days away, watch the competition for the control of congress on c-span. see for yourself, the candidates and the debates from key house and senate races. sourcespan your primary for campaign 2018. live in about five minutes, vice president mike pence will be talking about the trump administration's priorities and the next week's midterm elections. we will take you live to the interview on politico as soon as it begins. and this afternoon, defense secretary james mattis will talk about security and u.s. military strategy at 5:30 eastern time. this evening, indiana democratic senator joe donnelly will debate mike braun and lucy brinton in indianapolis live at 7:00 eastern. you can want all of our cover streaming live online at c-span.org, or you can listen

live with the free c-span radio app. c-span is your primary source for campaign 2018. this week on washington journal, we have been focusing on battleground states leading up to the midterms, and today, we focus on new york state. to start us off, we will look at key races to watch as we go over the next week. joining us is john campbell of usa today. he served as their albany correspondent. good morning to you. guest: thank you for having me. host: give us the details. withart with new york 19 those candidates. off telling us a little bit about both of these guys? is thejohn faso republican incumbent, and longtime politician in government official in new york. he has held the seat for two years and he is facing a very, very stiff challenge from

antonio delgado who is a rhodes scholar, an attorney, who just moved back into the district. he is challenging john faso on his record on health care, in --ticular, and if it lanes slightly democratic slightly democratic and poll show it is very, very close. delgado was ad 49-44 lead. is striking thing about that that there are very few voters undecided, but that could still turn out. features of the race was about mr. delgado and his music past. can you describe to our viewers about that? guest: absolutely. there is some dark money ads from republicans -- republican-favored groups that

favor republicans in congress that are doing independent expenditures that highlight that tony delgadillo had a prior, fledgling rap career. i don't think you could call it a rapper, but he put out a wrap album, and you hear as all over the state, detailing that in plain clips from the songs john faso has brought up the fact that he uses rough language, which is par for the course for rap music, but antonio delgado areorters said those racially-motivated attacks. andnio delgadillo is latino african-american, and a lot of the rap music's lyrics had to do , freedom, andnt fighting back, and he said the message is still what he stands by today. john faso has been hitting him for the course language in the lyrics. in thenother tight race

22nd district of new york, the republican representative -- tell us about where this stands. guest: this is another one that is a dead heat. sienna college came out with a poll that showed -- a single point. it is well within the margin of error. anthony is the challenger, democrat. this is an expensive district that goes from utica to the being him area. he is an assembly man that is challenging claudia. she has been in the seat for two years and is a former state assemblywoman. she is a republican, a conservative, and has gotten a boost from donald trump. donald trump at a fundraiser for her and spoke on her behalf. eric trump was here recently and said a vote against claudia is a vote against his father. they are banking on the fact that the district has a slight republican enrollment edge,

about 150,000 or so republicans. are hoping that her closeness with donald trump and the trump support puts her over the top, but that is a risky proposition. host: the president won the district back in 2016. what are some of the factors that you think because of claudia, why she cannot capitalize on that for a bigger margin? guest: well, the so-called blue wave, right? that is what the democrats are banking on. anthony has had a lot of support from democrats who were banking on the blue wave that will put them over the top. it is a site republican enrollment edge, but not a huge one. largeow, it is a very district, so different pockets of the district have different feelings on donald trump. itt is a lot on economic issues, the southern ier of new york is economic a troubled and has been for a long time.

that is one of the major topics that has been in this race, but still, as you said, it is a very, very close race. it is a tossup in every sense of the word. host: when it comes to spending and is closed races, what are you seeing? guest: generally speaking, we have seen the democratic challengers out raising the republican incumbents. you have seen that in a lot of districts across the state. you know, a lot of that, the democrats have this energized base. democratic a largely state, and there is a good amount of donors throughout the state, so you see generally speaking in these races, the democratic challengers out racing the republicans. new york 2004, where do we stand and what you think this race is going? guest: john cap goes is the republican rick public can -- john is a republican incumbent.

upset.onent won in an she is a syracuse university visiting professor who is favored by progressives, but the polling shows this race is not as those as the other two we discussed. the poll showed john up 53-39. that is a wide margin to make up with literally one way to go until election day. this one is not as close if you believe the polling, but it is one that democrats had hoped to thereecause there is -- is essentially 50-50 enrollment in terms of republicans and democrats. john seems to be running away with it given the latest polling. host: one of the things that came out of this race is the negatives when it comes to the candidate bolter. what are you seeing? guest: you have seen a number of different things. one, you know, it is a 50-50

district. winning a democratic primary is very different from winning an election race. who had thethe left support of nancy pelosi. -- thats well to win does well to win a primary, but if you have to win over undecided and republican voters, that is a tougher sell. representative crist collins versus nate mcmurray of the democrats. one thing featured in the race was legal issues for representative collins. guest: legal issues is putting it nicely, i think. he has been indicted on insider trading charges. there is strong evidence against him. he says those charges are misguided and the truth will come out. chris collins, the incumbent , he had said at one

point that he was going to step down, not step down from his office, but stepped down from running for reelection, and allow the republicans to pick it up candidate to replace him. he reversed course at the last minute and said he would run for reelection, but is running a shadow campaign. he has not been telling the media where he is going to be and has done few interviews. opponent debated his who is nate mcmurray. island is just outside of the district, but nate mcmurray is running for this district between buffalo and rochester suburb. collins said with chris facing indictment, he is going to be on trial in 2020. this is a very, very republican district and is the most republican district in new york. trump by adonald wide margin coming chris collins was the first congressman to back donald trump, so he is relying on the fact that it is a

very republican district with a big enrollment edge. he is sending a national message saying, we have to keep republicans in control of congress. that means you need to see me back to washington. so far, he seems to be up a little bit in the polls, but a four-point lead in the latest poll. host: what are you going to be watching for on election night? guest: i think three of the four races we talked about are the three i will be watching most closely. i mean, new york is very big for democrats in terms of nationally. it is a very blue state, and they are hoping to flip some seats to take that congress. new york will be one of those battlegrounds that incumbents will be watching nationally. talking about the key races to watch when it