to go to-- i am ready bat for iowa families. bat for ready to go to patients who want to get the best care they most importantly, i will fight for iowa taxpayers, i will never forget you i work for. congress has failed us and it is time for new leadership. abby finkenauer? rep. finkenauer: i grew up here in iowa, i come from a family that taught me that when there is work to be done, you say yes and you do x. that is what i have tried to do in congress. i passed a bipartisan bill to help small businesses. i have introduced over 20 bipartisan bills, including permanently funding the children's health insurance program so it stops the egg as political football -- so it

stops being used as political football. making it so we can attract more doctors to iowa and investments in rural infrastructure. there are people who say, you talk about the bipartisan work, but is that really happening in d.c.? my day is different than what you see on tv at nights. powereve there is more and unity than division and we have to get things done. >> i have to wrap things up. thank both of you. good luck to you both. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] morning, joseph bristow -- joseph bustos. he is scheduled to be at the debate tonight and she is here -- good morning. guest: thank you for having me. host: first, let me ask this question, the same event we have been talking about over and

over, the nomination of amy coney barrett to the supreme court, that event at the white house, was lindsey graham at the event? guest: his office said he has not been around the president for several days. he actually took a test yesterday and his campaign announced that senator graham and his staff have tested negative for covid-19. that was a concern from people organizing the debate, even jamie harrison and his campaign. he took a covid-19 test and he said he is negative, so we are good to go. host: that was going to be my next question, is the debate still on given everything happening in the senate and the third positive test from a center this morning? guest: it was quite the whirlwind watching the news yesterday and senator graham said during an event yesterday that he had spoken to the

president and he was in good spirits. but yes, they wanted it to be out there that senator graham was negative for covid-19. host: the debate is on, what are the issues senator graham and jamie harrison are going to focus on tonight? guest: we can expect may be some stuff about the covid-19 response by the federal government and the issues of rural broadband in south carolina. maybe some stuff on climate come up.y, -- may people, folks in south carolina have issues with flooding, not just at the coast, but even in columbia. that may come up. do not be surprised to hear about jamie harrison's lobbying history, and graham's previous statements about the president in 2016 when he did not have kind things to say about the president when he was running.

you will probably hear about the confirmation process for the nominee to the supreme court. host: the last demo k to serve in the senate from south carolina was about a couple of decades back, when i was covering fritz holling in south carolina, so does a democrat have a chance in winning a statewide election in south carolina right now? guest: that is a great question. i think the last time a democrat won statewide was 2006. it is a republican state reliably. the president carried it by 14 points in 2016. senator lindsey graham has easily won reelection a couple times, but polls show the race tied. two polls came out in september, saying the race was tied at 48-48. cbs news has a poll that has lindsey graham up by one point.

it is a close race, closer than i think most people expected. and because it is close, we are getting intense campaigning from both sides, at least on the tv airwaves here. host: you have reported that jamie harrison is set to outspend lindsey graham 7-to-1 on the airwaves, but what is causing the disparity considering that lindsey graham is the incumbent, and also chair of the senate judiciary committee? guest: senator graham is a high profile senator. i moved here in november and everybody knew he was. you see him on the cable networks all the time. people around the country either really like senator graham, or they really do not like him. so you are seeing a lot of money coming in from out of state, both sides. 93% of harrison's campaign donations have been from out of

state, 85% of lindsey graham's contributions have been from out of state. and both are regulars on cable news. you see senator graham on fox news regularly. he will see jamie harrison on msnbc regularly. so they are getting a lot of money from out of state. to their campaigns. host: is this the last debate between these candidates or will there be more? guest: there are two more scheduled in this coming month, so if people miss out tonight, there will be another chance to see them square off. at least they are scheduled to square off. host: tell us what you are going to watch for in tonight's debate. guest: i'm interested to see, does senator graham go on the attack over harrison's lobbying history? i think because the race is so

close, he will, or we will probably see lindsey graham go more on the attack of who is jamie harrison. harrison has not been doing a lot of in person campaigning because of the pandemic. he has done virtual campaigning. he has only held a handful of events. so, i wonder how is harrison going to be defined in this race. one thing interesting about both of these guys, they both have core upbringings. now, they are accusing the other of living lavish lifestyles, being wealthy in a state that has some poor areas in it. host: we will all be watching the debate intently tonight. we want to thank joseph, political reporter for the state newspaper, for taking us through the debate between lindsey graham and jamie harrison. joseph, thank you. guest: thank you.

>> >> now to the debate, the first of three scheduled meetings between the two. live coverage courtesy of wis-tv in columbia.