are running the big numbers. we are expecting big numbers from in person early voting like cuyahoga county. you have to do very well in those big counties. this where i think henry clinton has a chance to do better than reconstitute the obama coalition, i mentioned before warren county. there is delaware county. large republican suburban counties. if you are republican, you have to run up the score by a huge amount to overcome how we will doing the counties i named. they are now warm got to donald trump. he will certainly win them but

now it is looking like he is struggling to connect with a lot of the voters, particularly women, independent women, republican women, who for obvious rim and -- reasons are not impressed about what he said about women. he fails to run the big numbers in those counties, if we lower the margin of victory versus how rummy or mccain did, that is the other way we win. we reconstitute the obama coalition. more votes andy these suburban areas than we have in the past. clears hillary clinton's path. host: a lot of callers waiting to ask questions including anthony from troy, ohio. good morning. caller: i have a comment and a glad-- i'mat you're leading the party. doing a great job.

i have been present each of the last as a credentialed poll observable in montgomery county. i can report firsthand seeing lots of folks, eager folks, many of them democrats to bring miami county home for hillary. aboutly, i wanted to talk -- two years from now, who do you believe are going to be the democrats? i assume yourself. tim ryan that will be challenging a very fractured republican party. i know that john houston is fighting to run for statewide office again, maybe a higher office. we have an opportunity, finally, to really put forth our great candidates like yourself and control sotatewide we can redraw those horrible lines which you were speaking of theier and get rid of

gerrymander of the republicans though we have to have people in control. maybe turner as well some good think about that on november 9 and do a good job across these counties. host: let's give david pepper a chance to respond. you proves he ran a four ohio auditor and attorney general. might there be more runs in your future? 2018. not in i am chair through 2018. i will be working hard to make sure we win, but i will not be the candidate. i will be the one hopefully putting together the infrastructure. i really appreciate the work in montgomery county. john today, we will have lewis in dayton as part of an early vote rally. we're honored he is coming. i think it is around 2:00. in dayton. governor strickland and some

others. 2018 is very important. our party has been rebuilding to build not just for 2016, but 2018. country, our democratic parties have gotten energized for the presidential election, but two years later, we had little infrastructure. building for 2018. we think the republican candidates, and we talked about one. that was literally spent their time doing things like suppressing the vote, attacking voters, going after planned parenthood. all of these really bad things. normally, they have gone to court and lost. it is not an impressive group run for the republican side. here are some of the names of people thinking about running in ohio. some of them cannot think about it because of their are in other jobs. tim ryan. who did great work

on around auto recovery. richard, the former attorney general. he cannot be political right now but his name is coming up. a former treasurer. he ran a really good rates. -- race. even jay williams, a former mayor. he is thinking of coming back. we have great candidates down ticket for secretary of state, attorney general. inwill have a good team 2018. our goal is to take everything we built in this election and preserve is so we have an infrastructure to get the vote out. will be important getting sherrod brown reelected. we will win the senate this year and we will have to preserve to measure we reelect our great senator. host: market is calling. you are on with david pepper. caller: good morning and thanks

for the opportunity. , would like to ask mr. pepper why hillary and robbie luke is letting the nra for the last two months run these blistering ads? they are nothing but lies. that is why she is down in the polls. she had about a six lead until they started running these ads. she willfigure out why not run in added defending blisteringinst these nra allies. sherrod blistering nra allies. sherrod brown gets elected in ohio, he defeated incumbent and held off a very popular josh mandel because when the nra starts on their lies, he is on tv kicking them in the face. if hillary would run in nra ad look in the camera, tell suburban women she does not want

to take guns, nobody is taking any law-abiding citizens' guns, she was again for-seven points. host: let's let david respond. caller: thank you for your question. i am not seeing those ads. i know they are out there. we have seen it from donald trump. hillary lies to the national audience bison saying she will get rid of the second amendment. i can just made it clear she supports the second amendment. she supports universal background checks. getting guns out of the hands of terrorists on the no-fly list. you are right. they are false attacks. they are scare tactics. i cannot speak to their communication strategy. in the last couple of days in some really seeing powerful advertising from the clinton campaign. where the voices morgan

freeman and it is really powerful. the ad from dr. khan about his son and his family is powerful. i am not sure about what they are doing in response to that. one thing i would say is, i do not think she is down in the polls. i think it is pretty much tied. that is what you would expect here. in a tight situation, the winner is the better ground again. we have a robust ground game. we have thousands of volunteers. we have been building our ground game since last october. we started building it before we knew who would win the primary. trump does not have much of a ground game. you will probably talk about this, he is had a terrible relation with governor kasich. he of the republican party have been in public feuds for months. when i looked at truck headquarters, -- trump

headquarters, some of them looked lifeless. you name it. whether registering voters and getting our voters activated. they have really been doing nothing. they have rallies. i do not think they register voters and rallies. there are 800,000 newly registered ohioans. they are mostly young and from big cities. you are starting to see the organizational mismatch play out in terms of registration and other outputs for host: chairman pepper, to the senate race that is going on but wayne rob portman -- between rob portman and history live. -- ted strickland. rates has beener affecting the campaign and senator portman has been trying to use that. in a tweet he said insurance premiums on exchange have nearly

doubled since the president's health law took effect. kate upton about this in a issues are affecting the senate race? -- it washink ohio talked about. -- can you talk about how this and other issues are affecting the senate race? 800,000 newlyave people insured. if portman is attacking the affordable care act, he is attacking governor kasich who did medicare expansion. one of the reasons rates will not go up here at high were they did medicare expansion, governor kasich did the right thing. children are almost entirely insured in ohio thanks to the affordable care act. it may make for good talking points at republican dinners, but the truth is in ohio, the affordable care act has been very successful in the recent

story about the hikes, they need to be soft. wrote they will not affect because the governor did expansion which protects against increase from us everybody. -- and you do that and nothing happens, like we have a vacancy on the supreme court, most ohio have to go to work everyday and do their job, and people like rob portman refuse to do their job and won't have a hearing for nominee.ident's disrespectful for the president and the process, the onstitution and their oath to uphold the constitution. so the affordable care act is a people example, if rolled up their sleeves and decided, let's keep the -- you

know, it's greatly increased coverage all over this country, difference, but there are issues with cost, common-sense solutions to solve them. if people would put party aside and take those up, we could solve it. nothing, but obstruction of senate in the house for years, as mitch mcconnell said, doing everything to stop the president every turn. because of that, we're not solving problems and i think people could solve if they wanted to. as far as the senate race, this perfect example of citizens united. rob portman is basically more outside money than any senator in the country, the tab is at $60 more, the koch brothers spent more than any other state. caller's evious question, the nra spent more ted strickland than any candidate in the country combined. rob portman, because of outside on his behalf went from significant deficit to a lead, ut it is a perfect example of

how we have to get rid of citizens united because this is a campaign of billionaires from outside ohio senate seat for someone who wasn't that well known going into the race there ted ill a path for strickland. we have to lift turnout and people need to, democrats need consolidate around ted strickland, he fought as hard as nyone could of during a recession he didn't cause. it was caused from wall street and washington. brothers tried to blame the recession on him, like it columbus.n one poll has him within 8 to 10 can lift turnout higher through the ground game, there is a path for him to win. reason he's behind is because citizens united allowed the koch brothers to buy -- good morning, dominic. caller: good morning.

calling to give a general statement. i'm a millennial and ohio obviously, and i think it is completely unfortunate the to choose we have from in the first place and our at all.s -- candidates and i think that ultimately it's america to tant for kind of realize where this country is going. because she lary has experience, she has a plan support er policies, i her in that aspect and i don't has ve that donald trump given any affirmation to any sort of plan or direction he's going to go. very open-minded person and just the things he's said and he really hasn't said has really just really pointed toward hillary. i just hope that people realize she is for the betterment of our country and i believe trump will put us back.

think about that, so that was what i had to say. thank you. thank you. little piece of trivia, bell highest point in ohio, thank you for your call from there. resort down the street o. her point, two things. one, i think for millennials tis clear hillary clinton is starting to pull away with millennials. this is important. think we want a country millennials are excited about the direction it is moving in. hope is they themselves start to get involved the last couple weeks. group of people registered newly in ohio over he last eight months were millennials, people under 30. we're glad to see that. around they are rallying hillary clinton because she's the one who will deal with ollege affordability and a lot of important issues like equal pay to social issues like, you know, equality, sexual

orientation, you name it, she's line with where donald trump would take the country. think about it for a moment, his education is trump university, essentially was a scam. he wants to make strong education from pre-k to college and also make it affordable. let me say one other things, though, one of the biggest concerns about this election, motivates me everyday. millennials, people who are older like myself, we think this is the abnormal election we've ever seen. and i keep saying millennials first-time voters this, is not normal. you normally never see a troubling and disturbing and mason-in-lawing donald trump. millennials have said, mr. pepper, for us, it is normal. people who are 18 have watched people attack citizenship since they were about 12 years old. this ave seen so much of dark and divisive stuff for a number of years.

is if we don't win his election decisively, the terrible precedent will start to become normal in politics. most importantis for me in this election, make sure there is such a clear ohio, by having blue blue georgia, closer blue texas raceszona, let's win some people don't think we will win o we can show that in fact the american people don't consider what donald trump has been doing ormal, millennials will see this is not how our elections normally look. y hope is if we win in the right way november 8, we can show that what donald trump did touch with both republicans, independents and emocrats across the country hopefully in the future next time someone like donald trump even has the backbone to say, we will not do we did in, last time that, his name was donald trump and it was a disaster at the

ballot box. y hope is to get this place back to normal so that young people, like millennials and younger, actually see a politics that is better in the future than the one they are see thanksgiving year. host: talking to chairman david pepper, as we continue our look battleground state of ohio. we have a line just for ohio residents, please call 202-748-8000 and all other call 202-748-8001. getting to the issue of according to the "washington post" today, paul kane writes democrats made an early decision to hold on to most of their campaign cash for final weeks of the campaign in many senate races across the hoping liberal super pac allies would help out whenever and wherever they could. republicans calculated that given the headwind their ncumbence with donald trump emergence as presidential

nominee, they needed to drain heir party's treasury earlier than usual, that crucial decision leaves state gop remarkably reliant on late cash from republican-leaning super pacs law they cannot coordinate with. seen this ve you influx of outside spending? does the democratic party have funds left to combat that? yeah. we near good shape, we raise money very early as a party. we were able to build a ground game, even before the primary was over, as i explained. have the resources, it will take to deliver victory. i mentioned oint, it earlier, the outside spending brotherss like the koch and others has been out of control and it is, you know, our pushing hard to

to have ted strickland come back and win. ohio is the best case stud tow united. of citizens our candidate was better known, very well respected, then the incumbent, rob portman. ted strickland was up six or ine points and citizens united allowed koch brothers to say a year and a half ago, we like rob and what he's done for us, trade deals and other things hat are against what most ohio citizens believe in. but they were able to decide, e're going to park tens of millions in the state of ohio and basically buy a senate seat. voters, but for ourselves and the politicians we believe in. essentially a year and a half, running attackads against ted strickland, blaming him for the recession, a ridiculous claim. that has been the most important factor in the senate race. starting to say, there was microtargeting done by that.ortman this, and none of that made much of a

difference, the big difference s the outside millions of dollars that groups from out of ohio have been spending in ohio the messaging e and create a false narrative and very obvious to any ohio voters. it's had an impact and my hope election, we actually have some real reform, away andns united goes we don't have a situation where senate seats reflect more what utside billionaires want than what the citizens of the state want. host: debra from milford center, ohio. good morning, debra. caller: good morning. couple comments and a couple questions. talk about trump university, clinton t the university? what about clinton foundation? i'm a democrat and yes, you have plenty of money. what about the lawsuit fraud for that has been set ohio?to go to court in

i want to know why the democrats nominated a criminal? ahead, david pepper. guest: obviously i don't agree with those statements, i her passion, but guess is undation, i what she's referring to. i think the clinton foundation around amazing things the world for years. procter and i, gamble, clinton foundation family necessary america from thirst, to the tune f millions of people were helped. it's done amazing things. will inton had said they disassociate from it when clinton wins. when people compare trump and the clinton foundation tis not apples to apples comparison. a scam.iversity was trump university took to rehard-working americans deliver a false product.

it told them they would have a help them and ld clearly didn't. the trump foundation looks to be using money raised through -- pretend to be charity things like, you know, portraits of donald trump, company lawsuits his got into, giving out political contributions in florida, for to an attorney general who was looking into trump university. apples.is not apples to one of the first callers said, ou look closely over the 40 years or 50 years of trump be nothing business, you have a lot of pattern, false promises, a lot of deeds that most business leaders would never do, and then a lot, so nconsistent with current rhetoric, his people have been talking about steel workers, but china to d steel from build his buildings. he talks about work going polish , he brought in workers illegal to build

newdation of trump tower in york city. he brought in foreign workers and broke the law there. status for them to pay them less. donald trump has spent years money by doing, either getting real close to the cases crossing it. i think that is one reason why in the end, hillary clinton of democrats, se she will win because a lot of independents and a lot of taken a look at what he's had to say and taking theok at what he's done and idea that he would be in the white house, i think scares a lot of people. think that despite what the caller said, comparison is a very good one. look at e the issue, hillary clinton's 30 years of public service versus donald business years of practices, it is not even close. host: rick, another caller from calling. you are on with david pepper, chairman.c state party

caller: speaking to me? host: go ahead, rick, go ahead. caller: okay, thank you. resident ofhe proud ohio, as you know, the first and state of tol of the ohio. travel on a regular basis through a few counties in the southern part of ohio. to you, be familiar athens, hinton, ross, high tlt claremont, brown, etc, i see predominantly signs for the yards.p in i see very, very few signs for if we just ton, so went by sign count, it would ppear that trump would be winning those counties. no doubt about it, we have two most of us just are troubled with nmy case, i'm of g to vote for the lesser two evils, i don't think he is a lot tanding candidate,

of baggage, same as hillary does. again, it is lesser of two evils for me. so one, i'd like for you to comment upon what your reading the southern counties as opposed to big three metropolis columbus and cleveland. econd comment, just observation, i'm suppose someone would say i'm revolutionary and pick up my musket, i don't even own a gun. i cannot help but wonder if our founding fathers were able to be esurrected and one of them was to run in this election, if they upon as a " looked "nutcase," respectfully. host: i want to give david a quickly. respond go ahead, david. guest: thank you for the question. you see anecdotal, some places with a lot of trump yard signs. i drive around the state and the

counties that the gentleman mentioned, i have great of people ith a lot in the counties. a lot of trump signs, a lot of reflects gns, different county parties and a lot of people with both signs to hear not surprised what he's saying about sort of where the signs are. counter and ant to i respect the caller's call and his opinion, like i do all your callers. i don't think there is a choice of lesser of two evils, i elieve hillary clinton is a wonderful candidate. not everyone agrees with that, i don't agree with that framing. more prepared to be president in history than hillary clinton, despite a lot attacks over 30 or 40 years, she stuck with it, done great public service all the way through, and i think donald trump is honestly, some won't least hear this, qualified and competent person we've ever seen run for era.dent in the modern the idea, almost everyday, whether it is his strange with putin, the fact

he dismisses intelligence of him key giving information as to whether or not to do things, such as go to war, dismisses them out right. someone i think is nowhere near caliber of someone who should be anywhere near the white house. bill -- weville to leave it there, david pepper, chairman of the ohio democratic party. thank you for joining us today. guest: thanks for having me, i enjoyed it. host: we'll continue our iscussion about the battleground state of ohio with the republican state party matt borges, coming up next. first, yesterday donald trump made two stop necessary ohio, rally in springfield, here is part of his remarks efore the crowd at champion center expo. donald trump: trade deficit the world is down nearly $800 billion a year. the living through greatest job steps in the

history of the world. think of it, that's so true. greatest job theft in the history of the world. allowed to ans have happen to this area, but to all country.our nafta, tpp, they want to disaster. crowd booing] donald trump: ohio has lost one jobs since nafta, signed by bill clinton and supported hillary. by remember, every time you see a clothes factory, wiped out ohio, it was essentially caused by the kaued by, it was nafta, clintons. why? allowed, ke that was we've lost 70,000 factories. one.k of that 70. i tell everybody, it is a typo,

70,000.e it is. we've lost 70,000 factories entered the world trade organization, another bill disaster.ry-backed just this year, eaton laidration in ohio closed, off 152 workers and moved their mexico. you've had many, i could name them all day long. contract, if a company wants to fire workers, move to other countrys and ship products back to the united a 35% tariffll put on those products. [cheers and applause] onald trump: and folks, just in case have you any questions, when that happens, you are not losing your companies anymore. if you do, at least the country okay.make a lot of money,

we will immediately begin nafta, and if we don't get the deal we want, right now it is a one-way we lose our jobs, we lose our companies, we lose we lose our cash. i always say, they get the cash, the get the jobs, they get companies, we get the drugs, we et the unemployment, that is what we get, we get nothing. we get less than nothing. nafta, and getate a much better deal for our workers, if we can't renegotiate it properly, we're going to get a better deal for workers and we our companies because cannot continue to be the people people.tupid we can't. we can't. >> announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: joining frus columbus, hio, is matt borges, the chairman of the ohio republican party. he's here as we wrap up our look the battleground state of

ohio and how the presidential there are nate race playing out. chairman borges, thank you for us.ing guest: good morning, how are you? host: i'm good. donald trump was back in ohio yesterday. we saw some of his remarks just notes ine hit the right his visit there? guest: he had big crowds, big trying to finish strong. we're in the middle of early voting in ohio, thanks to we have n leadership, early voting in the state. every single democrat in the voted against e the creation of early voting, when it was created in ohio. for e have the opportunity folks to vote early and many, many thousands of votes are being cast everyday. so, it is everyday is election day and so on any given day, you're talking to people making up their minds and is ing their votes, so it important to spend a lot of time here, as the candidate has. each candidate has, not just mr.

governor pence safe after d he was their plane had skidded off the last night in a scary accident, everyone seems to be okay from that experience. spending time in ohio, as you well know, no republican has to the white house without carrying ohio. t is critical this year to put ohio in that electoral math. we want to put a republican back in the white house. said you yourself have will be voting for donald trump, but you had a break from the in the past, according to the washington examiner, it from the ere cut off trump campaign after previously criticizing the billionaire's amid the release of an audio tape where trump made sexually explicit comments about women. i spoke with mr. trump on he's disappointed

in matt's duplicity said the ohio or of trump's campaign operation in a letter, gop official, he also aid that you have need for publicity. how is your relationship with now?trump campaign stand guest: it's no different. i didn't spend five seconds some staffert what put in a letter. we've been working for four of 2012, appointment in that campaign and the failure to deliver aign ohio. we've been working at the state 2013, was ot there in honored to be elected chairman and got to work on doing the things we needed to do to carry ohio in the next presidential cycle. we're prepared to do that, million new registered republicans in this state, working hard to make sure we improve our performance in the period, mitt romney

won election day in ohio in 2012, but because of the disadvantage in the early voting period, barack obama won ohio's 18 electoral votes. was disappointing to us, all the things we've done, all and money we had raised, the plans and coordination that has gone into sure we deliver electoral changed ne of that because of the musings of a staffer. i could care less about it and we'll continue to do the job the ohio republican party has to do. host: has the party been able to oordinate with mr. trump's operation there in ohio? guest: look, we never broke tride, even more of their campaign staff moved into our building. they had campaign staff work nothing our headquarters, more moved in since. topic ort of nonsensical to even cover, you know, i look

t it this way, i have a five year old, i'm used to tantrums, her anyway and we move on and that is exactly what we're sure that we king carry ohio, not just for our deliverand make sure we ohio's 18 electoral votes, but also we have a republican for the united states senate, best senator in the united states in rob portman, win, we've been helping and we endorsed a year and a half ago, we've been him and his -- best campaign in the country. e need to make sure that we contribute our republican to a republican majority in the united states senate. going to do our share, win up and down the ballot this year. party is strong, continues to be as strong as its ever been and we're the type of want on your side helping you get across the line. matt borges, to chairman of the ohio republican

party. we have a line just for ohio.nts of 202-748-80 202-748-8000, if you live in the state. people in all other regions, call 202-748-8001. beverly is calling from toledo, ohio. you are on with matt borges. good morning. caller: good morning. trump like to know how ould keep his business and our country's interests separate on day?iven they have to create a whole new can h board as far as i tell which calls are coming in or him for business and then our line would be for country? guest: thank you, beverly. i appreciate the question. i think mr. trump addressed that early in his campaign. he will turn over the operation his business to his children,

who along the campaign trail, a chance nd we've had to hear from all impressive ndividuals and he would turn that operation over to them. you can contrast that to what clintons.ith the look at the clinton fund and the ay they had dealings with the secretary of state and department of state when hillary clinton was secretary of state. revelations coming out with shady figures, guys like doug making sure that decisions of the department of state were who made to favor people would pay bill clinton money to his ve speeches for for-profit business and of course making sure decisions that would ade benefit contributions directly to the clinton global fund. being rewarded with government jobs and appointments. was appointed who to an economic position for northern ireland. i mean these people just have no

takes tanding of what it to separate their business from their government service. hey think it all is just there to enrich them and this is how we clintons have been since were introduced to them 25 years ago this, is what americans are could d tired of, why i ot possibly abide a clinton victory this year and putting them back in the white house. i don't want anything to do with that, it is why i came out on sunday and said in fact that i'm to cast a vote on election day for donald trump. host: talk about the ground ame, a report from the hill says that hillary clinton's built ntial campaign has a field team in swing states across the country larger than a giving huge ade advantage over republican donald trump on election day, what is looking liked game in the buckeye state? guest: we've been fortune aught have investment and input

from day 1 and earlier really we've ever had before. rnc staffers d 50 on the ground early on, we months ago a few and continue to add that, since then, this program was about up full time volunteers and others and so there -- just had past saturday we thousands of people across the state, hundreds here in columbus get the message out, knock on doors, rob portman's campaign broke what we is single-day record of voter contact in the state for 161,000 voters actually contacted, over 5 million voter contacts for the entire year. again, it is something ohio republicans do "extreme well.ver"ly effectively we don't rely on one campaign to put infrastructure in place. victory programs have opinion strong and well run and very proud of the work that is and we'll continue to

execute those programs and run through the tape, run through finish line and i have always said, i hope the democrats believe they have a advantage over us out there in the field because as long as they believe that and as long as complaisant, we will do what we need to do to contact voters and continue to win as we do very, very well in ohio. ohio, on o from lema, the line with matt borges. good morning. caller: hi. matt. guest: hi, carlo. caller: i'm here in allen will take, i you think easily. i'm actually sure that you're not going to be able to say that as you did at the that ohio is some kind of bell weather and i would like to the fact that old, too emained too white and too uneducated. noncollege educated, as the

rest of the country has changed around us. north carolina will become the new -- have the to have at ohio used and i'm a registered republican, but i haven't voted republican ages and i certainly can't vote for trump. i heard the original story was that you had trump sign in your yard and your wife tore it out. carlo, let matt borges respond. guest: the last part thaf story accurate, just so you know. also, point out that your question, thanks for your i appreciate it. i hope you are having a lovely you have a great organization there in keith chair, hello, keith, if you are watching. nyway, ohio is always going to be a bell weather state and what i saw, an article written in the i thought imes" that

was foolish and insulting was i hink the clinton campaign trying to get their spin out here and trying to pre-excuse why they were going to lose afterall, if you read that article, and if you listen to what unfortunately say because he seems to have believed it, too, too old and hite, too dumb to vote for a democrat years ey did four whole ago. ohio is a micro-cosm of the in so many different way necessary terms of having agriculture, e, urban, suburban voters, manufacturing and it is economic diversity is in the el probably here is the o, other thing we've done in ohio, very different from what we've places.other

republican leadership in ohio has absolutely worked and it has this economy around. governor kasich has been the catalyst for that, the legislature, we have the largest super majority we've had in the history of the the legislature. 12 of 16 members of congress, six of seven members of the ohio supreme court and of course senator portman and republicans level helped turn this economy around, pull it out of he ditch, that it was left in by ted strickland when he was governor and we've done so in a ay that has helped us expand the map in ohio, has created opportunity for us to win here. clinton campaign decided to stop trying to make the case for why she would make president, they switched to messaging and said all ohioans ns are evil, don't believe that. ohioans have seen what can do andleadership been wildly successful here. helping liftns are this state and they are being,

benefiting from it at the ballot box. host: republican party chairman matt borges. "new york times," snapshot of where we stand in the presidential and senate races, while hillary and donald trump are in a virtual dead heat in ohio, numbers, if their you look down at the senate favored to rtman is win. at the same time, we noted arlier, most of all of the statewide state offices and most of the federal offices are held by republicans. in the presidential race is it so tight in a state that republicans?ng guest: well, again, going back to being a bell weather, ohio is a swing state. it is going to be a challenge to carry the state in every cycle. into it never expecting a

blow out win one way or the other. races are always close. ohioans are well informed, they voters, they understand the issues and we are the center of n the political universe every more ears, maybe in 2016, so than ever before. the ohio republican party hosted the republican hopefuls in august of last year. of course we had the convention ome back to ohio for the first time in 80 years this past summer and cleveland really was show.ar of that the city of cleveland shined throughout that entire convention and we heard from reporters who went to philadelphia and said, from now convention d do the necessary cleveland, it ran so well there. and so ohio voters aware and ohio voters are listening to the republican rewarding republicans. again, we're going to win races up and down the ballot in ohio the republican side and so

what we've figured out how to do adapt to the turnout fluctuations that happen in a turnout year like a presidential election. be prepared with million new early red republicans, voting programs strong as they have ever been, things put and ng place for years now coming up with and executing now and so it is an honor and to do that be able for the great elected officials, i know the fine work they do. i know the mess left by ted he was governor and the work republicans have done to turn it around. hayward,you arem on with matt borges. good morning. guest: hello. aller: i listened to your spill -- well, donald trump, when you had him on with his ohio, and i had to but in because i can't help

the steel plant in weeks ago, perhaps if i'm hearing that right, and donald trump was buying steel china, what in god's name worker who just lost his job, want to hire who will never ever to ohio?s back one other thought. everything that comes from sells, china, mexico, you name it, but you that hillary with n and bill clinton the office of nafta, republicans nafta bill xhchlt ohio n you guys think in

host: give matt borges a chance to respond. guest: we think about how to it's he economy around, been by implementing principles pribs and watch them work. ted strickland let us with house, we fixed our have a surplus now. we focus on tax cuts and making billion tax cut for ohioans that actually helped that rainy day fund. it wasn't about taxing people allowing the bout opportunity for businesses to grow and make ohio a more for this new ce economy, about retraining workers, all the things that embraced and if we can bring those things to the national level and that is the message we're hearing, yes, ohioans will benefit because there will be more jobs the state. so, when you reference clintons, what do they sell? they sell influence, pedal nfluence with the government

and they have been accused of that, investigated for that and at for that,looked will continue, they are being now, at it for that looked at for that now in terms of their dealings with the and we know l fund what we're going to get from the clintons, more of the same. a change election, the voters throughout this past year have spoken up very loudly. change in the white house. and hillary clinton would bring four more years of the same and unfortunately, along with that, bring four more years of the old clinton ways that have never only gotten worse along the way. ohio state ithing gop chairman, matt borges. talking about the senate race moment. former governor ted strickland has portrayed himself as blue ap parklachia nd painted rob portman from being from wealth and privilege. how his senator portman tried to

worker with blue collar there is? guest: rob portman is most -- no offense to anyone else. he gets things done in a town a halt kind of ground to bipartisanship and inertia and has helped pass bills to in t this epidemic we have ohio that i know folks have in ther states across the country f heroin, drug use and defied human trafficking. he's been a leader on issues hat matter to ohioans and bringing jobs back to ohio and doing the things that have elped him earn reputation, looking out for lake erie, the type of things he does that help this reputation of protecting ohioans from illegal chinese dumping, from the kind things that have hurt us here then ted states, strickland, you said, he likes to tout his small-town roots.

did he to? took a job as lobbyist, went to washington and bragged about the it was more money than he made in his life and forgot he left behind a record as governor that was nothing to be proud of. 350,000 jobs fled the state while he was governor and didn't ust leave the state because of national recession, ohio was 48th in job creation during that which meant 47 other governors were doing it better than ted strickland was and hose jobs weren't just disappearing off the map, they were leaving ohio and going to other states. in terms of not watching out, not watching over leaving uss of ohio, with 8 billion budget shortfall, raining the rainy day fund to $.89. he left us with such a mess and and make was to go more money than he made in his life as a lobbyist. was remind ed to do ohioans of what it was like when

ted strickland was governor and things were. everyone knew someone in danger of losing their job or house or neighbor, or a co-worker, a family member. we had stories, knew what it was in the the last thing world we want to do is put ted strickland back to work. while.in congress for a when he was in congress, hew authored zero bills that got passed. he guild to washington and become part of the same problem they have, why would we have him replace the most effective legislator we have in the united states in rob portman. so, that contrast has been made clearly. we're not taking anything for granted, but very much looks like rob portman will get e-elected, people didn't just buy that line from ted strickland when they had the opportunity to cam pair to the truth. basil from cleveland, you are on with matt borges. good morning. caller: thank you. morning. guest: good morning. caller: different perspective here. umber one, this democratic socialist party, old line democrats are no longer there.

55 million pported and want to go beyond partial baby can live a up to two weeks and be destroy federal there is something wrong ith it, that is part of the party. all killings in the inner the murdere chicago, rate among beautiful young black eople accelerated under this administration, the other point is that we are facing morality change in this country. not talking about religious morality, general morality of constitution. segregation is not an insult to democratic party. if there is not a land slide for america has lost its soul. he is catalyst -- host: okay, basil, have to cut off, matt borges has to leave in a moment or two, i want

to give him a chance to respond. thanks, i appreciate your call and your passion, i imagine we can rely on you to vote straight republican ticket, make if you haven't already. we're proudly a party of life. roudly a party, if you read donald trump's plan for his first 100 day necessary office long ago t not tincludes ethics reform, stuff that all americans, all ohioans and all really everyone should be able to embrace and so i suggest you at that and for anyone who is out there trying their mind tis going to be issues like that that help make the difference in this election. again, we know it will be close, we are doing everything we can and makeat message out sure we deliver our 18 electoral votes for the republican nominee. host: we'll take calls through the end of the hour about the to necessary ohio, i want get one more caller to matt borges before he has to go.

london, is calling from ohio. good morning, barbara, a few seconds. what is your question? to know why t donald trump hasn't put out more commercials and talking about i history of i know when went to school and that's been a long time ago that, we were democrats have done, holding back, you know, poor white peep and he will poor black people and how they are against everything to free the blacks. i believe donald trump would explain more of what had then and all, i don't understand how they witched over to become more democratic than what -- host: give matt borges a chance to respond. the call nk you for from beautiful madison county. you are right, the ohio epublican party has been a leader in that regard. don't forget the actual author rights bill, a

rural congressman. party of abraham lincoln, freeing the slaves, rights, we are arty of civil rights movement and we can never get away from those roots and need to what our that is party is about. our party is about lifting everyone, our party is about thistunity for everyone in country. that is the message that will resonate and it is good to people of the history of this party. sometimes we let others tell the republican party that maybe don't know or don't care about what the true histories. thoughts on your that, that is something we are proud of and will continue to about. host: matt borges, your name has been mentioned as successful to preva s, any interest? guest: that is flattering, thank it, but my ioning focus is 100% on winning these ohio.on necessary we'll run the tape on november 8, win a lot of races, all the

trying to do een as a party we've been doing in ohio. the kasich got 26% of african american vote in '14. rob portman will win among 5000 college and high school age students working on the campaign to appeal to millennials. republican leadership in the state has worked and i'm proud that we've done and we're going to work hard to make sure republicans win on november 8. host: matt borges, chairman of the ohio republican party. joining us today. guest: thanks so much. host: we are continuing our iscussion about the battleground state of ohio with our callers continuing to take state, which is an important race, not just for the presidency, but for the senate. shannon from lucasville, ohio. shannon.ing, caller: good morning. host: for those that don't know where in the state are you part of the state? aller: i'm in ohio, i'm the

county -- ted strickland came from. host: uh-huh. are are your thoughts, who you supporting for president and senate and what are your thoughts about how the race is so far?out caller: well, i'm supporting 100%.d trump i'm supporting rob portman. need good values in this think donald trump s what we need to bring back our jobs. we're getting -- [cutting out] -- i think donald trump is the right choice. okay. we have darryl, call nothing bronx, new york, today, as we talk about the battleground of ohio. darryl.rning, caller: good morning. host: what are your thoughts? i am so flabbergasted,

after listening to this he made n chairman and the comment about how smart ohio andrs are, i certainly pray hope and trust god the ohio voters are smart. spin about nderful the tremendous and great job that rob portman has been doing the senate. i would like to remind the ohio voters that rob portman voted party to epublican shut down the government. and then to talk about the ohio.y there in he's talking about kasich and the rainy-day fund. suggestion to him, i'm sure ohio voters might agree, take money out of the so-called rainy-day fund and put back to work, like the gentleman in the steel -- about that, use some of that rainy-day fund and, i don't in a new st enterprise. it is just amazing to me how just so manipulated

and conned by republicans. charge oficans are in congress, we have a president, not a dictator. wrong, ings are going they look at the president. no, look at your congress and congress, you send to that is the hold-up. hope the ohio voters are smart, put in office and vote for hillary clinton. taking my call. host: we are taking calls through the end of the hour of t the battleground state ohio, with just 11 days left ntil the election important state for the presidential race, as well as for the senate race, try to hold on to control of the senate. while we're waiting to take we have other headlines, including house speaker paul some -- aving recarious path to remain house speaker, he says house speaker paul ryan under fire from rebuffing ves for presidential nominee donald trump, likely to remain in the

job next year, but his path and t there will be narrow precario precarious. the wisconsin republican who to a year ago when john face r resigned will growing wrath if his party suffers substantial defeat on one of the many issues at stake in this election, as we talk about the in ohio.und colorado.our ora, good morning. caller: hi, thank you. trump has been putin and the by wikileaks and the republican been has seemed to have boosted greatly by all of these of hillary clinton and yet packing not an equal trump.posure of donald

this is really a serious reach our voting -- breach in our voting. i don't know why the republicans for equal time or shut-down of the russian hacks in hillary clinton. really a dangerous situation. also, one comment about the nafta, in colorado, as well as ationally, the truth is that nafta has greatly increased manufacturing wealth in colorado and the nation and that is well documented. is that people have been displaced and hillary has addressed helping those people who have been very beneficial trade agreements. thank you. host: okay. calling from tuscaloosa, alabama. good morning, larry. caller: good morning. host: what is on your mind

today? aller: i would like to let the ohio people know that you don't leader by what they say, but what they do. now donald trump traitace a call is notjudgment good. what i mean by that is when he michigan, in a rally in detroit, michigan, flint, michigan, he made a statement, he said to the eople out there in detroit, michigan, he said, i have a book for sale. champagne for sale. i have steak for sale. i have water for sale. a can you sell items at rally while you got flint, michigan down below from michigan, that need water? he went to new orleans, ma'am, don't understand, which is poor judgment, he went to new

orleans, with new orleans and people who needed water, needed housing, he was toys, that is bad judgment, not good judgment. hen you had a person on the show just a few minutes ago, a chairman, for the republican the , saying that they are party for the blacks. that is not true. when they got , bush let david duke join the party that, is not people. for black thank you for letting me say that, get out and vote, folks, please get out and vote. you. host: another ohio caller. gary from cleveland. gary.orning, caller: good morning. host: what, who do you support presidential and races there from the buckeye state? caller: i think we ought to with the presidential race. i am strong supporter of donald trump. think this country definitely needs a big change.

nfortunately, on the senate side of things, i'm going to for it very hard to vote portman. trump has been in ohio several times during this election cycle and not once has rob portman his campaign. as a matter of fact, what he did, he disenvowed donald trump, which i find very disturbing. so in the election, it is definitely donald. i don't think i will vote any ticket on the senate side. is -- why is the support for the top of the ticket such an important issue you, gary? caller: well, i can't see another clinton in the white house. look at the corruption and what wikileaks in regard to the clinton foundation, it is just a mess. see another four years of disaster if she gets in. ost: ray is calling in from alexandria, virginia. good morning, ray.

caller: comment regarding the republican party. they , i just feel like should have some conscious. running for the president? i mean, don't people think this man has been so divisive and it bad for the ly nation, as a whole. i thank you is not somebody we white house. so i just feel like stood up applaud them, i'm just appalled at the people who keep saying he will bring change. i'm not sure what kind of change he will bring given his track record. host: ray, let me ask you this, you say you vote for the person and not the party. voting split ticket in virginia, also an important tate this year for both presidential race and down ticket races? caller: that is correct, yes, i doing that. host: okay. from iola, ling in wisconsin, good morning, carol.

caller: hello. host: and who are you supporting your -- for president, as well as down races? caller: well, my husband and i old and this is the first time that we've ever voted and we're voting for donald trump and the reason for that is going to do something for the people and hat woman from california, saying he bought steel from wherever, she should open her her mouth ad of steel, she said ohio they checked donald, none there. donald trump couldn't find steel. host: let me ask you this, why you voted before this

year? voted. we just never the only one that got us to hinking we should vote and listening to the government, you donald trump., is thought if we voted it wouldn't make any difference anyway. host: okay. system calling from raci ne, ohio. good morning, james. are you supporting with your vote in the buckeye state, james? right now, hillary clinton. host: are you -- make.: i got a comment to host: go ahead. caller: who in ohio wants to got to ashington, they change the congress and the is, to and my question the chairman of the republican party, what did he mean by

democrats are dumb? thank you very much, i appreciate getting on. frespringfield, ohio. good morning, julie. are r: good morning, how snu host: good. who are you support withing your vote? hillary 'm supporting clinton totally. host: are you also support strickland, as well? caller: i am. why. tell us caller: i'll tell you why i'm supporting hillary clinton, has proven her work for women and children and donald trump le, has been a loser, a liar, he disrespects women. can't believe people are watching him with his voice and xpect him to be presidential, especially when his own wife took michelle obama, she was so she couldn't even come up

with some -- for her. host: all right, mike from carnegie, pennsylvania. good morning, mike. good morning. host: i'm good, we have a few seconds left. your mind? caller: the reason i will vote hillary made a statement that she was going to husband as the economy you, young lady, and you lie to me five times, trust you? i don't think i could. and they say trump is a loser, hotels, how many asinos, how many golf courses he's accomplished. years?as she done in 30 host: that's it for today's show. some programming notes, donald be speaking in manchester,