television companies and more. >> homework can be hard, but squatting in a diner for internetwork is harder. that is why we are providing students access to internet. >> cox, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> coming up, the brookings institution's senior fellow wendy edelberg discusses the u.s. economic outlook and recession concerns and cook political report editor david wasserman looks at campaign 2022 and key house races to watch. washington journal starts now. host: good morning. there are 11 days to go until

election day 2022. the map on your screen shows the 36 states holding gubernatorial elections with republicans defending 20 of the 36 seats. this morning, we will begin with a conversation about your governor and the top issues facing your state whether or not you have a gubernatorial race. we want to know what are the top issues facing your state. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can join the conversation if you send us a text. include your first name, city and state at (202) 748-8003 or go to facebook.com/c-span. if you send a tweet, use the handle @cspanwj. top issues facing your state. for many of you, it is the economy.

it is an issue that president biden has low approval rating on. he was in syracuse, new york with the governor. democratic governor kathy hochul trying to talk about what his administration is doing on the economy as that governor faces an unexpected tight race with congressman lees eldon. here is the president. [video clip] >> my republican friends in congress seem to be hoping for a recession, present company excluded. today, the gdp results came out and the economy is growing. the economy grew at 2.6% last quarter. although it may not feel like it for everyone, people's incomes went up last quarter more than inflation. so economic growth is up. inflation is down. real incomes are up. the price of gas is down. people continue to spend.

but now at a more stable pace than during our rapid recovery. businesses continue to invest in america. exports are up, which means we are making things in america, shipping the products overseas instead of shipping jobs overseas and sending them back. supply chains are running more smoothly, helping companies build inventory. my predecessor promised, and you heard it for four years, infrastructure week, seemingly every week for four years, but it never got done. it became a punchline when he talked about infrastructure week. on my watch, we turned infrastructure week into the decade of infrastructure. and a headline. a once in a generation investment in our nation's roads, highways, bridges, ports, railways, water systems, high-speed internet. the american people are seeing the benefits of this economy

that works for them. families have more net worth today than they did before the pandemic. host: president biden addressing the economy during his visit to new york state. the wall street journal, economy grows. the u.s. economy grew in the third quarter but showed signs of abroad slowdown as consumer and business spending faltered under high inflation and rising interest rates. the issue of rising energy costs was a topic in this week's governor's debate in new hampshire between chris sununu and democratic challenger state senator tom sherman. take a look at this exchange. [video clip] >> nobody is talking about taking away natural gas or fossil fuels because every state is dependent on that to some extent. massachusetts is 20% renewable.

new hampshire is around 1% or less. and that is because every attempt to expand our energy options has been blocked by the governor. we know that if we actually did that, from studies out of massachusetts, a study commissioned by the puc, and the experience of our surrounding states, the actual benefit goes to the rate payer. >> high energy prices have been a problem here for years. not just this year. for a long time. how should the state address that? >> the bill that comes that says we will increase our portfolio. the department of energy says that will cost $180 million a year. that goes on top of your bill. this idea that renewables lower your energy costs is wrong. beyond wrong. it is on your bill. whether you are in -- you are on a fixed income, low income, you have to pay. there has to be a transition.

he is right. massachusetts has tons of renewables and they have higher electricity vices than even we do. pci comes. they say will be the transportation climate initiative of new england. i killed it because it would have started another $.17 per gallon on top of your gas. those are not debatable facts. those are known. all these renewables require a subsidy. you have to make the transition. you have to not overburden the biomass plants. democrats wanted to keep those running. i vetoed that bill. >> what would you do to lower costs? >> we have to talk about the heart -- in terms of fuel or electricity? >> electricity. >> it is all related.

biden starts closing everything down, this incentivizes more production, limits the amount of natural gas. we need more natural gas. while you make that transition, you need the sustainability, the reliability of natural gas in the region to sustain your system. host: from the new hampshire governor's debate. the issue of energy prices. is that the top issue facing your state? that is our conversation this morning with you. politico has a story about how some of these races, including the new hampshire race, could help turn the senate for either party with a 50-50 senate as it stands now. from politico's reporting, new hampshire governor chris sununu is strongly favored to win reelection, giving republicans longshot hopes of lifting their nominee against senator maggie

hassan of new hampshire. republicans largely pulled out of the race, however, raising the possibility that both sununu and hassan are reelected and maintain new hampshire's split ticket reputation. in minnesota, independent voter, thank you for joining us. what is the top issue? caller: i'm calling in the sense of i wanted to say that governor tim walz did a fantastic job with the pandemic. he's a man of science. he is very articulate. he was very proactive in many ways and his opponent, dr. scott jensen, a medical doctor, was the one in the country that first started this conspiracy theory stuff about how the government gets more money if they put down that you died of covid on your death certificate and someone. it just started all these rumors

to make medical facilities out as if they were just choosing to put covid on the death certificate and so on, so anyone who promotes any of this conspiracy stuff for that, i feel they are disqualified from leading in the government, so i'm supporting tim walz as a man of science and a fantastic governor. host: you are an independent. have you voted for republicans before? caller: many times. but i feel the republican party has left me as a conservative person. this conspiracy thing is the worst thing that's happened to our country. if promotes chaos and i cannot take it anymore -- it promotes chaos and i cannot take it anymore. host: what is your prediction for this race? caller: he is going to win by a

little bit but i believe he will win. host: why do you think just by a little bit? why is he resonating in minnesota? caller: primarily because rural minnesota is strong with republicans and the twin cities area is very much strong as democrat supporting, so we are divided by a population. some of the people will not listen to any logic. you can tell them stuff and they will not listen. they are just staunch republicans. they will not listen to any logic. i still believe tim is going to win. host: what is your prediction for voter turnout in the state? caller: i think minnesota is literally the highest percentage turnout. minnesota very much is a very strong polling place and we have a wonderful secretary of state here who just had a debate here the other day talking about all the safety measures and so on.

so all this conspiracy stuff has got to be stopped. host: that is in baxter, minnesota. we will hear from gwendolyn, a democratic caller in detroit, michigan. hi, gwendolyn. top issue in michigan. caller: hi appear thanks for taking -- hi. thanks for taking my call. host: how are you going to vote and what is the issue driving you to vote that way? caller: i'm voting straight democrat because i want to make sure we save our democracy. governor whitmer, she's an excellent governor, and our top issue is abortion because women's rights are human rights and, you know, they are not trying to take away men's rights, but also what i wanted to say is that nobody is

mentioning that president biden made a proposition to the republicans in regard to all this oil that they keep talking about that we need, and he made the proposition that, when he takes oil from the reserves, he is telling them that -- to replenish the oil in the reserves, he will pay the oil companies in the united states to put oil -- to pump more oil and then he will buy the oil from the united states. and i haven't heard anybody talk about that, bring that up, because they are always talking about how oil refineries are shut down, they are destroying everything. those pipelines were not finished and it will take years to do that. host: all right, gwendolyn.

the issue of abortion is one of the top issues facing your state. it was one -- it was part of the governor's debate between incumbent gretchen whitmer and republican challenger tutor dixon. here is part of them sparring over proposal three, a question that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. [video clip] >> it removes parental consent and makes it so you don't have to be a doctor to perform an abortion, but it does align with her agenda. proposal three allows abortions up to the moment of birth for any reason, including sex selection. there will be no legislating around proposal three because it will be language in the constitution. we cannot put the protections we have had in place back in place that we've had in place for all these years. when governor whitmer tells you

that this is going to be roe, it is not even close. it is not codifying it in our constitution but it would be the most radical abortion law in the country. the only places that have something similar are china and north korea. >> governor whitmer, 30 seconds to rebut. >> none of what she said is true. here is why you cannot trust anything she's saying when it comes to reproductive rights. she said a 14-year-old child raped by her uncle is a perfect example of someone who should not have reproductive rights and the ability to choose. she went further to say it is healing for a person's rape to carry that child to term. i could not disagree more and she's proven you cannot trust her on this issue. you want to protect roe v. wade? vote yes on three. host: from the michigan gubernatorial debate. here are the states that have abortion ballot measures this

november coming up in 11 days. the orange states, montana, kansas, kentucky are supported by abortion rights opponents. the green states, michigan, vermont, california, supported by abortion rights proponents. that is the map of abortion ballot measures for this november 2022 election. is that the top issue facing your state? carla in new york, democratic caller. go ahead. caller: the top issue for me is kathy hogle's response to health-care workers. kathy hochul fired every health care worker that did not want to get vaccinated and they could not collect unemployment as a result. i think it is disgraceful. i don't think she's fit to be governor.

moreover, after she did this, she asked the president of the hospital where i work if she could spare any health care workers because she realized she had to go out and hire people at four or five times the rate she was paying them. she punished the people who did get vaccinated because this is a group of people who are day in and day out for well over a year not getting any time off and she decided she will punish them even further by taking away the staff of already depleted hospitals. i am a registered democrat. i already voted by ballot. i really think this is something people should think about. she is also made an issue of choice and how she's pro-abortion and health care. these should apply to everybody. i would also like to add that it's probably a hipaa violation because it is nobody's business about if you want to get

vaccinated or have an abortion or any other health care decision. people need to think about this. she's done this at a time when inflation is off-the-wall. i don't know where they are getting this 8% inflation rate. in new york city, the prices in a grocery store are more like 20%. host: before you go, you have called on the democratic line. did you vote for democrats before this election? you said you voted for lee selden. caller: yes, but this time the issue was personal for me, and i appreciated his response during the debates with the other republican candidates, how they felt that she should not have fired them and if they were governor they would rehire them and with back pay. it was to me a personal issue. i know there were issues with him with election deniers and all this other stuff, but no

candidate is perfect and it was too personal for me, so i had to go for the person who i felt would be better. host: if president biden was on the ticket i 11 daysn, would you vote for him? caller: there are other reasons. he was not a great candidate to begin with, but at this point i would not vote for biden. i don't know if i would vote for a republican candidate, but i definitely would not vote for him. host: joe in charleston, south carolina, republican. your turn. caller: people are mentioning national issues. although we have to recognize that inflation and the price of fuel and rising prices affect everyone in the country and state, fuel affects every industry and price.

one thing we are facing -- let me back up. henry mcmaster has done a good job. he tried his best to keep us open during covid. he kept our port open. they stayed open 24/7, unlike some other ports around the country, trying to keep people at work. i never lost any time during covid. now his challenger, joe cunningham, would have you believe south carolina is one of the worst states in the union. people are moving here in droves to escape the oppressive tax codes of the northeast and some of the midwest. we are having a big influx of people and that is good. people are welcome. we are business friendly, have jobs and we are tax friendly. people love it here. so joe is just wrong. the issue is, for my state, for me, is trying to keep up with

the infrastructure to support our new friends coming in. it is tough. the schools are overcrowded, the roads are overcrowded. people love it here. people are moving here and that is a valid issue. everybody is welcome but it is true. and it is probably unique to maybe texas, florida, other states where people are moving as fast as they can. if you want to go to the next election, and i'm not talking about with guns, joe cunningham is a big marijuana guy. if you vote for him at the polls you might be as high as a kite. that's a joke. host: daniel in hawaii, democratic caller. caller: i would just like to -- host: can you mute your television and then go ahead? caller: ok.

hold on. host: tell us what the top issue to you is. caller: in general, legislation comes about that improves the life of ordinary people is automatically voted against by republicans, and i would also like to say that any minority or woman who backs trump is like a jew backing hitler. host: jonathan in canton, ohio, democratic caller. caller: glad to be on c-span. i have a universal comment. like, everyone wants to be christian and federalist and all these right wing and left wing and this, that, and the other. the government should start

allowing people like the working class be in the government. these people are so out of touch with the real america, these people call in, i don't understand. it is like the blind leading the blind. i don't understand how the democrats cannot come up with a resolution to combat what the republicans fight against with them about. host: our conversation this morning as the top issue facing your state. we are just 11 days away from election day. there are 36 states holding gubernatorial elections. republicans currently controlled 28 governor's offices with democrats running the other 22. republicans are defending 20 of the 36 seats up for grabs in 11 days. whether or not you have an election, what is the top issue facing your state?

ann in dallas says the economy and the border. both of these issues feed the rising crime rate. crime was an issue in the new york gubernatorial debates, crime and public safety, between democratic incumbent governor kathy hogle and republican congressman lee selden. here is selden on his opposition to cash was bail -- to cash was bail laws. [video clip] >> i don't think you should be instantly released on cashless bail. as soon as it got implemented, she was bragging about it. that was her first big decision we need to the repeal cashless

bail. we need to make our streets safe again. i'm running to take back our streets and support unapologetically our men and women in law enforcement. we need to make sure our streets are safe again and our subways are safe again. this is our opportunity. two weeks from tonight, we can continue with the status pro. we can take control of our destiny and make sure law abiding new yorkers are in charge of our street. >> you can either work on keeping people scared or focus on keeping them safe. i have worked hard to have real policies that are making a difference. that debt is still being collected but i did focus on ballot reform -- on ale reform and the budget. there is no crime-fighting plan

if it does not include guns. you refused to talk about how we can do so much more. you did not even show up for votes in washington when a bipartisan group of legislators voted for an assault weapons ban. we lost another child in teacher yesterday in st. louis because people will not support what i was able to get done in new york. you cannot even do that. it is extraordinary. it is about getting the guns off the streets. we have more to do but i'm the one to do it. host: new york's cuban and tory race debates -- new york's gubernatorial race debates. you can find our coverage of campaign 2022, all of the key debates for house and senate and gubernatorial races. our coveragenues tonight with sever. senate debates on c-span. we wart at 8 p.m. eastern

in alaska with senator murkowski er two challengers. at 9 p.m., we will take you to north dakot. at0: p.m., a debate between colorado senator michael bennett d his republican challenger. yo can watch all these debates tonight on cpan, our free mobile video app, or online on-demand at c-span.org. charles in jackson, tennessee, republican. good morning. caller: it seems to be eight up with inflation and high gas prices. with jobs everywhere, nobody is working. host: a government subsidy coming from the state? caller: i'm not sure where the

money is coming from. where these people get the money not to work. i had to work my whole life. i don't understand why these people don't have to. host: george in circleville, ohio, independent. caller: it is the economy. we have the high inflation. yesterday, they talked about the gdp. of course it is going to go up if prices go up. that is gross domestic product. for instance, i was at kroger yesterday, a local store where i live, and prices every week go up. dog food. we have three dogs. we cannot afford to feed the dogs anymore. eight dollar increase on a bag of dog food in one week.

i'm not kidding. it is crazy what is going on. i did hear joe biden. that is the one thing that was good about all these hidden taxes. in ohio, i have to pay sales tax on propane. that is how i heat my house. it is all just for heating the house. i have to pay sales tax on my propane, which is crazy. it is like a xury to heat your house. all the hidden taxes. sales tax in ohio, you have to pay on labor it used to be tax-free. i'm a senior citizen. we had an 11.5% construction loan back then. prices didn't go up as high as what they are going on now. i don't understand this inflation. it is got to be higher than what they are saying. it is crippling to the economy. you are going to see another

raised by the fed next -- in november pretty soon. i guess it will be .75%. that will not help either. and i'm in independent but i'm leaning more towards the republicans now because it seems like they have a plan and when trump was president we were doing better, it seemed like. host: will a republican all the way down the ticket? caller: i have already voted, to be honest, and i did. i had to. just the word democrat makes me sick to my stomach. i've never seen anything like this in my life. host: that is george in ohio. a politico report making some news yesterday. jessica taylor, who follows senate races, with this news. arizona senate shifts back to tossup.

as the overall environment continues to improve in the republicans direction, the closer we get to election day, we are shifting another race the gop's direction. after we initially moved senator mark kelly into the lean democratic column, arizona goes back into a tossup amid a spat of -- amid a spate of private polling that leaves democrats worried about one of their strongest incumbents. we will speak to her colleague, david wasserman of the cook political report. he writes about house races. that's coming up at 9 a.m. eastern time. billy in illinois, democratic caller. caller: hello. host: top issue in illinois? caller: i don't know.

not voting and stuff like that but the top issue i have is the way that the people are talking on tv, radio, newspapers, everything, and we have raised a bunch of kids that are going to be liars and cheaters and all that stuff, you know? and i think we should concentrate more on the kids that's come up today and -- today than we are because, if we don't, we're going to raise another bunch of deniers. voting deniers, all that stuff, you know? we have to get this country back straight again. this other guy that was on was a republican.

does he know that republicans are going to take everything away from us? on social security, i am 81 years old. they will take everything away from us. donald trump is not happy with everything the way it is going. we have had this country going like this forever. all at once, we talk about we don't trust the vote. all of our kids are hearing all this stuff. and that is the only thing i have to say. host: with only days to go before voters vote in this midterm election, former president trump will be on the campaign trail, as well former president -- will former president along with president joe biden and vice president harris heading to pennsylvania for that senate race there.

here is politico with this headline. trump told rally in florida with rubio, up for reelection, but not governor desantis. the apparent snub angered some people within desantis bosco orbit who complained the florida governor's team was not informed of the rally. this headline from nbc. everywhere obama is going to be ahead of the democrats midterm crunch, atlanta with abrams and were not. he will appear that on -- he will appear there on october 28. in detroit on october 29. . obama will be in milwaukee on october 29. he's also making an appearance

on the campaign trail monday. ted in new hampshire, republican. caller: how are you? my big concern is we have two candidates and the last gentleman that called hit the nail on the head. they want to eliminate social security, medicare and medicaid. these are things we cannot go without. there are people that only make 500 a month or 600 on medicare. without that, they would be homeless. host: who wants to eliminate those programs? caller: what is that? host: who? caller: don bolduc and levitt. the two that are running. coming up november 8. i'm going to go democrat because

those are so vital. the prices of oil and gas, a lot of these are based on corporate greed. there are ceos getting paid way more than what they should. the balance of all the products -- i know things go up in cost, but a lot of it is just corporate greed and manufacturing greed and that is all i have to say. host: ok. tonya in medford, new york, democratic caller:. how are you going to vote? caller: i'm going to vote for kathy hochul. i didn't think in a state like new york that the republicans would be able to come close to beating a democrat. i know that we have -- we had

attacked the years ago -- we had pataki years ago but that was kind of an anomaly. we now have so many maga republicans in new york state and people who are not informed. i don't understand how people are so bored that they are not interested in watching and learning about the things that are going to affect their lives, like who you are going to vote for. i don't know how americans can actually think and new yorkers can actually think that republicans can help them in any way. they have not. if they listened, they could hear that republicans have not given any ideas and solutions about the inflation that they

keep pushing. inflation is a worldwide issue. it has been brought on mainly because of covid. and that was handled very badly by the last president, tr ump, and now we want to have a maga republican, leaves eldon, who once represented my area of new york? we never supported him, but apparently lots of people on long island have. and i cannot believe how close you know is in the polls -- close he now is in the polls because you have people who are not informed and you have people who don't go out and vote. host: tonya on that race.

the new york times. as the race tightens, a frantic call to action among democrats. democrats and their allies are mounting a frenzied push to keep hochul in office amid fears that there typically a reliable bedrock of voters might not turn out. despite democratic jitters, ms. hochul has continued to lead by as much as four points. the governor still has an overwhelming advantage over mr. zelman and an electoral one. democratic voters outnumber republicans two to one in new york. brad, kentucky, independent. hi, brad. caller: hi, greta. host: good morning to you. caller: good morning to you.

my representative is running for reelection, but there are not any contentious elections in kentucky this midterm, but i would like to remind everyone they should really treat this as a -- their opinion on covid lockdowns and policies of our leaders and politicians. host: that is how they should be voting? they should be voting based on how people performed during the pandemic? caller: well, i think it should be, and i don't know why you would think republicans are not pushing this more. republicans are not reminding voters that democrats acted with such authoritarian push.

our governor since state troopers to record the license plates of churchgoers on easter. host: the florida gubernatorial debate between incumbent governor ron desantis, republican, and charlie crist, democrat, a one-time republican and former governor of the state. here are the two of them talking about the state response to the covid-19 pandemic. [video clip] >> i would have listened to scientists, unlike the governor. he wants to talk about how we reopened this and that. you can keep things the reopened, but you have to do it with an eye toward what health care providers tell you, not being arrogant, so arrogant you will not listen to their advice about when masks are appropriate and later on, when they probably are not. we do not need them now, but you take a commonsense approach and do what is right. i would not pat yourself on the back too much about your response.

we lost 82,000 floridians. when you look at the thanksgiving table, one of those empty seats is one of those people for many people watching tonight. if we had the same standard as other states, 40,000 would be still alive, enough to fill tropicana stadium in st. petersburg. >> he didn't quite acknowledge he called for harsh lockdowns in july of 2020, and if that had happened in this state, it would have destroyed the state of florida. our hospitality and tourism industry would have gone into disrepair. it would have thrown millions of floridians into turmoil. as charlie crist and his friends in congress were urging you to be locked down, i lifted you up. i protected your rights. i made sure you could earn a living, operate your businesses, and i worked like heck to make sure we had all our kids in school.

host: if you want to see more of that debate, you can find it on c-span.org. that is where you will find many of the key races to watch this election. there are just days to go before voters decide who is going to control the house of representatives, the senate, as well as many governors seats across the country. candace says here in maine it is affordability and access to heating oil. i don't think our leaders are doing enough to prepare for this winter. we will go from maine to hawaii, eric, republican. what is the top issue? caller: we have a lot of local corruption but i live in a deep blue state so there's not much to say about it here. i want to tap a little bit on a

couple previous scholars saying republicans would end social security and medicaid. that is really just a talking point on the left. it was a memorandum generated by rick scott the did not gain any traction within the republican party but the democrats ran with it to have something to run against. a lot of the issues coming up this midterm, there's a lot of misinformation and disinformation spread around from the mainstream media and it confuses voters, but really, i think what this coming election is a referendum on is on the biden administration and the house and senate. this has been the first time in a wile that one party has had to control all three branches. and if you are living -- if you have a better life today than you two years ago, i suggest you vote democrat, but if you are hurting and not doing better and

your 401(k) is being depleted and you are paying more than what your wage increase is, you should take a look at what the republican party is offering. kevin mccarthy put out the -- the contract for america but worded differently. it is to curb government spending, get the deficit under control, and stop giving money to, like, different countries. like you are funding abortion clinics in ecuador or stuff like that. i don't think we should be giving a blank check to ukraine anymore. there should be some oversight. we need to be more fiscally responsible so we can get inflation under control, you know, because otherwise we will just stay in a state of stagflation and it will get completely -- gas here is like $5.5 a gallon. it will not get any better. we need to quit pumping up all

the gas from the strategic reserve, because when it runs out, who will we turn to? the biden administration won't authorize leases to drill for more oil here. what are we going to do? we cannot sustain ourselves this way. host: lawrence in new york, democratic collared. caller: hi. i will be voting for hochul. zelden has disqualified himself by being an insurrectionist. on the issues, he has misled us on his views on abortion. he considers it settled law. as we know, there is no such thing as settled law anymore. if you vote in enough republicans, he will reverse access to abortion. he said that while he will narrow or restrict abortion if he had a chance, don't worry about it, the legislature, which

is democratic, will block him, so vote for him. that's an absurd viewpoint. on guns, he has a record of supporting flooding our suburbs and cities and exacerbating these areas with more guns, providing guns to people who are criminals, terrorists or unstable with unfettered access to these weapons. and i want to make a comment about the vaccine and there was a woman who spoke to that issue. one of the issues i find always very troubling is people talk about -- this is not a personal choice. this is a contagion. contagions do not care what your politics are. just as you are not allowed to trespass on a neighbor, you should not be allowed to open and notoriously infect other

people. we know vaccines cut down on the time in which people are infected. we know for some it may be blunted completely. for a health-care provider, which i think she was, to stress that this was a rational viewpoint i think it's very problematic. but those are some issues. there are obviously others out there that are important, but at the end of the day, hochul will win the election. host: the previous scholar mentioned the issue of medicaid and health care. i showed up at the georgia's -- the georgia debates. [video clip] >> medicaid expansion is a perfect example. you have 19 hospitals at risk of closure joining the six hospitals that have closed under this governor. where sending a brinks truck of $3.5 billion of our money to kentucky, louisiana, ohio, because this governor will not accept the money.

the resources we need will come to our state when we have leaders willing to work across the aisle. but it is more important than that. it is about how we take care of our families, make certain we are addressing high housing prices, tact the issue of gun violence, support our freedoms and protector people. we need a governor who can do the math but also the morality of making sure we take care of everyone. >> i would just say that one way we deal with gun violence is take the bad people doing the shootings and lock them up and not end cash bail like ms. abrams. she has also said that the silver bullet on medicare is medicaid expansion to 600,000 people. there's been 600,000 people added to the medicaid rolls since i have become governor. she wants the government -- it

would take 200,000 private citizens off their private sector health care. host: jonathan weisman reporting as prominent black women struggle for campaign cash in the final legs of their democratic bids for the senate, politicians in their party's state leadership is leaving viable, pathbreaking candidates to fend for themselves in winnable races throughout the southeast. beasley in south carolina and val demings in florida have won praise as excellent candidates hanging tough in difficult states, but supporters say they have received far too little backing from washington for their efforts. you can find that in the new york times. here is a text from one of our viewers, frank in bend, oregon, who says the top issue in oregon are extremely high cost of living and homeless people

roaming the streets bringing crime. the wall street journal. gop has a chance at oregon governorship for the first time in four decades. oregonians might choose a republican governor for the first time in 40 years. voters look for new leadership to take on homelessness and crime. a well-funded independent candidate complicates the race. george in fayetteville, georgia, independent, good morning. who are you going to vote for in that governor's race? caller: i already voted and it is my vote so i will keep it to myself. we need more integrity and honesty in our politics. you had the governor's soundbites there in nowhere did he say here is my issue. they started the conversation attacking the other person. when you are attacking the other

person, you make your voters decide am i going with this guy, this guy? it is all about the business. the country is not going to continue to survive with the business. the other thing i would like to say is integrity. we have politicians, judges, supreme court judges that do nothing but lie. they lied during their confirmation hearings. there is no longer any integrity to any of these people that are our so-called leaders. thank you for your time. host: blue-green on twitter from illinois. violent crime. no permit states provide guns easily and end up in illinois crimes. guns will destroy illinois. bruce in alabama, republican. caller: good morning.

alabama is a full-blown red state so it will be republican here. the only thing here is this inflation is so high, and crime. but the crime is mainly in big cities run by democrats, birmingham, montgomery and mobile. those three cities -- and i live right next to montgomery, and i saw on the news, blacks killing blacks continuously, and something has to be done about the crime, but i believe -- i agree with the guy about social security that the democrats is adding out -- putting out. there was one senate guy, rick scott, that brought that up, and none of the republicans were on board with him. it ain't going nowhere. but my prediction is republicans will take the house by 232 and the senate by 52 or 53.

thank you. host: we will talk about that at 9 a.m. eastern. hope you join us for that conversation as well. david wasserman will talk about those house races and what party controls that chamber. ross in california says the democratic governor here has failed the state. gas the highest in the united states. shut down states -- state schools, which affected all kids. democratic caller in new jersey, high. caller: good morning. there's five areas that make republican policies kill people, literally kill people. first is the war against women. women will die without abortions when they are pregnant. every state has their own rate, anywhere from .28 to 0.4 per

100,000 people. they are senior citizen killers. medicare, medicaid, social security. seniors will die because they would have access to medicine and money. they are also killing jobs. $2 trillion in tax cuts, tax breaks for the wealthy, killing jobs. killing children by supporting the nra. they are killing mother earth. they are climate deniers. killing wildlife, reservoirs, natural resources, our ways of life, and finally democracy. january 6, qanon, oath keepers, antisemitism. every time you think about a republican candidate, we need to call them killer x.

that are the big issues. host: we will go to pennsylvania, mechanicsburg. greg, independent. caller: i thought the trend of the conversations this morning were going in the correct direction. the last guy is obviously a political figure. he's probably running for office or working for some politician. he's reading from a list of talking points. if he's in favor of birth control pills, what's he going to do, mandate every 13-year-old girl have birth control? is that what he wants to do? is that how you solve that problem? it is just -- the hypocrisy is amazing. just amazing. but i do detect -- i'm 74 years old. i have been listening for more

than 30 years. i do detect a shift in the population, that they are moving away, and this is a big issue in my state, pennsylvania. the mainstream media has dominated the conversation on this. it is all not about pennsylvania. it is about who is going to support joe biden. that is what it is about and it shouldn't be about that. it should be about the best candidate for pennsylvania, not who is going to rubberstamp joe biden because, oh my god, he's on his way to save everybody from everything. he's not. he's demonstrated he's not. that is the mainstream media message here. i do detect in the listeners that people are tired of that. they are beginning to see through the crap put out by the mainstream media. i hope it continues. i would love to see, at some

point, a mea culpa from the mainstream media saying here's what we got wrong. i don't know how that would ever happen, but there's no doubt the mainstream media has done an awful job of what they are supposed to do over the last 10 plus years. it is just -- political correctness becomes the basis for all decisions no matter how political they are. host: how do you plan to vote in november? for if you have already voted, do you care to share it? caller: i will vote for -- i have a problem with master -- with mastreano because i don't know a lot about him, but i will vote for him. i will definitely vote for oz i will definitely vote for. there is no doubt. how anyone can watch that race

and select federman is beyond me. it is beyond me. but for those people who are listening who are going, he's a redneck from pennsylvania, until 2012, i was 11 for 11. i'm a registered independent, by the way. 11 for 11 in presidential elections. that meant i voted for jimmy carter and slick willie twice and barack obama when he read against a guy who was a pow when he -- when i was in vietnam. i don't think the mainstream media has called balls and strikes as they see them enough. someday it will improve and it will improve the temperature about everything if you cross-examine everybody, not just one side. but good luck. keep doing what you are doing, i guess. host: kelly in texas, republican.

hi, kelly. caller: good morning. host: top issue in texas? caller: let's see. let's start with the economy first. inflation, immigration. texas is a border state, as you know. we have a serious problem with immigration now. all the border states do. i have already voted. that is my biggest problem with the economy now. and the ads they are running and all the negativity. it is pathetic. i lived through recessions, which is what we are getting ready to go through. i lived back in the jimmy carter days. it is not a good thing, ok? and i just, you know -- i am tired of all the bickering and fighting.

even though i am a republican, i am not a fascist, racist. i am one of the most diverse states just like california, new york. but when covid head, i don't know if you realize this or not, we had tons of people moved to texas from all over the united states. our popularity has grown, hugely. i know that governor abbott has been sending immigrants to other states. none of the other media, i blame a lot of this on the media. they report on what is going on the ground. these people are suffering from that. the border states are paying for us to take care of the border when that is joe biden's responsibility. i'm sorry to say this, but it's

true. host: we have one more call from texas, matt, a democratic color. caller: greta, good morning. it is so appropriate that i get to follow a lady from lufkin, texas. she is dead wrong, it's not immigration. she should have a problem with all the people moving from other states from california and new york. so many people are moving here it is making it unaffordable for people to live here. i live in the dallas area and i am starting to see pockets of homelessness where i did not used to see it. people can't afford to live in the same house they did a year ago. i would also say health care. so many people are moving here, where will they get there health care? that lady from lufkin should be

saying health care because you probably doesn't have enough access to it and rural texas. host: this morning, we will talk about the economy coming up in the next hour. it is a top issue, missing or state wendy edelberg brookings institution's economic studies senior fellow will be here to talk about the economy overall. and then david wasserman is here to talk about the elections and key races to watch. we will be right back. >> there are a lot of places to get political information, but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network.

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on q&a, the struggle between the right to privacy in the public's right to information with the law professor amy guide. her book called seek and hide deal with this conflict including the lawsuit of hulk hogan against cocker. -- gawker. >> he argued that even though the information was truthful, it would trump gawker's right to publish it. ultimately, a jury agreed with him. a lot of people were shocked that because we understand so much about freedom of the press and truth and how truth will protect us. and yet, this was an instance of

someone's privacy becoming more important than the public's right to know. >> you can listen to q&a and all of our podcasts on our new free c-span now at. "washington journal," continues. wendy edelberg is at her table this morning with the brookings institute. she is also former chief economist of the congressional budget office. it looks like we got some economic news. the president was touting it, what did we learn? guest: we earned about 2.5 percent gdp. more broadly, the economy has

been slowing. and it needs to slow. it is complicated to look at a gdp report and see said it grew 2.5% and figure out whether it is good or bad. host: why? guest: because the economy has been growing faster because of what is happening with consumers. consumers have been demanding more goods than our economy can provide for them. that is one of the many factors that is boosting inflation. in order to get inflation down we will need to get that to soften. strength in gdp is not what we need right now. host: we saw headlines about the

interest rate at 7%, the highest it's been in a very long time. will it go higher? guest: mortgages have been very sensitive to news from the federal reserve about what they are thinking about for monetary policy. again, fixed mortgage rates have been overly sensitive and they will come down. one of the primary channels with which they slow the economy is through the house market. the housing industry in the run-up to prices was quite extraordinary over the past two years. we have seen remarkable shifts in housing for references and housing. the housing market is where we will need to see slowing in order to get inflation under control. host: how long will that take

when housing prices are still up higher than they have been in decades. i saw one figure that even though mortgage applications have gone down, the price of homes are up 40%. guest: people who are lucky enough to work at home. what has happened over the past few months stock price news has been tough. housing loans and equity loans are buoying consumer spending. more broadly, the cycle in the housing market has been a source of increase in demand generally. we saw appliance sales go up, building materials go up. those are categories where we are now seeing a lot of

softness. one way we can look at this is we can look at what is happening to inventories for businesses that sell appliances. those inventories to sale ratios are way up and it is not surprising what we learned in yesterday's report that real consumer spending on goods, the amount of stuff we are bringing into our homes and putting in our driveways, it contracted. 2020, 2021 we gorged on goods. it makes perfect sense that we are seeing contraction there. host: was it the pandemic that was driving the desire to have more or were we on this incline

before the pandemic? guest: this is very much pandemic related. the compensation -- composition and consumer spending has been nutty. services spending is not usually cyclical because even when we are unemployed. even when the economy looks soft , we need haircuts. personal services, medical services are normally not sensitive to the business cycle. usually where we see softness is in goods. the washing machine is not working but if we keep that rubber band just so we can get another six months out of it and that is what we will do until we are sure you will not lose your job. typically what you see when the economy goes bad people pullback on buying of goods.

this cycle we saw exactly the opposite and i think it's because people could not spend on services. so generally speaking, if you are going to spend money you would spend it on goods. second of all we had a lot of central support that gay people resources to spend money. and third of all, people were in their homes and on their computers and need new desks, exercise equipment because they weren't going to the gym. this was very much pandemic related. host: one of the covid relief packages pastoring the trump and biden administration's too much? guest: it's a complicated question because of the question you are asking is with the american rescue plan, was it not

perfectly calibrated in size and targeted? the answer is yes. the same is true for the cares act, these were not perfect pieces of legislation. i think for the cares act, you can make a case that policymakers were dealing with the norma's uncertainty and a potential crisis. the cares act was this explosive, robust, incredibly successful piece of legislation. then if you go through the fall of 2020, it was frustrating that

the fiscal support waned and an unhelpful way. we were trying to make up for lost time by the end of 2020. then the american rescue plan, the economy clearly needed more support. people who were unemployed needed support but it was quite large and the checks were not targeted. at the same time, monetary policymakers were very slow to respond to that package being considerably bigger than any policymakers expected to be. the collection of the american rescue plan being as big and untargeted as it was an monetary policymakers not reacting quickly, you would have to say that was one of the factors behind this inflation.

host: if the fed had started raising interest rates sooner, following the american rescue plan that might've helped? guest: if it did not help, that would be because our economy was volatile. host: are we in a recession? guest: oh no. gdp growth at 2.5%. and even given the realty numbers we saw in the first half of the year, this is an economy that is quite strong in the challenge is how to create the proverbial soft landing. how do we get the economy back toward sustainable wealth.

we are coming from above the sustainable level back to the sustainable level. host: why do some people say we are? guest: i don't know. the one way in which i understand it, is that the good sector is in recession. the good sector is contracting. if you are working in a general merchandise store, walmart, target. you are seeing yourselves awash with products. the inventory to sales ratio is very high. in the good sector, we saw that sector going like gangbusters for a couple of years and now it is contracting as it needs to. i can imagine if you were exclusively focused on the good sector, we are in a recession.

if you are in the theater industry you see more and more people come to your show. the service sector has expanded pretty rapidly. host: wendy edelberg is our guest to talk about the economic outlook. she has an mba from columbia university. karen from new bern, wisconsin, a republican. caller: she went to a good midwestern school. i am less optimistic about the standard of living for our children again children. they have this idea that it does not matter how much debt our

country gets into. i guess my question is, can you explain it to someone in simple terms, should we be terribly concerned as i tend to be afraid of a $30 trillion debt? everything we need to get the country we would love it to be would cost so much money. guest: there is a lot there. let me first start with what i think about fiscal sustainability. i will do a little drive-by on the economy. if you look at what financial markets think about the size of the debt, they are not perturbed. u.s. treasury rates are quite low. what we are seeing is that there

is a great depth of demand for u.s. treasury. we can't keep on the track that we are going forever. debt to gdp does matter. the larger public borrowing the fewer resources the private sector will have. i am not saying that there is not an effect here but what i think you are worried about is the amount of u.s. rowing. cannot have systemic effects? there are no signs of that. the first thing you can look at is financial markets. they have a lot of money at stake and if they are not worried, you should not be worried. let's go to energy, it's a complicated issue.

the government borrows, it doesn't mean it has economic effects. when the government borrows a can have an inflationary effect. i'm going to try to be clear about mmt. the u.s. borrows a lot but central bank should buy that debt. that will have inflationary effects. what mmt say, they don't want monetary makers to raise rates, they want fiscal policymakers.

the version of this that i understand is that if inflation gets too high because the u.s. government is borrowing too much, don't worry, we need fiscal policymakers to raise taxes and cut benefits very quickly in order to tamped down inflation. that is not the version that i have come to know and love. host: when have they ever cut taxes and benefits quickly? guest: but what we are talking about is time. where inflation gets too high and they will say don't worry, we just need them to starkly raise taxes and cut benefits in a way that lower inflation -- lowers inflation. generally speaking, thus not even good fiscal policy. host: what do you think?

do you understand that? caller: i tried to understand it that i didn't have the wherewithal to sink in teeth into it. i was hoping you could help it seems simple but is not simple. we don't have to take austerity measures are cut benefits to people that mean them. you should say -- you are saying it should not scare me. guest: they believe the federal borrowing matters but they say that if it has bad effects fiscal policymakers who should be the ones to address it. host: we have allen from pennsylvania. caller: thank you for taking my call.

i am a huge fan. i've been watching the washington journal for years. thank you for being there. i have a comment and a question about inflation. i was living in another world for a while. i thought inflation was when your money was devalued and it took a whole lot money to buy something because it lost its value. the dollar is very strong. it is a great time to live in another country because the dollar is strong. but airline tickets cost too much. this is not so much inflation as it is price gouging with the price of gas and raising interest rates which was away to keep money from floating around. i don't think it would work because it makes prices go up.

how do they determine the guide for pricing and shipping. guest: the price of gas has gone up partly because of demand by consumers. we have to talk about that because the price of gasoline was going up long before the invasion of ukraine. the invasion of ukraine has had very significant implications for the price of gasoline in the press of energy broadly. energy is an important input to the product so we make. it's also true that if you were lucky enough to be a domestic producer in the u.s. of gasoline, you are making out like a bandit. i would not call it price gouging because that suggested

in my mind something nefarious. i think this is basic market forces working as they do. people who are lucky enough to be selling a product, anyone lucky enough to have soybeans will do well when the price of soybeans go high. if you think about what happened to the goods we were talking about, we had an extraordinary explosion in demand for those goods. it was like christmas every day for anybody selling goods in this country day after day. of course they would raise prices, the code. profits had been very high. the way to bring us prices down is to get the man down.

host: will they come down to pre-pandemic levels? guest: given to what has happened to the price of energy in the sustained effects in the energy sector, my guess is no. prices of goods fall all the time in the u.s.. if you look at the price of goods in a particular quarter from the year 2000-2020. and half of those quarters the prices of goods fell. those producers are used to cutting prices. i would absolutely expect with prices would outright fall. whether or not they get to the price they saw in 2019, i doubt it. but i also don't think our wages will go back to the level they were.

our nominal wages will also be higher. host: let's go to humble, texas. caller: good morning everybody. you said something nefarious. they said yeah, we cut back production so it is a man-made shortage. i want to talk about the housing market and hug -- hedge funds. for the past two years, the fed was giving away money but you never mention it. the hedge funds are buying houses all across america and they are not selling those houses, they were -- they are renting them. guest: monetary policy in 2020

and 2021 was very accommodative. they were keeping interest rates very low and they were purchasing a whole lot of assets to keep long-range rates down to. it made it easier for hedge funds to invest. they were doing that on purpose. they were trying to stimulate the economy. host: sergio, and illinois. caller: hi, good morning. i will not get to this quickly, let me get this out. covid change the world and the united states. you have to keep that in mind. massive amounts of people died all over the world. all of those dollars are gone.

to make a long story short, if we go back to w when he was in the white house, he loved our country smoldering and ruins. and then obama came in and gdp was going up during his two terms. then when trump came in, you see what happened with trump? in these last two years of his presidency, you see what happened. then biden came in, and look what happened? every politician out there on the republican side, what happened? one of them took over 2 million and ppp loans and never paid it back. that's our money. we could've used that money for

our business. covid changed everything out and basically a lot of these corporations, they are making record profits. look at it, albertsons and kroger's are merging. host: do you have a question? caller: what she said about the covid, they are forecasting that we will be going through with these new variants. the amount of money going in, with a 2.5%. that shows me it won't go into recession. my question is, does she think we will continue down this road after the election?

guest: let me discuss a couple of ways you are right. covid had massive effects on the economy. my expertise is not the health effects of the pandemic. those are the most important things. in terms of how covid impacted the economy. there was a normal -- enormous change in spending habits. the huge amount of social support the government put in place because they were desperately worried about how the pandemic would change the trajectory of the economy for very long time. another factor that i have not talked about yet is that the

labor market is on track to be 2 million people smaller than during the pandemic. only three quarters of a million of that is population. also, lower immigration. but the budget calculations, a colleague of mine just put out a ton of research tried to estimate how long covid will impact the labor force. the number of people who died from the covid-19 pandemic who would otherwise be in the labor forces in the hundreds of thousands. the number of people with long covid is probably in the hundreds of thousands. all told, we have a smaller

labor force because of the pandemic. one of the reasons why we are on track to have a smaller economy. i agree, you cannot understand where the economy is without understanding the pandemic. host: president trump past tax cuts, what did it due to the economy? guest: the 2017 tax because? we put out an analysis of the 2017 tax act. it had a very large stimulus effect because it put a lot of money into people's pockets. it had a stimulative effect. its major purpose was to

increased investors. our estimation that it would help modestly positive effects on the incentives to invest. monist enough that it is hard to tease out in the data. i am very confident that the effect is positive but the fact researches will forever argue about whether they can see how big it was, was a zero? the effect was positive on investments. it's probably worked its way through the pipeline to the degree -- i can't think of any

part of it is still having a notable effect on growth. i think it got us to a new level and then we went back to normal for the most part. keep in mind, one of the things the 2017 tax cuts put in place is lower tax rates on households that were temporary. under law that was put in place because of those tax cuts, and the not too distant future policymakers will have to decide if they want to stick to those tax laws. host: cindy joins us, a republican. caller: i want to talk economics

but from a different angle. you are talking from the big picture overall. absolutely no one is discussing to have -- discussing what is happening to us. my income is just barely over the poverty line. i had to stop all of my prescriptions. when i go to the grocery store, i have to choose between bread, milk or eggs. fresh produce is so high that

i can't buy carrots and potatoes. why doesn't anybody care about us at the bottom of the ladder? look how many people have been added to poverty because of inflation. host: specifically focusing on seniors? guest: thus from what i hear in the research i do tries to help exactly the kinds of problems that you were describing and i am sorry. i will say that social security is receiving a cost-of-living increase in line with inflation. hopefully, that will help. one of the things we have at the hamilton project is a proposal to make things like a medicare savings program which you might

be eligible for which will lower your costs and make that easier for people like you to pick up. the other thing i say is what federal policy did in 2020 and 2021 had the extraordinary effect of lowering poverty rates. in the midst of a pandemic and a shockingly large downturn in economic growth, fiscal policy actually lowered poverty rates. it was temporary. i fully expect given the expiration of the child tax rate, i expect poverty rates to rise. but the accomplishment of 2020,

2021 was fantastic in regards to poverty. i hope that this is a lesson that policymakers don't unlearn. we have the ability to lower poverty rates. host: when you mentioned the medicare savings program, are you saying that would help people like susie and other seniors because health care takes up so much of their income? guest: this is not my area of expertise. there are programs that are very much targeted to making the lives of low income seniors better. we could do more. there are programs and policymakers can make those programs easier. host: let's go to massachusetts,

patsy, and independent. caller: good morning, thank you for being there. i am really confused how the banks getting away with what they get away with. in the sense of credit cards. they send me things to get new credit cards all the time. yesterday one came in and it said you earn this, take this new credit card. it had a 30% interest rate on it. 18% used to send you to jail. 30% on a credit card? these kids will never get out from under it. guest: i strongly recommend you throw that away. broadly speaking, interest rates

are lower now than they have been, not higher. the reason banks get away with it is because we have laws that allow it. if we want a town of regulations , we need to vote for politicians to put those regulations in place. politicians do what we are voting them in today. host: from washington state, we have peggy. caller: good morning wendy. i would like to talk about the gas prices and the connection to food prices and the manipulation of oil refineries, especially the ones owned by foreign companies. i was reading a great article in the san antonio express about how and oil refinery in texas is

the nation's largest refinery. and in 20, saudi arabia wasn't complete control of it. that particular refinery can process 200,000 barrels a day. i would like to hear your comment on foreign companies owning american oil refineries. guest: the remarkable change in the oil industry in the u.s. has meant that we are not an -- now annette exporter of oil. it's a remarkable change. it does not mean that our oil industry and gasoline prices are unaffected by what is happening globally. gasoline is traded globally, oil is traded globally.

what we have seen with the invasion of ukraine, what we have seen with the man being high and going into the winter months. the pressure is on natural gas, energy and oil prices is a global phenomenon. host: we have conrad annex. caller: i hear people calling and they talk about the economy. people think the central government don't do this, don't do that. we can't go to walmart and change prices. the bottom line, prices change.

a candy bar may have been five cents and now it cost two dollars. the government can't tell her she what to charge for a candy bar. nothing will stay the same. it doesn't matter what party you belong to. they can't dictate to private corporations. every time the corporations get big tax cut -- guest: monetary policymakers, the way they are trying to get the job done is by raising interest rates in order to change incentives in the exact

markets you are talking about in order to have market forces bring down demand in the those prices. i think i agree with you that we need to work through market forces to be most effective and that is what monetary policymakers are trying to do. host: deborah and philadelphia, and independent. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i agree with the previous last three collars. i was calling in about social security and why the federal government taxes social security? they claim social security will increase but we have to pay 14% of it back and federal taxes.

it is not a win/win situation. those receivers should not be taxed for it. the question is, why is social security being taxed? guest: you are absolutely right, social security benefits are taxed. one of the main reasons is that some people who get social security benefits get income from other sources. we need to think about what those other sources of income are and if social security is part of a larger pool of income. i am not sure i will be persuasive but if policymakers change the social security program to not tax the benefits,

they have figured out what the net benefits are after taxes. if they said, let's not tax the benefits they will make the generous -- make the benefits less generous. host: let's talk about another area of the economy and that is the cost of college tuition. and then the debt put on kids graduating. what are your thoughts on this? what do you think happens? guest: you cannot tell a private entity how much they can charge. but i think we go the other direction where we get those private entities too much leeway to work together, to band together to have too much market power in the way that they are

setting the prices in college tuition and deciding who to give tuition breaks too. i think we give them a lot of leeway in how universities of higher education work with lenders to make universities pass-through entities for lending institutions. there is a lot the policy can do to bring some sanity to the way we finance higher education in this country. which is also to say that federal policy had a hand in allowing institutions to offer

worthless education. that did not result in degrees to students who are saddled with the dead. the government had a hand in allowing that to happen. a lot of problems here i completely understand and him sympathetic to forgive student debt and try to undo some of the damage. i think it leads to so many problems and leaves problems on the table and could make those problems worse. if you are a future borrower, will you assume that you can load up on debt? if you are an institution will

you use this previous forgiveness, take this crazy loan because that will get forgiven. host: what is the impact on the economy? of the high cost of tuition and the debt that graduates have? guest: it is counterfactual making college tuition more affordable and getting more people into school and then having them have smaller burdens going forward, that's a better world. more people will be getting more education. a lot of people don't because they are afraid of how much it costs and they don't want to be saddled with debt.

it keeps people out who would greatly benefit. by reducing access to secondary education we are making our economy worse. that said, getting a four year degree having it in hand, it is still a very good investment. even with that debt, it will pay for itself. if you get a degree from a good place. even in a generic sense, getting a two-year, four-year degree, it is a good investment.

host: we have a democratic caller from ohio. caller: i have a two fold question. i heard you say that the tax cuts implemented have a positive effect on the economy. that's fine if it is on the higher level. i have heard for year about the trickle down concept. how does that trickle down to the lower associate economic level? number two, how can they blame one administration, republican or democrat for the inflation which took a long time to get there, not just during his administration? that's my two-part question. guest: let me first talk about the 2017 tax act.

there were a lot of different channels which the tax act affected consumers and wage earners. how did it affect people who earn a wage for a living? that was through increased investment. we are already talking about a small effect will attempt to the whole economy. to degree that it increased investment, what i mean by increasing investment. if you are a wage earner and you said at a computer every day.

you do your work out a computer and your computer is not very good. now because of the tax cut, your employer got you a better computer at his investment. that's a kind of investment we are talking about. you are now more productive worker. history tells us that ultimately, that will result in you getting a higher wage because you are more productive worker. a lot of different chains have to go from higher investment to higher wage and i told you that the effect on investment was positive. it was small. it is going to be harder to tease out in the data. host: how can you blame the president for inflation? guest: that's just not how i

think about economic data. host: should other people be allergic to thinking about it that way? guest: the economy may start and stop in four year cycles. before this president even gets elected, things are -- the president, congress has a moderate amount of power over the economy. the president has a modest amount of power over the economy.

host: what makes up congresses moderate power? what can they do? guest: they have a lot of power overregulation. they have direct power over tax policy, spending policy. they could have an extraordinary amount of power over the economy but a reality, it is hard to get things passed. we will go to the 2017 tax cuts, that was a big piece of legislation and yet, it had a pretty modest effect on the overall economy. there is a lot that they can do to affect things and the reality is, they don't.

host: from florida, a republican. caller: yes, good morning. hello? host: we can hear you, go ahead. caller: a couple of things real quick. there was something the young lady said about interest rates and credit cards. in response to caller from massachusetts. we vote for politicians that do not allow the credit card companies to charge these rates. i wonder if she feels that way about our president who is captive to the credit card industry. delaware is the home of credit card issuers.

host: what is your point? caller: i'm getting there. give me a second. the policies on prescription will always be on the side of the democrats. i took some courses back 40 years ago so i know a little bit about macroeconomics. host: can you explain the brookings institute and the work you do there? guest: the hamilton project. what the hamilton project does is relook for policies that

would increase economic growth and make sure that growth is more widely and equitably shared. we do this in a bunch of different ways. we commission proposals from economist who are experts in their field so we say, you are an expert you have looked of this project for a long time and we work with them to bring all of that expertise to a concrete policy proposal. then, we make sure it is adjustable. we do a lot of our own internal work to show where we think the economy is and try to give policymakers useful information so they could be more effective. i do want to talk about usury laws. i think what is more effective is making sure that consumers

have easy access to information about the terms on which they are borrowing. easy access information about what all of their different options are. it is unlikely that if a person were to do -- were to do comparison shopping, that they would really borrow these days on a credit card at 30%. you can get very high interest rates. people go into those payday loans with eyes wide open because they are in desperate need of cash right now. it is well worth it to them to borrow at what are effectively

extraordinarily high interest rates. the solution, i think, is not to follow payday loans. it is to fix the problem of why people's financial stability is so precarious that one would desperately need $200 to fix the car to get to work. we should have a more secure and robust safety net so that is not where people need to turn to for help. host: john, lake geneva, wisconsin. independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. the president talks about price gouging. credit card companies charge 30% interest, three times with the oil companies do.

what is your opinion on minimum wage? did that have a lot to do with the current crisis? lastly, the last three times the philadelphia phillies were in the world series, 1929, the stock market crashed. 1983, there was a recession. 2008, the housing bubble burst. we better not refer the phillies in the world series. thanks. guest: i think inflationary pressures and wage pressures by firms being short of desperate for workers has been the driving force behind what has happened to the cost of labor. it has overtaken the argument around what we should do. that said, i'm a strong believer in raising the minimum wage.

i appreciate that directionally it will reduce employment. that is a trade-off i am comfortable making. i think it makes perfect sense that a person working full-time in the u.s. should not live in poverty. should have financial stability. i am comfortable making the trade-off that we should have a minimum wage that ensures that. except the fact that -- accepts the fact that it increases prices on products and also reduces the overall employment. that means we need a different kind of safety net for the people who are unemployed. host: viewers can learn more if they go to brookings.edu. wendy edelberg, thank you for

your time. we will take a break. we will turn our attention to key house races. david wasserman joins us. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv. saturdays on c-span 2. 12:30 p.m. eastern on the presidency, nancy pelosi and the missouri congressional delegation unveil a statue of harry truman to the u.s. capitol rotunda. 1:30 p.m. eastern, to mark the 50th anniversary of the return of american pows from vietnam, and author talks about their harrowing experience and the

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washington any time, anywhere. >> to all americans have a fundamental right to privacy? sunday on q&a, a look of the struggles between an individual's right to privacy in the public's right to information with law professor amy guida. her book discusses cases involving conflict including hulk hogan's lawsuit against gawker in 2016. >> he brought a claim for the right of privacy against gawk er. he argued his level of privacy would trump the right of gawker to publish. ultimately a jury agreed with him. a lot of people in united states were shocked at that, but

because of freedom of the press and truth, the truth will protect us, yet this was an instance where someone's privacy becoming more important. the jury decided -- more important than the public's right to know. >> you can get all of our podcasts on our c-span now app. >> washington journal continues. host: 11 days to go before the election. we have david wasserman with us this morning to talk about house and senate races. how senior editor for cook political report. david wasserman, let me begin with the story about the midterm elections in swing districts. this is their first sentence. "resident biden is unpopular --

president biden is unpopular everywhere." guest: republicans have the momentum in the battle for the house. this is a weird year. we are looking at a split screen between purple and red states and blue states. democrats who are holding up well relatively our polling in red and purple states. they have been able to make the election a little bit more about the abortion issue in states where there have been threats to abortion access. in blue states, democrats are double incumbents. not only is joe biden unpopular nationally, they also control state governments. they are fewer threats to abortion there. democrats are struggling relative to 2020 in a lot of seats biden carried comfortably in places like new york and california and oregon.

connecticut and rhode island. some of the party's best known names -- sean patrick maloney, he was moved to tossup on monday. katie porter in california. these are big, craddick names who are not out of the woods. they are at in human risk. -- they are at genuine risk. with 33 tossup's on our chart there are a lot of ways this could go. host: give us the state of play right now in the house. what is the majority right now? it is thin. guest: part of the reason we are not looking at a massive 63-c gain like -- 63-seat gain, there are 213 seats to 222. a sneeze could tip over the house.

they only need five seats to regain control. there are structural advantages in the house they don't have in the senate. the first is redistricting. this is the first cycle where every state had to redraw the boundaries except for six days and only had one district and are spared the madness of this process. republicans are able to gerrymander more states than democrats. a lot of big blue states like california, new jersey, virginia, washington, they passed anti-gerrymandering reforms. they had independent or bipartisan commissions that drew foundries in fairly neutral ways. republicans were able to manipulate the boundaries in their favor in taxes and georgia -- texas, georgia, ohio, and florida for the governor gave them extra for seats -- four seats. retirements. we are seeing more democrats leave the house this year than republicans. there are 32 open democratic

seats to 24 republican. it's also the types of districts democrats are leaving behind. they are leaving behind swing states. 19 democratic open seats that are vulnerable to republican takeover compared to six open republican seats that are vulnerable. that's a pathway for republicans to get five seats. the third advantages recruitment. republicans, unlike in the senate where they bicker and argue among leadership over the type of candidate they nominated -- kevin mccarthy has had a much more difficult -- different candidate recruitment operation. the vulnerable seats are women, minorities, and veterans. 30% are military veterans. that makes it harder for democrats to cast these republican challengers as the second coming of trump on they

don't look or sound like him. host: the republicans have the momentum. is it your prediction, if you can tell us, how many seats? guest: i think the most likely outcome is a republican gain of around 20 seats. could it go higher? absolutely. when you look at these generic ballot poles and you look at the horse race, both parties are pretty much tied in the mid-40's in competitive districts. that mean there are 8% or 9% of voters who are not tuned into their vote choice. i call them normal people who do not mainline news. their top issue is pocketbooks. if your issue is abortion or immigration, i'm pretty certain you will vote. i can tell with a high degree of certainty which party will vote for.

those voters who have not yet made up their minds and tune into midterm elections the day before or the day of, they are looking at this election through a much simpler lens. do i feel safe in my community? are things too expensive? joe biden's approval rating over the economy for independent voters in the most recent nbc news poll was 29%. a lot of gravity would suggest that republicans have more upside with a narrow group of persuadable voters still up for grabs. host: we zeroed in on the house. we will talk about the senate. there is news concerning the house of representatives and speaker pelosi. paul pelosi, her husband was attacked at their san francisco home, according to a statement by the speaker's office. the assailant is in custody and the motive is being investigated.

the speaker was not in san francisco at the time. cnn reporting that. let's talk about the senate. guest: a month ago we would have said democrats had a narrow edge in the battle for the senate. this is awfully tight. it is where we go into election day with this much uncertainty. it is on a razors edge and for states. -- in four states. three republican states are competitive. wisconsin, north carolina and pennsylvania. three democratic states that a competitive. nevada, arizona and georgia. we have seen wisconsin and north carolina move in republican favor. i think the other races, arizona, georgia, nevada, pennsylvania are supertight. republicans need to win two of those races.

the biggest change was pennsylvania. last mother looked like john fetterman had a substantial lead over men met always -- mehmet oz because of catastrophic on favorability for a major party nominee in a swing state. he was a carpetbagger from new jersey. dr. oz has been successful making this race more of referendum on john fetterman. not just his health and the lingering effects of his stroke but his record on crime. this is what democrats are fearful of in wisconsin and a host of house raises where they are on defense on the issue. john fetterman pushed for more lenient sentencing or clemency for nonviolent offenders who pushed for more discretionary sentencing in voter cases -- motor cases.

oz is portraying him as soft on crime and that has evened the race. host: you are calling jessica taylor taking it from democratic leaning back to tossup. guest: an arizona, the republican is doing well in the governor's race. they are campaigning together. blake and blake. -- lake and blake. even though kelly had a massive spending advantage, arizona is a perpetually close state. a razor thin margin for joe biden and 2020 -- in 2020. it could take weeks before we really know the answer. host: mark in parker, colorado. independent. caller: how are you? host: a question or comment about these races? caller: i have a question, kind of a global question. i used to be a republican. when donald trump did his thing

on january 6, i kind of bailed. i am very disappointed in how the republicans are kind of holding up all these elections, etc. do you think there is some great republican plan that uses donald trump to keep the base, allows kevin mccarthy to keep another set of base, and even has marjorie taylor greene out there holding the crazies and not cases -- nut cases? then you have mitch mcconnell and romney holding people like me, hoping there is some sort of hope for the future for the republican party that maybe there are some sane people. then you have mike pence how being very patriotic in his speeches.

the other day he said at georgetown university that he believes the republicans will settle all this issue with trump being a denier. my thought is that maybe the republican party is basically got a pretty good sized plan out there. host: have republicans been working individually, separately from each other rather than working with just one group, one entity? the rnc versus the other -- the president? guest: there are two republican parties in the house. there is a more traditional or pre-trump, governing wing of the party. they tend to keep lower profiles. then there is the maga freedom caucus wing that has come up since trump they made up of true trump believers. if republicans take back the house majority, both of those

wings will grow. keep in mind that donald trump has not played in house raises to the same extent he has in the senate races. he has hand take to most republican senate nominees. in the house the only races donald trump cared about where the tan involving members who voted to impeach him. he was very successful purging them from the party. four retired, -- four retired and four were defeated. feeling when coming back is the ending from washington state. he did not care who republicans nominated in swing district house raises. you have a lot of nominees who are challenging democrats who fit more comfortably in the mold of the pre-trump traditional wing of the party. if the republicans flip a lot of

seats, those pragmatic legislators are likely to increase in number as well. one of the reasons democrats were doing relatively well over the summer was that donald trump was in the news. whether it was the search for mar-a-lago or the january 6 hearing, that was the reason why democrats were for a time able to make this into more of a choice election than a straight up or down referendum on joe biden. guess what? with 11 days to go there is a chance donald trump could be allowed back on twitter. what effect will that have? republicans are nervous. host: new jersey, jerry, democratic caller. caller: hi. good morning. i had a question but you pretty much answered it about the senate. my thing is about the democrats. i am a registered democrat. the things that make me -- it

irks me. when the democrats are going low, they want to generate all this side stuff like trump with the january 6 and the whole bit, and then with paul walker in georgia, they are talking about him personally instead of his policies, it is backfiring. we really don't look good. we don't know how to stick to the issues. that is hurting us. you can't keep coming up with this crap. it is the same thing with kerry in arizona. this woman supposedly broke into the democratic think and they want to blame her people. she did come back and say, you know, you will have another sma -- guest: one of the reasons why

democrats are still in contention in a number of races is that they were successful in defining their republican opponents early on. one big factor has been the money differential. democrats were successful at stockpiling cash because they did not have competitive primaries. republicans in those senate and house were brutalizing each other for a lot of the air and spending a lot of money. the democrats had a head start to get on the airwaves and start defining republicans and going after their personal baggage, their business records or political stances on abortion and other issues to paint them as extreme. democrats went with digital and tv ads talking about what benevolent and bipartisan people they work. democrats had this inflated advantage in the polls in august and early september. what we have seen is that republican pacs, the

congressional leadership fund, they have outspent democrats, the dccc, $243 million to $273 million. they are using democrats' words against them. in new york's 17th district were sean patrick maloney is seeking reelection, republicans are up with an ad using footage from a 2018 debate when sean patrick maloney ran for new york attorney general. he was seeking to leave congress for the job. when asked if he would support bail reform in new york, he said absolutely and i make it a top priority. now that law is really unpopular at a time when crime is rising. jahana hayes, republicans have been able to take advantage of footage from a zoom call where she said our economic downturn

was exaggerated and democrats were single-handedly responsible for saving the economy. that ad features voters reacting incredulously to her statements. both are districts that joe biden carried by 10 points in 2020. we just moved them to tossup column because republicans have capitalized on crime and inflation. those issues were cutting. host: which districts? guest: new york 17 and connecticut 5th, northwestern connecticut. host: the new york times featuring swing districts offering deeper insights on the direction of the house. they feature the kansas district, pennsylvania 8, nevada 1, and new mexico second. can you talk about these races? guest: we are seeing better polling that we might have expected for democrats in red

states and districts. democrats are holding up relatively well in their polling in purple states like michigan, pennsylvania, new hampshire. sharice davids, a democratic sophomore in kansas city 3rd district. she's running against the same opponent she faced in 2020, the state republican chair and a former advisor to woefully unpopular former governor sam brown. sharice davids has been able to capitalize on a democratic surge enthusiasm after the supreme court decision. kansas voted to reject the constitutional amendment that would have paved the way to banning abortion in the state by 18 points in august. this date -- this state voted for donald trump.

in this district, she is polling well ahead of where joe biden posted his numbers in the 2020 election. mary peltola in alaska, who flipped a state that trump had won by 10 points by defeating sarah palin in august, she's up for a full term. she's in really good position in alaska. not only does the state have ranked choice voting. she's potentially facing sarah palin again depending on the instant runoff rules in alaska. there is an abortion referendum on the ballot in alaska and she is marketing herself as the only pro-choice candidate in the race. host: david in williamsburg, virginia. republican. caller: here in virginia is there any correlation between the way districts voted in the gubernatorial election and how you will predict them voting in this congressional election?

luria, her district went for youngkin. spanberger in the seventh, her district went easily for youngkin. can you see any correlation? what extent in the second, hurt -- wexton in the second one for mcauliffe. her district is 27% oriental and hispanic. hispanics are breaking more for republicans. the candidate against wexton is oriental. there is high crime in the d.c. area. can you see anything about those districts at all? i will hang up and take your response. guest: great question. yes, we do see a correlation in republican chances in these districts and the result of the 2021 governors race. we have three virginia races that are on our competitive board.

i think the most vulnerable democrat is elaine luria in the second district, virginia beach and it's a seat that voted for biden by two points in 2020 and swung and voted for republican glenn youngkin by 11 point in 2021. jen higgins is the state senator, a navy pilot and nurse practitioner running against luria, also a navy veteran. luria state to reelection on her service on the january 6 committee. she has tried to portray hgins as an election denier for refusing to acknowledge joe biden one the election fairly. i see the democratic incumbent as the underdog here considering redistricting and the fact it made the c3 points more republican. -- seat three points more republican. that would be a surprise. 7th district, this is abigail

spanberger. she caught a break in the primary when they nominated vega , a daughter of salvadoran immigrants. prince william county supervisor and former police officer it was part of the freedom caucus endorsement list. she's been endorsed by ted cruz, campaigned with ted cruz and accepted donald trump's endorsement. spanberger has been pummeling her on the abortion issue on the d.c. airwaves, which are very expensive. this voted for joe biden by seven in 2020. glenn youngkin by five in 2021. i think the congressional result is guaranteed between those margins. if we have that race in the tossup column. the virginia 10th district, jennifer wexton. she is in a much bluer

district. there is a republican on the ballot, a veteran and of the enemies refugee -- vietnamese refugee. he is raising a lot of money. wexton has had to go on to the airways to try to attack him. glenn youngkin came within two in 2021 so we are watching it. host: boise, idaho. david, an independent. caller: thank you so much. david, i appreciate your comments this morning. you have a great name. actually, i have a question. i wanted to preface it with clarification. you could maybe address the clarification if that might be possible.

the first thing, something pertaining to the two folks from the navy that are running in -- one is kiggins, a navy pilot who denies that joe biden won the presidency. the other what is luria. you did not mention what her position in the navy -- guest: a nuclear engineer. caller: oh. got that done. ok. host: what is your question? caller: kiggins has denied joe biden won the election. guest: she failed to acknowledge when asked by reporters that joe biden won the election fairly. she acknowledged he is the

president. caller: is that the same position the navy held? -- holds? host: what is your question? caller: that is my question. host: bob, logan, utah. caller: good morning. thank you for letting me call in . david, has abortion affected the elections? i am really not in favor of long-term abortions. people have to realize what is conception. i think we are all a little guilty. whether you take a 10 minutes after or, you know, three and a half months is as far as i would like to see echo.

-- see it go. host: d have a politics question? caller: that is one of the main things in this election. host: is it in utah? caller: it's mostly older republican. 80%. even here, i'm trying to say we are all a little guilty. that is like somebody saying i could not kill a mouse. host: understood. let's talk about utah and the senate race. no one paying attention there. guest: this phrase has gotten quite a bit of height. kevin mcmullen is challenging senator mike lee from the center. even though there have been a lot of eyebrows raised over mitt romney's refusal to endorse mike lee, his seatmate from utah, i don't believe this race is genuinely competitive.

utah voted for trump by 50%, more than 20 per 20 -- 58%, more than 20 point. host: laurel, maryland. danny, a republican. caller: i was wondering if you could comment on the maryland governor's race. what happened to sarah palin in alaska? i think she got most of the votes. what if the republicans when the house in the senate and we go into a recession? won't that be bad for them kind of? thank you. guest: there is a lot there. the maryland governor's race is not much of one after dan cox won the nomination. we have this race and the solid democrat column. westmore is almost certain to win the contest. we also are talking a lot about this alaska race. it is true. ranked choice voting was a huge

reason white democrats were able to win the seat. democrats had a great candidate. she's a former tribal fisheries executive who is very moderate. she hired billy republican commerce been don young's chief of staff as her own. it was sarah palin's popularity after living in two different mansions in arizona and dancing with the stars that really gave her an opportunity. palin and another republican were fighting all the way through to the special election and they are both running again. the way alaska's ranked choice food works, the top four finishers advance to a preferential ballot. it's the best thing going for peltola.republicans believe it is the most evil election innovation of all-time. it is true.

republicans combined for a strong majority of the vote in the primary round but it was the democrat who ended up winning the seat. this system gives the opportunity for candidates who are more towards the middle to cobble together a coalition and allow them to have a chance for the party to have more power in a state that leans in one direction. i don't think we are likely to see it adopted in other places. another district to watch his maine'-- is maine's second congressional district. it is possible the republican will finish first on election night with less than 50% of the vote. because there is an independent candidate on the ballot, stephanie bond, her votes could be reallocated to favor golden. that is what happened in 2018. it could save democrats a seat again.

i talked to republican consultants who fear they could get bit by ranked choice voting in two districts. host: it happened in alaska because of who or what? guest: this was a reform movement pushed by a coalition of democrats and moderate republicans. there is a national organization seeking to spread this to more states. one of the beneficiaries is lisa murkowski. without this system in place she would not be able to survive her republican primary and it would be much tougher for her to when we election -- win reelection and now she is the favorite. caller: i would like to ask a question. you take these polls and these politicians, you never tell where blacks stander who they are voting for. i hear everybody else allude to the fact we are always going to vote whatever political party we

want to vote for. you never know who -- we never know the numbers who we are for. i have been voting -- i'm 86 years old. i have been voting ever since i was 21 years old. you have never come up with a clear-cut statement on where blacks stand in this political election. i'm an american citizen. i have a right to be challenged or talked to or have an opinion about different things. why do we not know this? with biden, 44%. is that white america or black america? host: you are talking about polling? david, do you want to talk about that? guest: black voters remain heavily democratic and the reason why biden's approval

rating is at 42% and not 35%. we have a number of districts with sizable nonwhite populations on our competitive board. georgia obviously, the senate race with the highest black proportion. it is highly dependent on turnout of black voters and could determine control of the senate. particularly if that race goes to a runoff like it did in 2020 if neither herschel walker or profit of war 50% of the vote. -- raphael warnock gets 50% of the vote. it is probable considering there is a libertarian on the ballot. third-party candidate are a n emerging theme. the weirdest race uncovering in the house this year is in minnesota's second congressional district. angie craig is facing a rematch against a republican veteran, tyler kistner.

r the second straight election in a row the candidate of the legal marijuana now party has died less than two months before the election. i'm not making this up. in 2020, the candidate who died still so sick percent of the vote -- still took 6% of the vote even though he was dead. angie craig came within two points of losing because not enough votes of younger, more liberal pro-marijuana voters were siphoned away by this candidate. she can. close to losing. fast-forward, the legal marijuana now party nominee died on october 5. her name will remain on the ballot. i cannot tell if it's a congressional race or game of "clue." if she takes enough of the vote away from craig, the republicans win. host: key, rutland, ohio.

caller: i want to say thank you for c-span and washington journal. a complete treasure for our nation. david, i respect your independent work. i am completely sold on tim ryan for senate. not only have a look at his record and watched him in congress, and he's just a premier -- a very authentic and fact-based representative. for senate, i want to encourage independents, republicans and dems to vote for him and here's why. he said something my stepfather said started in the 1970's. a teamster and world war ii vet. he said it every year of every decade until he died eight years ago. both parties, and tim ryan says this, both parties sold the

american workers down the pike in regards to trade deals, tariffs. tim ryan is independent enough to look at the mistakes democrats have made. i really respect that. i hope voters, independent, republicans, dem, get involved and look at the records. vote across the board if they reflect your values. tim ryan and jennifer bruner as well for supreme court judge in ohio, i think they are posting credibly -- both incredible independent voices for the people in ohio and for the nation really. voters, get out there and really look at the candidates' record" for tim ryan. we can't get any better than tim ryan. host: the ohio race? guest: i'm skeptical that tim ryan will win this race because the state voted for donald

trump twice. if he loses the j.d. vance, republicans have spent more than $30 million bailing vance out. he approved -- he seems allergic to -- in ohio, there could also be a coattail effect from tim ryan's competitiveness. there are three house races that are somewhat up for grabs. the 13th district, his own open seat in the akron area. the democrat is very competitive against the trump-endorsed republican jesse adam gilbert. the first district of cincinnati, a republican incumbent is probably the single most vulnerable republican after his seat was redrawn to be more

blue. the race the democrats are most optimistic about is toledo, the ninth congressional district where marcy kaptur is up for a 21st term. he's been in the house for 40 years. she is 75. she is facing off against a republican it was a pro-trump rapper and youtube personality who beat two city legislators and the republican primary for the nomination. he was at the capitol on january 6. keep painted his front lawn into a trump flag visible from space. even though he said he was a combat vet in afghanistan, they were no military records to show he was there. he was demoted from the air force after a dui on base in japan. that stolen valor claim has caused republicans to pull out

of the race even though it is see that trump won by three points after having an excellent choice for democrats -- chance for democrats. michigan third district, john gibbs was found to have led an organization in the early 2000s to ban women's suffrage. these are two extreme examples but there probably five or six cases where republican nominees are given opportunities to hold seats they otherwise would not. that does lower the seat length of potential republican gains in the house. host: it is still looking like a republican majority. guest: these are exceptions to the rule. republicans have a ton of opportunities to flip seats like rhode island and they have not held more than one seat since

1996. it is a bizarre year geographically. host: georgia. maria, a republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to ask about the role of under voting. in the same phone call that was recorded the georgia secretary of state told donald trump he lost the election because people who filled out a republican ballot but stiffed the presidential race. do you think there is a role for significant under voting in the senate race? people who are happy to vote a republican ballot but cannot bring themselves to vote for the rope republican --the republican senate candidate? can polling get to the issue of people who are planning to undervote? host: thanks, mary.

guest: i don't think it is so much undervoting, although it does have an effect and ring choice voting. we are looking at split ticket voting this year. we are likely to see republicans do better in the governor's races in arizona and georgia than they do in the senate races. will voters in the atlanta suburbs split their ticket? the opposite dynamic is at play in pennsylvania and wisconsin. we are seeing democratic governors to better than democratic senate candidate. josh schapiro is doing better than john fetterman in pennsylvania. co. v. doing better than mandela barnes and wisconsin because of the crime issue -- tony devers. -- tony evers. the abortion issue is more --

that has helped gretchen whitmer in michigan. helped joe schapiro and tony evers. governor's races are interesting because we have seen democrat numbers holding up quite well in the midwest, yet republicans have strong opportunities in blue states in the west where they have been able to take a off the table and make it more about democratic management of cities and crime and homelessness. republicans looking at nevada, new mexico and oregon where they have not won the governorship in 40 years might be upset favorites. host: a possible split ticket for new hampshire governor johnson in new and maggie hassan -- john sununu and maggie hassan. guest: the governor has been a kingmaker in the state. he endorsed the other republican in the senate parameter who lost the primary to the current

nominee. sununu signaled to voters that he thought he was too far right. that's a powerful signal affecting the senate race. host: alex in california, independent. caller: i have a quick comment and quick question. for the american rescue plan active 2021, raphael warnock successfully sponsored an amendment to payoff the loans provided by the u.s. department of agriculture. a farmer could receive this financial aid only if you can prove he is non-european ancestry. here's my question. why is this discriminatory amendment not more of an issue or even an issue in the senatorial battle between herschel walker and raphael warnock? guest: you are right. it has not come up in my

knowledge. what has driven the georgia race is the candidates' position on the issues. that is taken away some of the heat from walker as far as his allegations in his personal life, such as domestic violence allegations, holding a gun up to an ex-wife or paying for next girlfriend's abortion. the debate focused on a candidate's answers on policy. raphael warnock was evasive on changing -- packing the supreme court in a way that allowed voters to say this debate was closer than i might have expected because the equitations for walker was below the floor. host: tim in wisconsin. caller: thank you.

i live in the third district of western wisconsin. i'm retired after 20 years. i don't know if it is considered a tossup. he was at the capital on january 6 but that does not seem to matter to most voters. i don't understand how these voters across america will republican. whenever donald trump's life was so far removed from theirs, he never got his hands dirty. all these other states keep voting constantly. if you look at the list, their wages -- i'm a union man so i back the union. wages are continuously and health care is the lowest in the country but they keep getting voted in. can you explain any of that please? guest: this is a district we have in the likely republican column. derek van norton who ran against

ron kind and came close to winning. this time kind decided to retire. that was a big loaded democrats. he was well-liked. brad pfaff is their nominee. he had to get past a three-way primary first. van orton was able to raise money all cycle. democrats have raised $4.7 million to the republican challenger's $2.1 million. in the open sea races republicans have tended to have the advantage. van orton tried to soften his image as a plaid clad grandpa who wanted to combat inflation. democrats have been making out to be unhinged, stop the steal rioter.

guest: tom -- host: tom in washington, d.c. caller: washington recently said that -- why did you think she was strong within goldman? the district flipped back some of blue in 2020. is it a mistake they have spent so much money trying to take the 22nd and not a dime on garcia even though the district is just as blue? guest: the reason why marcy kaptur is in the best shape is her republican opponent. other democrats are facing much

more flawed opponent. jared golden still has a chance. in the california 22, where the one pro-impeachment republican on a general election ballot, gets a district that would have voted for biden by 12 points in 2020. rudy salas of bakersfield does have a strong chance. one of the reason he's been struggling is that republicans have not warmed back up to him after he voted to impeach trump. kevin mccarthy is working behind the scenes to try to build back republican support for his neighbor. this will be a very close finish. we are seeing -- we have four hispanic majority district that are really competitive at the moment. we have not had that many in the past years because the hispanic majority district tended to be safe democratic seats. in the central valley and the rio grande valley, these are battles between the party.

they are tough districts to poll. both parties are kind of in the dark where the contests stand. we have been trying to poll the district in south texas for 11 days and we've only had 300 respondents. we would be better trying to go to a supermarket to figure out what voters think. host: what is going on with hispanic voters? is it a change? guest: it is a change. we saw a big shift for donald trump between 2016 and 2020 in south florida and south texas. part of it is that the economy is an even more dominant issue among hispanic voters and it is among other voters. democrats have coasted for years thinking that immigration alone would keep hispanic voters in the democratic column.

what we have seen in nevada and the central valley is that hispanic voters have been frustrated with the state of the economy, covid lockdowns, and they have swung more in favor of the recall of gavin newsom in california than other voters. they swung big in favor of republicans and taxes -- in texas i 2020n dachshund 2020. -- in 2020. the district is a pure tossup. host: what about beto o'rourke? guest: the texas governor's race does not look competitive at the moment. i think you're finding it a big reason why overwork -- beto

o'rourke came close was ted cruz. host: brunswick, georgia. mark. an independent. caller: i would be interested in your thoughts as they relate to the money that was spent in the primaries by the democrats in support of republicans that the perceived uighur republican candidates would roll into the general and make it easier for the democrats to reveal in the general election. specifically, how this could backfire. thank you for your response and i will take my comments offline. guest: there has been a lot of coverage of democrats meddling in republican primaries this year.

i think it's been a bit overblown. there was so much spending in these races already. democrat interference was a drop in the bucket. the race i would say democrats did successfully meddal in was new hampshire in the second congressional district. democrats had a super pac to air ads with a more conservative pro-trump are public and sankey supported a fetal heartbeat bill. he was the only pro trump republican in the race. he was able to beat the more moderate republican by a point. as a result is now a decided underdog against annie cussler. in the michigan third district where democrats have not won since the 1970's, the democrats spent money on behalf of john gibbs, the trump-endorsed republican against meyer.

i think you would have won without the democratic spending. now hillary's golden -- hillary scolton is the favorite in that election. host: who are you watching in the next 11 days? guest: the state of the economy. one reason republicans have turned the tide in the last month is we had several bad economic reports. gas prices have gone back up after falling 24% from their june peak. we have seen the stock market goes down. that's been an underrated aspect of why some have soured on democrats and president biden. when the economy is doing better, democrats are able to make races about social issues. abortion, donald trump, democracy. that is harder when the economy has been bad.

we are also watching donald trump's activities and statements. host: former president obama will be on the campaign trail. could he make a difference? guest: this is been the case for pretty much any election since he left office. he has campaign in key states were democrats believe he could mobilize black voters especially. host: david wasserman, always a pleasure to have you on. cookpolitical.com. follow on twitter. we appreciate your analysis. host: we will bring you up to the house. they are doing a brief pro forma session. we will bring you up to the house now. thank you for watching c-span. we will see you back here tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [crowd talking] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2022]