hosting the debate, and thank you for joining us. election day is november 8. for all of us at maine >> today nasa's spacex crew five arrives at the international space station. watch live coverage at 4:00 on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. our campaign 2022 coverage continues tonight with iowa republican senator chuck grassley taking on his democratic challenger mike franken live at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. then at 9:00, arizona democratic senator mark kelly faces republican blake masters and libertarian mark victor in the first and only debate in that race before the mid-term elections. you'll also find our campaign coverage streaming live on the c-span now video app.

or online at c-span.org. "washi" continues. host: joining us now is ronald hansen who is a national news reporter to talk about the arizona senate debate. thanks for joining us. guest: nice to be with you. host: set the stage as far as tonight's debate and relate it to larger issues in this rate for arizona's senate seat. guest: this is arizona having a senate race and we've been doing it since 2016 stop this is to complete the final -- to start a new term in 2020. he is facing a first-time candidate the republicans in this race has been about masters

trying to make the sick as -- a case against mark kelly not being the independent he claims to be. mark kelly is trying to make the case that he promised to be an independent voice for arizona. host: as far as the race itself, where to the two stand? >> at this point, mark kelly is the favorite. he is wildly popular in arizona and is in good standing with independent voters which is a critical block in arizona. there are quite a few of them. he is in the favorite heading into the debate and lake masters wants a five way republican primary and he is someone who has the horseman of president -- former president donald trump

and he says he is in line with arizona's historically conservative values. host: tonight's debate also features a libertarian. >> mark victor is a libertarian and is kind of the wild in this. blake matches his trailing and i'm sure he would like to have time to himself. he would like to see someone draw blood on mark kelly. host: how much republican support is he getting? >> in the primary phase of the race, he has had substantial backing of a multimillionaire. he co-wrote a book with him and had backing through a but short of that, he has been trailing in

fundraising and has not been remarkable on the front. he is trying to boost his fundraising to financially compete. one of the notable allies he did not have is the super pac associated with minority leader mitch mcconnell he left it to others to stand up the campaign. host: why do you think that is? guest: there are differences between the two. masters was somewhat critical of mcconnell during the primary for the republicans. more pragmatically, they see blake masters is someone who is perhaps not the most electable candidate on the menu. he has not had the kind of problems that apply to herschel walker in georgia but he has done some over-the-top writing in his college days at stanford that have sketched out a world

view that is not where will during the erect war. he had comments about the military and referenced people in his writing and online speaking and alluded to some unsavory characters. host: when it comes to mr. masters positions, has he been consistent over time or has he changed in an effort to gain more electability? >> it's been kind of a shifting scene stop notably on the issue of abortion rights, the dobbs ruling in arizona was explosive as you would imagine. blake masters had been something of a hardliner on abortion rights and has spoken of the issue in terms of wanting

protection from the moment of conception. since winning the august primary, masters has tried to readjust his language, recalibrate it and say he is supportive of a law that arizona passed earlier this year that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks. it's notable that arizona has had one of the more confusing legal settings for abortion from the dobbs ruling. we recently had a state judge essentially re-allow a civil war abortion law that virtually bans all abortion so this issue has renewed currency in arizona and masters has struggled to make clear to everyone where he stands. host: stay with this, we will show viewers the ads these campaigns are running. we will show you blake masters

adam we will show you the ad for mark kelly and then we will talk about senator kelly. [video clip] >> rising prices mean we all have to take a second look at our shopping list, set priorities so let's look at mark kelly. how about hiring 18 more workers? he voted no. he voted for 87,000 new irs agents. mark kelly kept our border wide open but he sending collectors coming after you. i'm blake masters. ♪ [video clip] i am the mayor of mason and republican. the last few years have been tough in our local businesses and our community needed help. that's when i heard for mark kelly. we may be from different political parties but it doesn't matter for mark. for him, we are on team arizona. mark secured critical funding to

help savor small businesses. he doesn't look for ways to blame democrats or republicans, he looks for a way forward. i'm for mark kelly and i approve this message. host: the ad featuring a republican endorsement, what the kind of message that senator ellie is trying to sense? >> the idea that he is centrist, independent and trying to get to good policy out comes, this is very on brand for him to hold up republicans who have seen value in what he is talking about and trying to accomplish in washington stop it's notable that this seat is the one once held by senator john mccain. this is part of something that has been a storyline that mark kelly has wanted to reinforce. he is someone who is reachable from both sides and not beholden

to just democrats. republicans have of different view of his voting record. they say he is a reliable ally of chuck schumer. host: you know as anybody about president biden's approval rating. how is senator kelly weathering all that? >> he is as well positioned as any democrat can be at the moment stop president biden is underwater and is net unpopular in arizona. this was noticeably the state with the closest election market -- margin in the president here has always been tenuous because of that step the biden administration is not broadly popular in arizona at the moment.

he has the resources to send out the constant message about his centrism and willingness to find good policy outcomes and has been able to project that image to arizona voters. host: ronald hansen writes for the arizona real public and is the host of the gaggle podcast, what is that? >> it is a weekly politica we have and usually we talk to people, whether it is our own reporters, whether it is politicians or former vice president mike pence. >> thank you for your time. but you bet. >> net to footed from dragon endurance.