matters. america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> our campaign 2022 coverage continues tonight with i will republican senator taking on his democratic challenger live at 8:00 eastern on c-span. and then at 9:00, arizona democratic senator mark kelly faces lake masters and libertarian in the first and only debate in that race before the midterm election. you can see it streaming live on the c-span video app. or anytime at c-span.org. joining us now is the national political reporter with the arizona republic. and the host of -- podcast. here to talk about the arizona senate debate. thank you 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. -- race for arizona senate seat. guest: this is arizona having a senate race and we've been doing it since 26 time -- 2016, every cycle, we see -- he is facing first-time candidate lake masters, for the republicans this has been a race about masters trying to make this a case against mark kelly not being the not -- not the independent that he claims to be. that he is a democratic vote for chuck schumer, and that he is soft on the border. 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 do these two men stand as far as readings are concerned?

guest : 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 -- they are a third of the electorate. there are quite a few of them. he is in the favorite heading into the debate and lake masters -- lake masters -- blake 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. guest :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. as it were.

>> when it comes to blake masters himself, how much republican support has he received. >> in the primary phase of the race, he has had substantial financial backing by peter teal. --. theil 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. mcconnell has not invested in the race and has left it to others to stand up his 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 some fairly over-the-top writings in his college days at inferred that have sketched out a worldview that does not wear well. this is during the iraq war phase. -- he has comments about the u.s. military. he has reference people in his writing and online speaking that may have alluded to some unsavory characters including at least one nazi. 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? guest : 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 a federal personhood law. for most people that means 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

-- since the dobbs ruling. we have recently had a state judge essentially re-allow a civil war era abortion law that bans virtually all abortion. 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 start with blake masters. after that we will show you the ad for mark kelly and then we will talk about senator kelly for moment. but first here the most recent ad from blake masters. [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 8000 more border control agents. how does that sound?

not for mark kelly 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. i support this message. [video clip] i am the mayor of mason and republican. -- mesa and a 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. -- save our 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 kelly is trying to send? >> he has capped himself since running four years ago, the idea that he is a centrist,

independent that is trying to get good policy outcomes, that is on brand for him to hold up republicans who have seen value in what he is talking about and trying to accomplish in washington. again, it's notable that his seat was once filled by senator john mccain. this is part of what has been a storyline that mark kelly wanted to reinforce. he is reachable from both sides and not beholden to just democrats. obviously, republicans have a different view of his voting record. they key is -- 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? guest : 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 -- margin in 2020. the presidents standing here has always and somewhat tenuous because of that. the biden administration is not broadly popular in arizona at the moment. the border is an important issue to many voters here. that is something that blake masters has tried to tap into. mark kelly has 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. >> the host of the gaggle podcast, what is that? >> it is a weekly political

podcast that we have with the republican azcentral.com. each week we talk to different people, reporters, politicians or people who have been impacted by politics. we have had guests from students to former vice president mike pence and everyone in between. >> thank you for your time in setting up arizona's debate tonight. >> ♪ announcer: c-span is your unfiltered view of government. funded by these television companies and more, including comcast. >> oh, you think this is just a community center? no, it is way more than that. >> comcast is partnering with 1,000 community centers to create wi-fi enabled listings for students of low income families, to give them the tools they need to get them ready for anything. announcer: comcast supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. ♪ announcer: next, senator chuck grassley and his democratic

challenger take part in a debate ahead of iowa is 2022 senate election. arizona senator mark kelly and his two challengers in the state's 2022 senate race take part in a debate. later, liz cheney explains why arizonans should not give power to political candidates who are election deniers. >> chuck grassley and mike franken, on this live iowa press debate. >> funding for iowa press was provided by the iowa pbs foundation. the associated general contractors of iowa. the public's partner in building iowa's highway, bridge, and municipal infrastructure. iowabs