time, and place." we will be live with president trump this afternoon in las vegas as he signs a bill allowing spending for a number of federal agency. ng -- energy and water, veterans affairs, the legislative branch. c-span numeral two will have live coverage when president trump holds a rally in support of missouri senate republican candidate and state attorney general josh hawley. here's a look at the issues in that race. up until election day, we will look at key senate races and talk about their importance in the political landscape. joining us is brian lowry via skype and we are talking about missouri and it is important with the missouri senate race. good morning. guest: good morning, thank you for having me. host: the president heads to missouri, what is the purpose?

haawleyo get josh over the finish line. of the first time, he kicked off his push for tax cuts and attacked claire mccaskill. the next time, he endorsed josh hawley. this is another rally and another part of a fund-raising push. the president has been focused on this race and repeatedly gone after claire mccaskill in speeches and on twitter and so this shows you that the race in missouri is very important to the white house. u.s.think control of the senate hinges on this race. host: a little bit about josh hawley and why the president supports him so much. guest: it's a little ironic since a lot of the people who recruited hawley were skeptics or even critics of trump, including former senator

danforth, who wrote a blistering op-ed about trump year ago. hawley has fully embraced the trump agenda since getting his endorsement last year. has been very reluctant to disagree with the president on policy. one reason he was a top gop recruit in general if holley, when he ran for attorney general in 2016, it was his first time running for statewide office and he was the top vote getter in the state. hawley got even more votes in the state than trump. he was seen as a rising star in the republican party. he is a socialist -- social conservative and clerked for chief justice roberts before he returned to missouri. he has got some social conservative credentials. -- youngn as a long contrastsh face and a

to claire mccaskill. host: claire mccaskill recently came out against the kavanaugh nomination this week. talk about that in a larger context of where mccaskill is in regaining the seat. guest: i think it is significant she did that. there had been a lot of pressure on her from both sides of the aisle, republicans have been attacking her on this since justice kennedy retired, before there was even a nominee. i think there was a lot of expectation from progressives that she needed to vote no against kavanaugh. she has been facing a lot of calls from groups at planned parenthood and others about that. her reasoning had nothing to do with roe v. wade and had nothing to do with the assault allegation against judge kavanaugh. she cited specifically, his views on dark money and campaign spending and concerns that he

will further loosen the campaign regulations that became loosened with citizens united. policyk a very specific position to explain it. if she had voted to support the nomination, she would have offended a lot of people she needs to get out to the polls, specifically like kansas city and st. louis. she also has to do this delicate dance because she will need trump voters to win. at the end of the day, this shows you senator mccaskill is either confident she can win with this vote maybe because kavanaugh's nomination has been weakened with recent news, or it shows you she knows she needs that progressive vote to get to the polls in order to stay competitive. host: what is polling's adjusting about the potential winner? guest: it's basically a coin flip. every poll has been pretty much

deadlocked in a head-to-head race. there is also -- independent candidate in the race who could pull from -- some votes and the help senator mccaskill. if the national trend of the democratic wave that a lot of people are expecting happens, that may help lift up senator mccaskill. if there is this anti-incumbent energy, that could lead for her to be ousted. it is really going to probably be a race that is decided by a single digit margin. host: let's show you a couple of the ads airing in missouri. [video clip] >> two years ago i beat breast cancer. i don't talk about it much, but those who face cancer and other illnesses have a pre-existing condition when it comes to health coverage. josh hawley filed a lawsuit letting insurance companies deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. that is just wrong and i am

fighting to stop it. i claire mccaskill and i approve this message because the insurance companies already have too many senators on their side. of 20 hawley is one republican state officials across the nation who have signed on to this lawsuit seeking to overturn the affordable care act after congress zeroed out the emergent -- the mandate. it would strike down the entirety of the law, including protections for pre-existing conditions, which are quite popular. this has become a problem for hawley and a lot of republican officials throughout the nation in tough races and mccaskill has absolutely seized on this issue. in addition to this ad, which i think is powerful because she is talking about her personal story, her campaign has been releasing a series of web ads up 30 missourians with pre-existing

conditions. hawley says he supports protections for pre-existing conditions, but this has become a really difficult issue for him because his name, he signed on to this lawsuit. case were helly a is in the driver seat, but he put his name behind this lawsuit that would -- if successful, overturn the eca. host: but see the response ad from josh hawley. [video clip] >> insurance companies already have too many senators on their side. >> what hypocrite. claire mccaskill receives the second-most contributions from insurance companies in the entire senate. host: it is short, but what is the strategy. guest: the strategy is part of a larger strategy of the hawley campaign to paint the castle as a hypocrite on a lot of these campaign funding issues. we mentioned dark money, they have accused her -- she talks about how she is against dark money. her campaign material is often

ending up in television ads paid for by democratic leaning dark money groups. on this particular thing, it hinges on how you define insurance companies. fromare taking this number the center for responsive politics. when that is bracketed out between car insurance companies, life insurance, health insurance companies, property insurance. fact thatt to the hawley realizes he really does need to combat this attack from mccaskill about the pre-existing conditions. host: before we leave you, tell us about the president's event tonight and what do we know about it as far as the format and who will be speaking? give us the details? you will see hawley on

the stage. i don't know that the lineup has been disclosed. the president was scheduled to go to missouri last week and had to postpone that because of hurricane florence. every time trump has come to missouri, it is quite a show. he is going to springfield, missouri, which is going to be very important for this race. the bigger cities in missouri, kansas city and st. louis, are tour senatorn mccaskill. springfield is very republican country and a big turnout there will be key for hawley. when trump went to springfield about a year ago, i met the guy waiting to greet air force one, who had written trump on his glass i. he had written the word "trump" on his glass eye. and that was one of the first hands the president shook when he got off air force one.

this will be a very excited crowd and friendly territory for the president. i expect he will talk about this fight over kavanaugh, which you mentioned on your show, the tweets this morning and given the context mccaskill came out against capital's nomination -- kavanaugh's nomination this week. i think this will be a center point of the speech. host: he serves as the washington correspondent. thank you for your time. announcer: c-span 2 will have live coverage when president trump holds that rally in support of josh hawley. live coverage starts at 7:30 p.m. eastern. be c-span network, your primary source for campaign 2018. q&a, cbs news chief white house correspondent major garrett talks about his book "mr. trump's wild ride."

>> it's not about partisanship, it transcends party. i describe president trump as proto-partisan. he is bigger than partisanship because there is this emotional dynamo that he spins within people. he does it intentionally. sometimes he does not even know he is doing it. that it happens is influencing every aspect of american life. culture, economics, politics, and in ways you have detected, the way journalists interact with this ongoing story. announcer: tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. campaigns across the country are trying to figure out how to best use social media. policy center hosted a discussion on what strategists are doing to address concerns about misinformation and security vulnerabilities. de