bit or it could re-energize their feelings that hillary clinton has been treated unfairly. republicans dismiss that argument. they think it is spin from democrats. couldicans think it influence them. some are pretty turned up by donald trump, don't support him as the nominee. they could be now energized to go to the polls. having a check and balance on hillary clinton if she wins the presidency in terms of having a republican congress. it is an argument a lot of republicans have been making down the ballot, that they need a republican congress to check her power. next week, it is about hillary clinton, her e-mails, and the fbi potentially investigating some of those e-mails. some voters who may not have wanted to go to the polls because of their feelings about donald trump may go to the polls because they want republicans in clinton.watch hillary

that comes down to, it is difficult to predict. we do not know which way it is going to fall but it will come down to whether or not one side or the other sees an increase in turnout or energy from their voters based on this. host: so, james arkin, one week away from the november election what will it take for democrats to recapture control of the house as you look at your polling on real clear politics.com? james: i still think the odds for democrats taking over are pretty low. i think a lot of things have to follow in place in the right way. they need the democratic base to turnout in really high numbers basically for president obama to 2008 were they need republican voters to be depressed and some of the swing districts.

republicans not to shop at the polls at all in high numbers and they need donald trump's will numbers for the bottom to follow out. pushing high single digits. right now you look at the generic ballot in terms of about 3.7nal races at percentage points, that is not big enough for democrats to take back the house. think 15-20 seats could be a high mark for them. that would leave them about 10 feet short of the 30 they need to take the house. we're looking at democratic gains, we could be potentially looking at very large stomach on a gains but it was things fall and the perfect confluence of events on election night, we're still looking at them falling short. host: has speaker ryan been affect on the campaign trail for his fellow republicans?

james: i think he absolutely has. he got near universal name recognition. he brings news attention. they are able to cut ads with him giving his report. he is very popular among republicans. he brings a lot of money to the ticket. he is going to an event with barbara comstock in the next week or so. onerought in $400,000 in event. he is a huge fundraiser. he has given tens of millions to the nrc see. i think paul ryan has been a very effective surrogate for down ballot republicans across the field. host: james arkin, who follows the house. they q4 being with us. -- thank you for being with us. announcer: c-span, where history unfolds daily.

1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable-television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. >> today on c-span, a look at the latest research being done to see if the bodies on immune system can be used to treat cancer. we will go from two doctors. live from the national club at 10:00 a.m. eastern. later today, waist to prevent gun violence through legislation and other methods. that is live at noon eastern here on c-span. >> on election day, november 8, the nation decides our next president and which party controls the house and senate. stay with c-span for coverage of the presidential race, including campaign stops with hillary

clinton donald trump, and their surrogates. follow key senate races with coverage of their debates and speeches. c-span, where history unfolds daily. the candidates running for u.s. senate and south carolina and the fourth congressional district recently sat down for a roundtable discussion at furman university. this is half an hour. >> they got the memo on stability. i am impress. our midterm grades are good. i am impress. our midterm grades are good. thank you all. >> are the final exams in? >> this is the final exam.

this is the prerogative of the congressional power, ok? tos is what i voice wanted have a conversation about candidates about because it is me ifways clear to candidates think about these things. they might. tell me if i am wrong. i want to shift gears and talk a little bit about how these candidates could do their job. about adison talks representative democracy and the benefit it holds over a pure or direct democracy, a democracy where we would all just register our votes on every single thing that comes along. one thing madison says is a and if it of representative tamaqua canis that a representative deliberate in a way that we as a country cannot and that in that deliberative process, they can respond and enlarge the public

view. that is what i want to talk about a little bit tonight. how they view that role of representation. gentlemen, i will give each of you a chance to respond. when you say you want to represent me and the people in this room in congress, what do you mean and how are you going to carry out that responsibility? how will you do that? >> i am happy to start. one of the things i think is important as an elected official , when i was appointed to the senate would at the first thing inid was i went undercover the senate. but on jeans, a hat. drove arounds and so i could talk to every day people. not lobbyists. i want to hear from the people. i work on jobs around the state. and talked to people so that i

could understand what the passion in their heart really is. not what someone tells me. burritos.t a moe's they called me young. i learned a lot. one of the most important things getought i should do was around this state as a public servant and understand their issues. second thing i have done is every year, i go on a 46 county tour, all 46 counties in south carolina. i sit with republicans and democrats, libertarians and independents. old folks, young folks. folks of disabilities. folks doing really well. i want to have a cross-section of this state. i am not elected to represent republicans, i am elected to

represent south or lenience and this country. i tried to have a listening tour. on policingt now and community relations. we came up to greenville last week. so we could understand and appreciate what they issues, challenges, and hopes are, even within the most fragile and difficult relations. my answer is simply to learn to listen, so that you can serve them well. >> dr. vinson, i appreciate that refresher on the federalist papers. that aside from the discussion of his own democracy, the biggest ill james madison was trying to warn us about was public officials putting the interest of their fashions

before those of the public good. and that warning is topical today. because that is what so many americans have seen happen in their congress. they have seen hundreds of people supposedly elected to represent them put the interest of their faction above their party, above the interest of the people. whether we are talking about six years of inaction or a failure to do congress know duty -- congressional duty, we have seen an unprecedented level of inaction. when i was thinking about this, i thought you cannot just put the blame on the factions, on the parties. because these parties are made of individuals. exercise individuals their prerogative as a leader, as an elected official, to sometimes say no. say "i will have a vote to have

garland,"for justice even at the party does not want it a because it is the right thing to do, it is in the interest of the public good. that is what we need to change, but we need new leaders to do it. >> i will come back to you. >> i was just kind of intrigued. >> i told them to not if they wanted to jump in. >> well, one person's faction is another person's majority. factions,efer to the in a couple weeks, there will be a vote. and either you will win or i will win. it will be north of 50%. so necessarily, every vote you cast will disappoint about half the people you purport to represent. when here the word "faction," that is usually a phrase people

use when they are in the minority, when they do not like what is going on. but if you are the representative and you are consistently voting in a way antithetical to what a majority of the people in your district want, you will not be representative very long. so you ask what does it mean to represent -- i will tell my friends here. voting is a very small percentage of what members of congress do. i guess that is what the media judges us on. how many pieces of legislation have you passed, you must be historically ineffective, yet not pass that many pieces of legislation. we have a task force now on privilization. where we are finding laws were passed in the past that should have in passed. that is an ineffective barometer of success. many people in my party disagree with me. most of what our staff do in a lot of what we do has nothing to

do with politics. if you are someone trying to interface with your government on social security, war, veterans administration, or you have a passport issue, no one in my office will ever ask you what your political ideation is. no one in my office or tim's office has anything to do with politics. they are there to represent your -- the consistency, note -- the constituency, no matter what your politics are. so you better vote the way your district wants you to vote. if you believe your district may not have all the information that they are entitled to, then your job as a representative is to come back and say you may want to consider this, you may want to consider that. but i got to tell you my , decision not to vote for comprehensive immigration reform was not a mistake. it was not a mistake. we will find out in two weeks, but i do not think it was a mistake to say we need to go incrementally. we will find out.

that is the beauty of our republic. we have to face the public every two years. if our positions are not consistent with theirs, then they can send us home. >> mr. dixon. mr. dixon: a whole lot. i found it funny that you talked about who you work for, but that you do not allude to the fact that you represented the people paid i found it disturbing. rep. gowdy: you must have misunderstood my answer, because that is what i did. mr. dixon: that is not how it came out. in traveling the state and interacting with people, if i pick and choose who i'm interacting with, then i am going to get the answer i am looking for. if i exclude certain people from my polling, my personal conversations, then i will only get the responses i am looking and that are going to feed into

wherever i want to go to. vast array ofvery ideas, thoughts, suggestions, much based on ethnicity, personal backgrounds, upbringing, that if we do not bring all of those ideas into the storehouse, our warehouse, we will not come up with an idea and thoughts that are representative of the people. i think when we get into this party issue, especially -- and i will not say -- i guess i will say it -- especially with republican party -- i will say it -- >> as long as you do respectfully. to stepn: i even tried away from it, but i had to come back to it. but the way the partisan voting consistently has been there, consistent, when we look at things like planned parenthood, voting against the best

interests of our women -- yes, this is pastor dixon talking -- looking at the fact in 2016, $15 an hour is just barely enough for a person to live decently off of, voting against the best interests of our seniors voting , against the best interests of our teens, veterans, voting against all of the interest that are going to make our nation better. i do not know who you are talking to, but the people i talk to -- because i come from a social justice advocacy background, and it only started since i came out of the prison system, ok? been there, too. so i understand what it means to have comprehensive prison reform because i've been there. you want to know how to fix prisons? let's do it the same way we go into the doctors. you walk into the doctors's office, they ask you what is wrong with you, it you tell him. we need to ask those who have been in the prison system how we fix prisons, not go for some super intellectual standpoint. but all of these different

things, these experiences, these learned experiences having boots , on the ground for years, coming up in the projects in chicago, interacting with those who are violent, actually, drug dealers, drug users. i have been shot at. i understand how close you can be to getting killed in the street. when we sit as representatives of the people, then we need to understand we represent all the people, and we need to do what we can to hear from all of those people. i admire you for working at moe's, but that will not get you to let you know the people. but it is obvious when comes to the voting records that getting to know the people needs to be a bigger priority than just moe's in one day or whatever. that may put it like a put it out there in the streets many times.

yo until you get to know ray-ray and pookie and them, you do not know what is going on. mr. scott: ray-ray is my cousin. [laughter] [applause] listen, i am happy to have this conversation. the fact of the matter is that you assume that myself or trey not talking to the people is -- the politically correct word is "hogwash." here is the fact. if you are looking for a classic example of a criminal justice system heading in the right direction, stay home. look around south carolina. we closed six prisons. 30,000 folksve incarcerated. we have 20,000 incarcerated. because in 2010, legislation passed for criminal justice reform. according to our friend on tv1, the states that are leading on reform are southern republican states.

i had to write down what he said, because he said a lot of things in there. being in touch with your constituents, one of the reasons why i visited two state prisons and sat there and said them, so i could understand and appreciate what people are going through right now, what are the needs right now. how do we deal with folks right now. andof the reasons why trey myself are going around south carolina, meeting in our current demographic makeup of our police and community relations, i think it is 3/4 black, 1/4 white, and probably half the cops are black around the state. it is because trey gowdy believes defusing the issue in the community is important. not only is it important to

greenville and in his congressional district, but as a united states congress member, he believes it is important enough to go around the state and around the country, if necessary, to solve these issues. we do not represent a certain party or race. the reason i went on the bus, oh the reason why, i had a conversation to make folks safer, made sure our law enforcement officers do what they do, the reason why we sat down with these folks, with the naacp's legal defense fund, the aclu -- not because it is important to me but because it is the right thing to do. if you will be a public servant, you do the right thing. not for your faction, but for the next generation of americans. [applause]

mr. dixon: very well said, senator. i guess that is why the naacp gave both of you and overall report of "f." sen. scott: three already of it is is i am ok with the naacp not appreciating my voting record. i will have to meet with them anyway. i do not mind folks who say you are dead wrong. i will meet with them anyway. that is the point of not succumbing to your faction, is to be interested and engage with people who are not like you, who are physical -- philosophically opposed to your decisions. you still have a conversation with them, even if they give you an "f".

has referred to me as but i amoquist dummy, not interested in the naacp, i am interested in the people they represent. [applause] i am -- mr. dixon: i am really sorry that the statement has gone over the civility area and i got overtopped. let me get back to where i started. you visited the prisons, ok. but while you were visiting the presence, did you figure out and initiate legislation in the senate that will ban inhibiting excellence to get out and get work? did you get anything there that says that come over time, here is how we're going to eliminate that the -- the limit of thought that the dead being paid, but it is never paid where people who went to prison in 1965 still cannot get a job?

did you learn about, while you were in there, how nobly that goes to prison really wants to come back to it i was in there three years. i never knew anyone who wanted to combat pay but those that got out, because of this revolving door, because of the lack of opportunities when they get out, as in expelling, are not there to support them and ultimately are making our communities unsafe, because we are not really rehabilitating people. did you get that while you are there? did youu are at moe's, talk with that young mother that may have been working there and at mcdonald's and taco bell for minimum wage, where the reality is them working that three jobs just provides them with the ability to put a roof over their heads, and some people like to point fingers at them when those mothers do not show up at pta

meetings, when they are all trying to do is survive. $7.25 an hour -- did you get deedout of it, and if you why haven't you done your job? ,sen. scott: i am glad you asked that question. >> let me interrupt for a minute. i will give you a chance to respond briefly, then i will give you two one final word because we are about out of time. it goes fast. >> we need to do this again. sen. scott: look p.a.d. are the facts -- look. here are the facts that i discovered with the prison folks. there are good people there. they made a tragic mistake, and their lives were altered forever. we should never look down on other people, because, but for the grace of god, there you might be. the average person incarcerated today has three things in common. they are functionally illiterate, they come from single-parent households, and they are mired in poverty. looking for ways out.

so, i sat down with amazing folks. i believe it was the kansas state -- i might be wrong -- kansas state prison has opened the door for a company to come in and start training these prisoners on how to be productive and have a profitable life when they leave. they actually have started hiring the people, so, yes, i have now a classic example of what to do. 90% of these people are incarcerated on the state and federal level. these programs allow these young men -- mostly men -- to make at least the minimum wage, sometimes maybe a little more. eight dollars an hour. and when they leave prison, they leave with as much as $10,000. the best example is $40,000. in their savings account. they have been able to pay restitution, been able to catch

up on child support, and they get employed. there only been 56 people in this program, and 14 of these folks are now employed. and secondly, while i was at , ideas listen to them. secondly, here is what we know about the minimum wage. we know that when you go from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour, there is -- this is a good example of caring about the issue, as reverend dixon does, as i do, having been raised by single mother who worked 16 hours a day. the reality of it is this. that the average person stuck at a minimum wage job, about 17% to 21% of those folks will lose $2ir jobs because today, trillion of payroll can be automated. said differently, when you raise

the minimum wage artificially with no production, what you end up with our more olive gardens with an ipad, more subways with touchscreens. you eliminate the first rung of the economic ladder, and what does that mean? a manifest this way -- it manifests that the average person we're talking about has an unemployment rate of around 15%, and the guy or the gal that finishes their education while they are in prison and gets back in the work force, you find that person making significantly more , and the unemployment rate falls through the floor. consistent with reality are these fact. so what have i done? i have created the opportunity agenda appeared i have worked on it for years. the opportunity agenda focuses on the most important foundations that the federal government can help build, because the two things that are the difference between the haves

and have-nots -- education and parents, family formation. the foundation is education. in their work skills, in prison or not. finisher program, cosponsored by cory booker. then there is the investment opportunities act, which targets the stressed communities. the answer is -- i have a lot of legislation -- we are working on it. and hopefully with a more receptive culture, we will see some of this legislation become law. [applause] >> congressman gowdy and mr. fedalei, briefly. we are officially out of time. i have great confidence in you. rep. gowdy: while you were talking, and he will get upset with me for bringing this up, but i have listened to him be called an "uncle tom," i have

listened to him have his blackne ss challenged because he happens to have a different political orthodoxy. not by you, but by others. mr. dixon: i was about to say where are you going with this? ,[laughter] rep. gowdy: i started the night by complimenting someone who has never voted for me and will never vote for me. i will couple that somebody else. the former head of the greenville democrat party. someone i like and respect. he will not vote for me. he should not vote for me. we do not agree on the issues. but you can have civility in the way you discuss things, and you can look for those areas where you want to be united. i listen to you all discuss education. i do not hear that much difference. you both think it is the closest thing to magic that we have in our culture and the single best way to transform a life. i would just say this.

when you are talking, i felt myself think that moses was guilty of manslaughter and david to guilty of conspiracy commit murder. they went on to do great things. people can change their lives. our god is a god of second chances. i will commit myself to spend more time understanding the needs of those who need to re-integrate into society, and the only thing i ask of you is you spend time talking to crime victims who have had their lives totally unraveled by the acts of some of the people that you referenced in prison. i will do it if you do it. mr. dixon: apparently, the congressman does not know me. [applause] anyone in here who knows me knows i have dedicated my life to exactly what you are saying. and i have not seen you in any of those circles yet. but it is ok. i'm sorry, but you misjudged me. rep. gowdy: i am not judging you. that's my point. i'm not judging you. but help me keep people from

judging him as well, simply because you have a different political orthodoxy. you need to be the first person who do not call him names. [applause] mr. dixon: how do you know i do not? how do you know i do not? excuse me. let me just say this. and i know we are wrapping it up. that is not judgmental, for you to say that, you just told me what i tell people about senator scott. ,nd what you told me, i think tim scott discover he is black might be the first time he has heard that. let me go back to that. >> please do. mr. dixon: the statement was made in the aftermath of your three days of speeches on the semaphore that basically tied you into the african-american

community in a way that you have never been tied in before. now, sarcastically speaking, i said, "yeah, senator scott discovered he is black." and i am glad that this filtered back to you. because -- but i did not call you an uncle tom. mr. scott: "i just discovered i was black." i have been black for a long time. can you tell? [laughter] [applause] mr. dixon: and it is quite obvious that blackness is not always just the color of skin. in 1997, when i was stopped seven times and then held a meeting at the council 18 years ago and driving while black, that might have been an indication that i was concerned with the issue. in 2011, when there were articles done in my stock, that

might have been in indication. but that was not an election year. mr. dixon: but really, unfortunately, though -- >> ok, i will stop both of you for a moment. mr. dixon: unfortunately, you have done nothing to stem overaggressive policing. nothing. sen. scott: eyes saying law enforcement officers are doing their -- >> gentlemen, your participation grades are going down. i appreciate your enthusiasm, and i hope this is not the last conversation that everyone in here has, but i have made a promise to get certain people out of here at an hour, and we are well past this, so. sen. scott: i thought you said 11:00. >> i did not. sen. scott: sorry. sorry. so i want to give mr. for daily one last word to answer a few delay this -- mr. for daily, you have to wrap this up in a way that will wrap up the

discussion. mr. fedalei: i would be happy to. there seems to be one point of agreement, and that's the education is a platform to the opportunity in the country. because education is at the top of my platform and something that i care so deeply about, i have gone around and been meeting with school superintendents in this district. and one moment really impacted me from those meetings. i was meeting with a superintendent of a rural school "if you, and he told me get elected, please promise me that you will not cut money for free or reduced school lunches, because over 60% of my kids depend on those to survive. when they go home, they do not have anywhere to go. they cannot walk to the corner store. they do not have money to get a ride to go anywhere. they need these lunches to survive, because if they are hungry, they are not learning. and if they are not learning, they are not getting ahead. they do not have the platform." if we do not work on these

issues that really have an impact on people's lives, we will continue to see the same result. do not be surprised that people in poor areas are not doing good if they are not eating. we need to get back to ask ourselves who we are as a country? are we the country that allows our children to live in such great poverty that they cannot use the time in school to learn? as long as we have congressmen that vote to cut the money for school lunches, vote to cut money for pell grants, so low income kids have a chance to go to college, if we have congressmen that vote against flood relief funding, if we have theressmen who vote against violence against women act then , we have our soft and very broken representation. >> because he mentioned congressman, i will give you one last word. but keep it very quick. rep. gowdy: i heard you to watch the floor speech. i will never be lectured to you

about my commitment to violence against women. my chief of staff was the head of my violence against woman task force. i'm the first person in south carolina who started one. so i will not be lectured -- i voted for both the house versions. but because of politics being what it is, the democrats had to put something in there that they do republicans in the house could not take. if you want an indictment on something, it is on politics. do not ever question my commitment to protecting women in this country. don't do it. [applause] mr. fedalei: at the end of the day, actions speak louder than words. >> you can sit down. i am not quite done. i want one last word with everyone here. i promised them an evaluation. i hope that you recognize that we were actually able, this evening, to have substantive discussions. it is clear they do not all agree with each other on a lot of things.

but i think it is also clear that there are some areas of common ground that could be discussed. we do not do it if we have parties walling themselves off. i commend these candidates for being willing to show up this evening and had a conversation with each other, even when parts of it were a little uncomfortable for them. i thank you folks for your participation and for keeping it simple. -- civil. i was courteous as to whether i was going to call anybody down. your plodded up early early -- you applauded appropriately, and then shut up. you laughed when appropriate. you made faces at them. and i'm happy to say i have spent the entire evening and have not had to glare at anyone. so you're participation grades all around are quite good. thank you all, and thank you, candidates. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] and-span's of the kouachi

10 journal," live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. this morning, former justice department prosecutor paul butler talks about the hillary clinton email investigation. fbithe recent actions by director james comey and other investigators looking into the case. then, patrick merrick, director of the political to medication's center at the university of oklahoma joins us to talk about the history of medical advertising and where it is today. and jason roberts, associate professor at the university of north carolina at chapel hill, talking about north carolina's role as a key battleground state. watched c-span's "washington journal" live starting at 7:00 a.m. this morning. join the discussion. beforeweek to go election day, donald trump campaigns in wisconsin, alongside running mate mike pence. the two hold a rally at 8:00 p.m. eastern in eau claire.

watch that live on c-span. harriet -- hillary clinton has includingents today, one in fort lauderdale. that is live on c-span two. they are trying to sway undecided voters with a new set of political ads. here's a look at what some are seeing in states across the country. i am hillary clinton, and i approve this message. >> this is me in 1964. the fear of nuclear war we had as children, i never thought our children would have to worry about that again. >> trump asked three times, "why can't we use nuclear weapons?" >> what safeguards are there to stop any president who may launch a nuclear attack? >> the commander in chief is commander-in-chief. >> bomb the --- out of them.

north africa in chaos. hillary clinton failed every single time as secretary of state. now, she wants to be president. hillary clinton does not have the fortitude, strength, or stamina to lead in our world. she failed as secretary of state. do not let her fail us again. donald trump, and i approve this message. day, november 8, our country chooses who will be president. stay with us for election coverage, including campaign stops with hillary clinton, donald trump, and their surrogates. and the senate and representative races. c-span -- where history unfolds daily. host: joining us from kansas city with a look at the missouri senate race is dave helling, a reporter and columnist for "the kansas city star."

thank you for being with us. mr. helling: great to be with you. host: democrat jason kander challenging republican senator roy blunt. why has this race become so competitive? mr. helling: couple of reasons. roy blunt has been a senator from missouri for six years. he is in his first term. he remains a popular figure in missouri, but he has some flaws. first of all he has been in , washington for a long time. he is 66 years old so he is , well-known to people in missouri going back to the 1980's. and this is not a year to be an incumbent, as you guys know. it is a tough deal to defend government or washington than it has been in past cycles. jason kander is a fresh face. he cut a very well known ad, where he assembled a rifle blindfolded, to help him with rural areas of the state. here's running a smart campaign, plenty of money, in a year in which incumbency is a problem.

i think roythat, blunt has also run a very good, smart campaign. so it is a one or two point race either way as we head into the final week. host: according to real clear politics, it is within the margin of error. yet in the national race, donald trump is ahead in missouri. what impact does his candidacy had on the race and the weekend developments involving hillary clinton and the if the i and the server impacting jason kander? mr. helling: it is interesting that trump is running ahead of blunt in missouri. in most states, the senate candidate are far ahead of trump , because we all know he is a controversial character. the fact that roy blunt trails trump in kansas suggests a problem that roy blunt has, which is that he is not universally popular among republicans. blunt was heavily involved four years ago in the controversy surrounding todd akin and claire mccaskill -- you remember the so-called "legitimate rape" interview. at the time, roy blunt tried to kin to leave the

race. he did not do so. but it left a bitter taste in the mouth of a lot of republicans in the state about roy blunt. he should've stayed out of the controversy, but waited into it. so that is a problem for roy blunt. that shows up in his poll numbers, where he trails trump. if trump can move further ahead, if trump can win missouri by eight or nine points, then i think roy blunt will be ok. mitt romney won missouri by nine points in 2012, so it shows you how it trends presidentially. and if, as i say, if trump gets close to that, then i think roy blunt will be fine. if it is less than that, if it is a two or three point trump victory in missouri, then i think blunt is in trouble. that is how the weekend events play into missouri, to the extent they cost secretary clinton in missouri and help trump, i think that helps turn out and helps roy blunt. host: dave helling, who is jason kander, and how did he become

the senate nominee for the democrats? mr. helling: well, he is the secretary of state in missouri. he won a statewide race two years ago, relatively unknown in the party until then. he had served in the state legislature but had never sought public office -- or statewide office before. 35-year-old, a veteran of the war in afghanistan, well regarded here, smart, raised money, did a lot of things that a candidate would have to do. and as i suggested earlier, has run a very, very good campaign. but, as recently as a month ago, he was unknown by about 3/5 of the voters of missouri. he is not an extraordinarily well-known figure. so part of his challenge has been introducing himself to the voters of missouri and try to ride whatever waves might come from the problems that donald trump has with the general electorate. so as i say, he has been smart

about his campaign, he has been aggressive. he has challenged senator blunt on personal terms. you know, senator blunt's family are all lobbyists. kander has made much of that in his tv commercials. whether it is enough to get him over the top, of course we will not know for a week. host: the statement by the fbi director last friday and the developments since then, what impact has that had on the kander campaign? mr. helling: he issued a statement that he thought the private email server was a mistake and he trusted the fbi. both candidates in missouri, i must say, are doing their best to separate themselves from the candidates at the top of the ticket. you don't see hillary clinton or any of her surrogates coming into missouri to campaign for kander. i think he is trying to keep her at arm's links, if you can. but roy blunt is doing the same thing with donald trump. he said, i will vote for trump, i have endorsed trump, but he does not campaign with trump,

does not want to be seen in the same photograph with donald trump. each candidate is trying to run his own race. we will see how voters respond. host: on november 8, when the returns come in next what will tuesday, you be looking for? what will tell you which way this race is going? mr. helling: jason kander the democrat will do well in the urban areas, st. louis and kansas city. he needs to rack up big margins in those cities to have a chance. roy blunt will do well in southwest missouri, where he is from, and in the rural areas. but when claire mccaskill won in 2012, and when she won in 2006, a democrat, she also held her own in central missouri counties and even won several. if jason kander can do that, if he can grab three or four counties in central missouri, i think he may be in a position to win. if he is limited only to st. louis, kansas city, and the college town of columbia, i think he may be in some trouble and that roy blunt will be reelected. host: with a look at the

missouri senate race, one of a number of competitive senate races in this election cycle, dave helling is a reporter and columnist for "the kansas city star" joining us from kansas , city. mr. helling: great to be with you. >> senator roy blunt visited a tool manufacturing facility in washington, missouri this past week to talk about his priorities for the state aid he state treasurer candidate eric schmitt, who also spoke. this is 25 minutes.

>> good morning, everyone. thank you for being here. we are pleased and honored to have senator roy blunt with us today. and a special welcome to all of our employees but also our visitors today. we are glad you are here. senator blunt and his team and i just had a nice little tour, quick tour, around the plant, and i am always so proud to show off the work that you all do here. that was a great opportunity. to have a chance to chat, and i can see right away that senator blunt shares a lot of the same values that we all hold dear. like good jobs, strong families, and protection of personal freedoms, and a strong national security system, less government, all of those things. i got a strong sense of that today, talking to the senator. and so i am glad he is here to talk to us for a few minutes. so with no further ado, please help me in welcoming the senator from missouri, roy blunt. [applause] sen. blunt: thank you, arnie.

thanks, all of you. great to be here with you today. hopefully this does not slow down the day so much that you cannot possibly recapture what needs to be done on a friday at work. but i'm glad to be here. when i was walking through, when i was talking to arnie today, he said one of the greatest things that ever happened to his family was moving to washington, missouri and getting to raise their kids here, like you are raising your family here. one of my favorite towns. i was glad to have earlier this week the endorsement of bill miller at "the washington missourian" for reelection. but what i am really glad to have is the opportunity, if things go the way i think they will go in a few days, to continue to fight for more jobs and less government. we are really at an incredibly important time, where lots of good things are logically about to happen where we live unless somehow we figure out how to stop them from happening. the world food demand is going to double in 30 or 40 years.

the biggest area of commerce in the world on any given day will be twice as big, 35 or 40 years from now, as it is today. i was raised on a dairy farm. we understand, where we live, not only are we in the middle of the biggest contiguous piece of agricultural ground in the world -- the mississippi river valley -- it has the best farmers, the best ranchers, the best ag research institutions, public and private, and may, most importantly, the best way to get things all over the world of anywhere in the world. i work in washington, i don't work in jefferson city, but i was there talking to the general assembly. there was a five-year highway bill, which we finally got done after 37 short-term extensions under president obama -- can't build roads and bridges, two years or six months or 90 days at a time -- we finally got a highway bill.

and i said five-year highway bill matters to the country, but it matters more to us. it matters more to us, because it is one of our competitive advantages. if you look at a highway map of america or the river map or a railroad map of america on any , of those three maps, if you look at where the map most logically comes together, you are pretty much looking at our backyard. and so the things that grow that demand -- if world food doubles, that is not just production and agriculture, that is transportation, insurance, i.t., abrasive equipment, blasting equipment, things that get inland ports more prepared to do what they need to do then they would do otherwise. frankly, we're working real hard, both in the missouri legislature and me chairing the mississippi river caucus, to look at the mississippi river

ports as one system. you know, the inland ports are almost always ports where you are selling something to somebody else. they are export ports. nothing wrong with buying things from other people, but it almost always feels better to sell things to other people than to buy things from other people and create the jobs we have here. anytime our economy returns to an economy where people are growing things and making things -- things like you make right here -- that is always better for the middle of the country. we are closer to the resources of the country, closer to both the international and national distribution center of the country, close to a great workforce. if you are going to make something in america today, the first two boxes you have to check are can we pay the utility bill and does the transportation system work? if you cannot pay the totally

bill and the transportation system does not work, you don't get to the third box, which is, who has the best workforce and -- in the places where you can pay the utility bill and the transportation system works? people want to bring the jobs that have left the country back into this country. we just need to be sure we're not building needless barriers that stop that from happening. the epa has a power rule that is in court right now, challenging, rightly so, whether the epa has the right to do what they are proposing to do. what they would do is basically have a war on coal-fired plants for utilities. we are the fourth most dependent state on coal-fired utilities, the cleanest, most efficient coal-fired utilities anybody has ever had. but in our state, if they get that rule through, the average utility bill will double in 10 or 12 years. first of all, who was most

impacted by that -- struggling families. people who can barely pay their utility bill now, the last people who will get the energy efficient appliances and new windows and more insulation are people who already are having a hard time paying their utility bill. the next thing that happens is the jobs that would occur at today's utility bill, many of them were not occur at twice today securely bill. today's utility bill. we have got more american energy than anyone would have dreamed possible 20 years ago. who would think the government response would be, let's raise everybody's utility bills? when in fact the government response should be, how can we do that, to manage to have a competitive utility structure that leads to more jobs? i think the obama administration, one of the problems we have had the last eight years is they always seem to be so much more focused on what the world should look like 25 years from now than on whether people have better jobs

next month and next year. if people have better jobs next month and next year, the world will look a whole lot better 25 years from now than if people don't. we need to be doing common sense things. the other rule the epa has is called the waters of the u.s. rule. where they have suddenly decided that while they have jurisdiction over navigable water, water you can move something on, an area of commerce you can move something on, they had decided "navigable" means any water that can run into any water that can run into any water that could run into the mississippi river, which would be navigable water -- i mean, the missouri river. but in our state, the epa map that the farm bureau believes would be the map that would be covered on anything involving water. any building permit, any determination to set a utility

pole, resurface your driveway -- 99.7% of missouri would be under the control of the epa for those issues. if you really want to slow down our economy, those are two good ways to do it -- raise the utility bill and put the epa in charge of anything involving water. but fighting those regulations back, i think i should have to vote on any regulation that has any significant economic consequence. people that you can get your hands on need to be responsible for those rules and regulations. i have actually sponsored legislation like that for a long time, the last couple of congresses with rand paul. by the way, donald trump says he would sign a bill, if we get that bill on his desk. a president that will fight regulators, a president that will realize that obamacare is a

disaster. now, you have pretty good health care here, arnie and i talked about that, and your company has worked hard to provide pretty good health care that, quicker than you know it, might be taxed as part of the cadillac plan. i'm not for that. but i'm also not for families not having choices. under the current law, starting next year -- that means starting with the sign-up on november 1 -- 97 of our 114 counties will only have one insurance company offering insurance individuals. 97 of 114 counties, no competition, one company. even bill clinton got this right the other day. he was making a speech, he said this health care plan, this health care proposal is the craziest thing ever. he said the costs keep going up, and the benefits keep going down. just yesterday, president obama said, well really that is not my

, fault. well, who's fault is it if it is not his fault? exactly. exactly. i was sitting by somebody on an airplane the other day, flying home to springfield, missouri, where i live. self-employed. only way to get his insurance is on the exchange. looked like he was mid-to-late 40's. we talked about his business. i said, what do you do about your insurance? he said in 2008 and 2009, my wife and i and our two girls, and we had been fortunate to be healthy, we were paying about $300 a month our insurance, and it was the insurance we thought we needed. right now, we are paying $1139 a month for our insurance, and we have a $7,500 deductible on top of that. before the insurance company would pay anything. if two people in our family are sick that year, we have to meet the $7,500 deductible twice before they pay anything. and everybody here knows that is really not insurance at all for any of our families.

you are paying $15,000 in premiums, and if you get sick, you may pay another $15,000 before the insurance company pays. and then, you may have to pay part of what has to be paid after that. it is outrageous. absolutely outrageous. what he is going to find is his insurance is going to go up somewhere in the neighborhood of 40% this year. not only one company offering insurance in 97 counties, but that one company will be offering insurance at whatever rate the state of missouri -- which has not disclosed yet what the new rates are -- at whatever rate they had to give those companies to get them to continue to be even the one company that offers insurance under this crazy plan. so we need to be much more focused on opportunity and jobs and more jobs and less government, and also focused on

who we have always been. the of the day want to marshfield high school. marshall, missouri. marshfield, missouri. it was the anniversary of the building where i got my first job teaching high school history. the first person in my family to ever get a job that you had to have a college degree for, because i was the first person in my family to have a college degree. my grandfather's last job had been the janitor at the building. that is not a bad story. but in our country, there are a million stories better than that one. i think the president has, over and over again, refused to talk about the exceptional nature of who we are. i don't know how long you can have the leader of the country not believe we are exceptional and people still understand how extraordinary it is to be here. you know, the high school gender's grandson, a very

farmer's son becomes a united states senator, and nobody thinks that is unusual, because we live in united states of america. youo not want to lose that the next senate in the next president, more than any any senate or president in a long time or for a long time, is also going to define the supreme court. so when you are talking to your friends about this, there are lots of supreme court decisions over the last few years that have been 5-4. and by the way, once you get on the court, you stay there a long time. antonin scalia, the one vacancy, who died earlier this year, was appointed by president reagan. he served for 26 years after reagan left the white house, and 12 years after reagan died. and he was the fifth vote in many of those 5-4 decisions. so we know there is one vacancy.

looking at the age of the court, you have to assume there will be two. i would not be surprised if there were three. matter of fact, i would bet three, and i would not be surprised if there were four. all of those 5-4 decisions are -- there are out there in the future, are going to be decided by the next president and the next senate. the heller case, the second amendment case, was 5-4. 5-4. i have an a from the nra, my opponent has an f. and when he was in the legislature, less than 10% of the general assembly figured out how to get the f. you have to work hard to get the f. he earned it the old-fashioned way. he worked for it. i have been a. -- i have an a. the partial-birth abortion case upheld the ability of the government to say, you cannot do that at that point in a pregnancy, that was 5-4. the hyde amendment case was 5-4, there was a freedom of speech

case that was 5-4 that mrs. clinton says every day she wants to reverse that freedom of speech case, that was 5-4. we are at a critical moment. so when you're talking to your friends, the one thing to tell them is that while every election is important, this one is an election that is not going to come around for a long time. it is going to determine who we are for a generation by determining the court, by deciding if we are going to get the regulators under control or not, but deciding what health care is going to have more choices and more competition for we are going to have a government option. you can't compete against the government, so anybody who says they are for the government option is really for the government takeover of health care. i need your help. i look forward to having your help. one other thing happening in our state this year, we have five state officials up for election

-- state offices up for election, people who work in jefferson city. the governor, the lieutenant governor, the secretary of state, the state treasurer, the attorney general -- nobody that has those offices today is running for any of them. we are going to make a decision about five new people that are going to be important in leading the state for a long time. we have a general assembly now that constantly has to override the governor's veto. it should not take two thirds of the general assembly to get anything done that really matters so the governor's race , matters. but it also matters any time you invite somebody to come to your community, speak at a high school graduation or the lions club or cut a ribbon on the opening of a building. we have state officials who

believe that the people in our state are bigger than the government, rather than the government bigger than the people. we have people who ought to be focused on finding more jobs for people that they can raise families with and have stronger families, instead of finding more programs -- government programs -- for people to be on. we are deciding that this year as well. and one of those people is here. i'm going to let him finish up. eric schmitt, a current state senator, a guy who i think is going to be an important leader in our state for a long time. he is one of the new voices. all of those offices are going to have somebody new in them. i think we ought to have somebody in them who agrees with the vision for missouri and missouri families that you and i share. thank you all for letting me be here. eric schmitt. [applause] mr. schmitt: thank you. this race now is getting national attention. you may have noticed a camera here covering this. that is because this is an incredibly important senate race. as roy mentioned the fate of the

, united states supreme court , not just for the next four years, but for the next 40 years hangs in the balance, along with other issues. i have been campaigning across the state. i have never campaigned or worked with somebody who works as hard as roy blunt. he is a strong voice for us in the united states senate, and we need to send him back. [applause] mr. schmitt: roy mentioned something that i think is important. the idea of american exceptionalism. for me -- we talk a lot about the constitution and it is really important. but before there was a constitution, there was something -- the declaration of independence. really what that document represents is a mission statement for the country, who we are supposed to be. and we are guaranteed not by government but by god the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. those three words -- "pursuit of happiness" -- were really never used before in the course of human history. it defines what it means to be

an american, that you can come here from somewhere else and you can pursue your dreams. and that your kids and your grandkids will have those opportunities, too. and i think what happens -- and where we are now is it is easy to get caught up in the back-and-forth and soundbites and who said what and the polls, but what is really at stake in just a few days is whether or not that is the country we are going to remain to be. that, like my family, who came over from germany -- there is a lot of german heritage in this town -- they wanted a better life six generations ago, so they settled in missouri. and when my grandfather came back from world war ii, he started a butcher shop with an eighth grade education. he lived the american dream. my dad worked there, went to night school while working during the day. i saw how hard he worked it he worked at anheuser-busch seven days a week of the midnight shift. that work ethic that made this company a great company is what defines what it means to be an american. that is true at the national and

also true at the state level. missouri, we can do better. there are states surrounding us that are doing more bigger and bolder things. every state around us -- except state of illinois, and we do not want to emulate illinois -- is lowering taxes. my time in the senate, we overrode the governor to pass the first tax cut in 100 years. so we got a lot more to do. there is a lot at stake. there is more we can do. we need a state treasurer who is going to invest more in main street and less than wall street. we need a state treasurer that is going to loan money to these local banks that then get that money on the street, the same way my thing that is going to -- the same way we make our economy

grow. when we run for state offices, we do not get as much attention at my opponent did not just vote for some semblance of obamacare, my opponent was picked by president obama to implement obamacare in missouri. about thattalking too much on the campaign trail and you might imagine why. there are big differences. somebody trying to implement obamacare in missouri. consequences. as roy blunt says, we have a generational opportunity that has not come up in almost 25 years to pick new leaders for can grow.s that we so we can seize this opportunity of feeding double the amount of people we will have in the next 30 years. we are as poised as any other state to do well. but it will take leadership,

people who understand how hard you work and we need to get government out of the way and create opportunity for more jobs. make sure you get out and vote. i appreciate any support you might have me. thank you. ] pplause >> i will let him be the one to say get back to work. grab some cookies. thank you for being here. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

announcer: in the final days before election days, voters in missouri are seeing several political ads for senator blunt

and for his political opponent jason kander. here is a look. >> we have a family business just like roy blunt. his wife and three of his children are all lobbyists. he does not see what is wrong with this. blunt: everybody's family does something. i do not see what is wrong with that. >> he does not even live in in washington. maybe he should just become a lobbyist, too. jason kander: i am jason kander and i approve this message. roy blunt: i am roy blunt and i approve this message. >> kander is lying. lobbyists have never paid for roy blunt to trouble anywhere. but here's the truth.