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"washington journal" starts now. ♪ host: good morning. it is wednesday, november 2, 2022. we are less than a week from election day. a question for you this morning about when you made your 2022 decision. was your midterm vote decided in a debate, after legislation was passed, at the grocery store aisle or at the gas pump? let us know if there was a particular time when you decided your vote. if you are voting for the democratic candidate in the midterms, it is (202) 748-8000. if you are voting for the republican candidate, (202) 748-8001. if you are voting independent, (202) 748-8002. if you are still undecided at this point, here's the number for you to call, (202) 748-8003. that is also the number that you

can send us a text this morning. you can also catch up with us on social media. on twitter, it is @cspanwj. on facebook, it is facebook.com/cspan. good wednesday morning. you can start calling in now as we take you to the campaign trail. here is a headline from the miami herald about president biden hitting the campaign trail in florida. biden campaigns for democrats in south florida. is he too late for it to matter? this is some of his appearance campaigning on behalf of democrat charlie crist, who is running for governor there, and val demings, who is running for senate. [video clip] >> in the last six months, six of the largest oil companies made more than $100 billion in profits. $100 billion in less than 200 days is outrageous. these companies are taking the

average profits they have been making by refining oil for the last 20 years. if they were doing that instead of the profits they are making today, they could pass on to the rest of us, the consumers, the price of gas would be done another $.50. instead, they are buying back their own stock and giving profits to shareholders. yesterday i made it clear the industry has a choice, either begin to invest in america or pay higher taxes on your excessive profits. or face other restrictions. it is amazing. even though my republican friends in congress seem to be hoping for a recession, last week the gdp report came out. it shows the economy is growing. the economy grew 2.6% last quarter. although it may not feel that way, income went up the last

quarter more than inflation. economic growth is up. price inflation is down. real incomes are up and gas prices down here and here is the most important thing. exports, what we make in exports from america are up, meaning we are making things again here in america today. today we are shipping products overseas instead of shipping jobs overseas, like we have been doing for too long. host: president biden in florida yesterday, just one of the big names on the campaign trail. former vp mike pence on the campaign trail. here's what he had to say. >> there is no better governor in america than brian kemp. under his leadership -- i was for him before it was cool.

i came in and that primary four years ago and saw his quality. i sensed his commitment and backbone. i knew he would lead georgia to unprecedented prosperity and security, and he has delivered for all the people of the peach state. with brian kemp in georgia and his strong support from the trump-pence administration, it was my honor to be your vice president at a time that we achieved the lowest unemployment and highest household incomes, the most energy production, the most pro-american trade deals, and made the strongest military in the history of the world stronger than ever before. and brian kemp advanced that agenda here in georgia. no one in georgia's history has

done more to create jobs, cut taxes, restore sanity to your schools, put criminals behind bars, protect the unborn, and secure all the god-given liberties enshrined in the constitution of the united states than governor brian kemp. host: former vice president mike pence yesterday. those were some of the themes from the campaign trail yesterday. less than a week out now from election day. when did you make your decision? was there a key moment you decided on your 2022 vote? we have lines of your voting for the republican candidate, the independent candidate, and if you are still decided. we have a number for you, (202) 748-8003. we want to hear from you and how you're going to make your decision and what you think it will come down to. we start on the line for those voting for democratic candidates

this cycle. matt in maryland, good morning. are you with us? caller: good morning. i might -- i made my decision to vote for the democrats on january 6 when i saw the insurrection and attempted coup and so many republicans refusing to deny the big lie, supporting it, continuing to vote for alternate electors, and supporting a continuing insurrection. i am a former army officer and i take my pledge the constitution seriously. if anyone sees what's going on, republicans and so many republicans who refused to stand up against the big lie really need to take a look in the mirror and what it means to be an american, to be someone who follows the constitution. i could not be prouder for those

who vote for westmore -- wes moore for governor in maryland. i urge others to get out of the media bubbles and understand what happened on january 6 and say, can i support this? is this who we are as americans? host: we will stay in potomac, maryland. on the republican line, it is john. caller: good morning. how are you? host: doing well. was there a moment you can think back to that made your decision for campaign 2022? caller: i just want to know that president trump got 10 million more votes than 2016 when he was elected and how come he is not the president? where is that 20 million votes

that had been cast for president biden? there are not that many votes. that is why people have doubts in this past election. there are not that many voters in this country when you look at it. host: are you saying your decision for 2022 was made in 2020? caller: yes, i have not made a decision yet, but my question is simple. where do these words come from? host: this is todd in california, independent. caller: after trump lost the last presidential election, i had decided that voting is rigged by the democrats because i voted for trump and trump clearly won the election and democrats clearly cheated and

lied, so there was no point voting anymore for any candidates, so what i do is on the ballot i leave all the candidates blank and either vote yes or no on the california state ballot propositions. that is how i make my decision. host: on the line for democrats, this is doug in florida. go ahead. caller: i wanted to say there is no way i will ever be able to vote for a republican again after january 6. i would have voted for john kasich. i thought he had good ideas. but i will never be able to vote for a republican again. they are a bunch of traitors who support donald trump. they ought to be shot. host: we are not going to

advocate for any violence and we will hang up if you do. david in cameron, missouri, good morning. caller: how are you? host: doing well. caller: good. thanks for having me. i do not like president trump because of his taxing and stuff. i am a ron desantis fan in florida. thank you for having me. host: was there a moment that sold you on ron desantis? can you think back to something that happened that brought you into the ron desantis camp? caller: i just think that he was not letting schools go by with

the children. i think he is a great governor. i think he will be a great president. i am not a trump fan. i did vote for trump, and i regret that. i think ron desantis will be a good president. host: he is running for reelection against charlie crist in florida. that is where president biden was yesterday cut one of the big names on the campaign trail yesterday. another was former president barack obama, headed to the silver state of nevada. here's one of the headlines from nevada, this from usa today, the democrat they're leading by a single point. that would be cortez masto. this was the former president speaking out for senator cortez masto. [video clip] >> fight for you.

who will fight for working people struggling to pay the bills? inflation is a real problem right now, and it is not just here in the united states. worldwide. it is one of the legacies of the pandemic. it wreaked havoc on supply chains and then you have war in ukraine sending energy prices through the roof. so you see gas prices in grocery prices going up. that takes a bite out of your paycheck. it is no joke. it hurts. the question you should be asking is who is actually going to do something about it? if you watch these ads, republicans talk about a lot, but what is their answer exactly? what is the economic policy? they have one. they want to got -- gut social

security and medicare and give big corporations more tax cuts. because that is their answer to everything. i am not joking. literally, it does not matter what is going on. when inflation is low and unemployment is high, they want tax cuts. when it is the reverse, tax cuts. i was telling folks in michigan, if there was an asteroid headed toward earth right now, they would all get in a room and say you know what you need? we have to cut taxes for the wealthy. host: former president barack obama yesterday in nevada talking about republicans. here is one of the republican's recent ads.

[video clip] >> that is an entire year of income for many nevada families. for some politicians, it is another perk of holding office. take senator catherine cortez masto. she took tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from wealthy donors, concert and sports tickets, flynn -- fancy plane flights. cortez masto spent her entire career in government. it has been great for her. after all, you are paying for it. host: republican adam like salt --laxalt. we are counting down the final days to election 2022. when did you make your decision in the midterm elections? if you are voting for the democratic candidate, republican

candidate, and if you are still decided. this is arlene out of new orleans. caller: good morning to everybody. i have made my decision after all that is going on in our country. i thought i was raised in a free country. for people to go out in the military and fight for our country and then come back and try to take over our country, i do not think that is right. i think we should keep republicans out of washington and put democrats in and clean house with all the old people and put some fresh people up in there. everybody, get out and vote democrat. we have to get out here and vote. host: this is bill out of palm springs, california. was there in moment in this cycle that made your decision?

caller: for me, it was not so much this cycle. i was raised republican and ran for office in indiana as a republican. everything is democrat for me now. it frightens me to see and hear some of the rhetoric coming from the republican side. these people cannot tell the truth. i spent 32 years in the steel industry and a lot of guys i worked with were not very smart. one thing i did learn is people who are not very smart will believe a lie over the truth all day long. when you have fox news telling people to vote for a tube of toothpaste, they will vote for the toothpaste. i am democrat all the way and my ballot is already in an already counted by mail. i was just in pennsylvania and i saw signs all over the place near the philadelphia area. it is frightening.

years ago when trump was running, i was in altoona. trump signs all over the place. please vote democrat. host: what office did you run for in indiana and why? caller: i ran for state representative as a republican because lake county, indiana was one of the most crooked places on earth and people were going to jail left and right as democrats and i was not about to start kissing people's rings to run as a democrat, so i thought i would try as a republican. i made a mistake by not hooking up with my union, steelworkers. had i hooked up with the union, they would have backed me. even as a republican because things were so dirty there. host: that is bill, talking about mail-in voting and his visits to pennsylvania.

a story on both of those from the wall street journal, noting that pennsylvania's highest court yesterday ordered election officials to disallow mail-in ballots if voters neglects to put the direct -- correct date on the envelope, which could affect thousands of ballots in that state. the story says the case has been one of the most closely watched voting law battles into the midterm elections. more than 1.4 million voters in pennsylvania have applied to vote by mail or absentee ballot this election. the decision could affect tight races in that state, including between democrat john fetterman and republican mammon awes -- mehmet oz. steve in massachusetts, republican. you are next. i started my feeling right

after the pandemrtednd the democrats shut dow our wo, our golf courses, our businesses. it seems there is no mmon sense on the side of democrats whatsoever. during the pandee lo so many young men due to the fentanyl crisi people coming over ther. my son died of fentanyl poisoning. i feel it is a replacement, having these young gentlemen, which 90% of them come from south america are men, and now currently we have towns next to the cape full of illegal immigrants. 100 illegal immigrants are living in hotels off cape cod and 63 of them are children. none of them speak english and schools are just supposed to sustain this and our country

cannot sustain what is going on in our own country, much less what is going on in other countries. i feel this administration is incompetent. if you do not have common sense, you cannot get common sense. the electric car industry does not have -- if everyone had an electric car, we do not know how to juice them up. we do not have enough electric technology to juice them up. i do not understand what direction we are going in. host: you mention shutdowns and schools. you might be interested in one of the lead editorials in the wall street journal, the editorial board noting that some in the teacher's union want forgiveness when it comes to school shutdowns. the ll street journal editorial board saying, not so fast.

this plea for forgiveness would be more plausible if the shutdown lobby had shown more willingness during the pandemic to listen to other arguments that proved to be right. instead, they tried to discredit the authors of a declaration that argued for protection for the most vulnerable while keeping schools open, saying they were censored on tech platforms. if you want to read the full editorial, that is at wsj.com. irene, new jersey, calling on the line for those who are still undecided this election. what will make the final decision for you? caller: i said i was undecided because i have not completely filled out my ballot. i have decided on the federal level that i am going democratic. on the county level, i am voting democratic. on the municipal level, i am

voting republican. i have not decided who i will vote for for sheriff or if i'm going to vote for sheriff. there's only one candidate, and he is a republican and i am not fond of him. i am probably not going to vote for sheriff. host: why democrats on the federal and state level and republicans on the local level? caller: on the local level, we do not have any democrats running. i have spoken to the republicans and feel they will be representative of me on the local level, so that is why i am voting that way. i have not yet decided who i am going to vote for or if i am going to vote on the local school level for the board of education. i have requested a call from one of the candidates, who is

running. there are right in spaces, so i am not sure how i am going to vote. host: how often do you request personal calls from candidates? caller: as often as i need to. if i do not know the person running and i do not have any other way of obtaining information about their position , i request that they call me and i speak to them individually and ask my questions about their positions on various issues. host: we will head to michigan. this is kevin, voting independent this cycle. are you with us this morning? we will keep working on trying to get kevin on because i think you are there. if not, we can try sue in flat

rock, indiana. are you there? >> i am. it was roe v. wade. that was my decision in voting -- that was one, the most important thing. i think a woman has a right to choose. but it has gotten to the point where some of the republican candidates are already talking about forming committees to impeach and it is to the point where ted cruz even said that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. that is called revenge. enough of the chaos. it is past time for both houses to work for the good of all people. the republican party in my opinion has been taken over by racist groups, bullies, liars,

and cheaters. but i do know and have faith in goodwill triumph over people every time. thank you for listening. have a good day. host: we will head to oregon. this is stella, republican. caller: i am voting republican all done the ticket. it is because of the state of everything, high price of everything. i am on social security disability. everything around me is going up, but my check is not. it is harder to make it paycheck-to-paycheck, which is funny. it is ridiculous. if there was a dog that had an r by it, i would vote for it.

just straight republican. host: this is peter, voting for the independent candidates. i'm assuming you are talking about the case where there is an independent running. caller: it all goes back to 2016. i supported trump at the beginning but he was not telling the truth, so i did not trust the democrats, so i can trust mcmullen. i support him for senate, whereas mike lee supported fake electors, so i cannot support him because i cannot trust him. but i do like john curtis because he seems trustworthy. that is pretty much it. host: utah is one of the key senate races being watched this cycle. we have already talked about another, the state of

pennsylvania. john fetterman is running against mehmet oz. here is the headline from usa today. he defends his pennsylvania debate showing, saying it was important i showed up and i did it. those statements coming to cnn a week after his debate performance in the keystone state. here are some of the interview. [video clip] >> i always understood it was not going to be easy. i am five months into recovery from that, but i thought it was important i show up and i did. at the end of the day, we made some important points and it reminded dr. oz of the fact that he still believes the same kind of abortion thoughts with doug mastery anna, who believes local political leaders need to be part of the decision between

women and their doctors. >> you said the other night at a fundraiser with president biden that you would be better in january. do you and your doctors think you will have a full recovery by then? >> i do believe that i continue to get and feel better and better. >> we have heard a little from your doctor but not a lot. you're asking voters to trust you on your word that your health is good without the full story. in the interest of full transparency, do you think it would help if you let your doctors brief the press before election night? >> i think we have been pretty transparent. we have had our doctors be clear that we are here and able to serve. from my point, we have also been transparent in terms of showing up at debates and about having

events in front of thousands of pennsylvanians for months. it was no secret that i was going to miss some words and bush -- mush some words together. as we have been clear, i have been using captioning. i believe we have been transparent to give all voters -- to make it to their choice. host: senate candidate john fetterman from pennsylvania on cnn yesterday. talking in this first hour about when you made your decision for the midterm elections. was there a specific moment? phone lines divided up. and if you are still undecided. we certainly want to hear from you. if you're still undecided, (202) 748-8003. this is tom out of miami -- out

of ohio. caller: i made my mind up in 2016. i'm 87 years old. anybody that draws social security can kiss it goodbye when the republicans take over. i paid into social security from age 14 and i worked until i was age 77. and a republican says that is an entitlement. i sure feel entitled to it. i will never vote -- i was not going to vote until all this nonsense came up again about social security and medicare. medicare is not the greatest, but at least it is something. thank you, john. host: this is carol out of massachusetts, voting republican this cycle.

caller: i am going to vote republican for the district, top-level, after with the democrats have done to this country in the last year or so. i do not understand how people can continue to vote democratic. i have noticed the ads in massachusetts from the democratic side and they are full of untruths. they do not give a good explanation. they do not tell people that when they start to do the pharmaceutical companies control drug prices. it is good to be a limited number of drug prices, not all the drug prices. they do not explain that. as far social security is concerned, no one explains, including c-span, that the government has been -- officials

have been borrowing from social security for years. if something does not do something to save it, it is going to go bankrupt. one of the things that have made a go bankrupt will be if they allow all these illegal immigrants to start getting social security and also all the people who are not employed and living off government paychecks one way or another are not contributing at the same time to social security benefits. so they do not give a good picture and i also noticed that c-span, specifically this morning, you show a lot of clips that give the democratic side -- they look very positive, like you just did with federman. you did not give dr. oz a chance to respond, and i am tired of listening to obama. that man is out of office and he

is the one that pushed to have biden take office and look at the mess we are in. the border is a mess. all these illegal immigrants that the american middle class is supposed to take care of and it goes on and on, so please be fair. when you show something the democrats say, say something that the republican side and what their explanation of decisions. host: do you want to hear from dr. oz? here is one of his ads and that pennsylvania senate race. >> i have seen your kindness and willingness to share. my family and i will carry these memories forever.

what is missing from politics these days is compassion. that is why i will cut taxes and help families struggling with inflation and help those suffering from drugs and crime. politicians point fingers. doctors solve problems. we will stand up to extremism on both sides and bring balance to washington. i approve this message. host: trying to give you a sense of what is happening on the campaign trail six days from election day. when did you make her midterm decision? calling in on phone lines but also sending us text messages and tweets. this is kathy in new jersey, saying i made my decision the day democrats took control of both houses and rammed through their progressive agenda without's half the country input or vote -- without half the country's input or votes. in 2021 is when they made their decision, when the cost of a

pound of shrimp became expensive. this saying come out when biden and schumer and pelosi continued emergency spending beyond covid and flooded with corrupt and wasteful spending to her -- spending. and steve saying, i decided when i was accused of being a fascist. i am not, but it helped me make my decision to vote republican if all the democrats have is name-calling. this saying, i make my decision a minute before i vote. that is why there is such a thing as too early to vote. and cheryl making her decision when trump refused to accept the free and fair election results. a few of your comments and text as well. this is michael in new york, democrat. caller: i would like the people see on the tv what they are

watching, these republicans with the big lies. i would love to see decent people like elizabeth cheney. i would love to see them get together and run this country the right way and care for the elderly and people who are retired. now that i'm retired, i am worried they will cut all the benefits they have for medicare and stuff like that. the country's going to keep going the direction it is going. it has to be better. thank you. host: this is from the pages of the washington times. an editor at large, search of civility in politics, saying amicans see those who disagree

with them not just as wrong but as people, pointing to an nbc poll that found 80% of democrats and republicans perceived their partisan opposites as a threat to the foundation of the american republic saying we too ofteconfuse wrong headedness with people -- evil and saying that americans are searching for civility in their politics. this is irene and mississippi, republican. good morning. caller: hello? host: go ahead. caller: first of all, i want to explain to the democrats exactly the big life they are believing in about social security and medicare. one congressman brought up an idea of examining it every five years and now the liberal media

has taken that and run with eli that the republicans are going to take away their benefits. this is the biggest lie so far by the democrats and the liberal media to scare the people. also, i would like to respond to the very well spoken supposedly military officer the cauldron in the beginning of the show and stated that all republicans were in a bubble. this is frightening to me that a military man could be that shortsighted. no. if our military is as shortsighted as he is, then we are in big trouble. democrats, you better wake up and look around you and see what

has happened in the last 2.5 years and face the truth instead of listening to the lion left-wing media. -- lying left-wing media. you will not lose your social security if republicans get in office. please wake up. host: i read out of mississippi. about 20 minutes left in this first segment of the washington journal. later in our program, we will continue our weeks before the election battleground series focusing on battleground states. we are headed to the badger state of wisconsin today. bob is in milwaukee, voting for the independent this cycle. what electionre you voting for the independent on? caller: republican. st: you're voting republican, ller: i am an independent voting all republican. host: w that?

caller:ausef all the propaganda and continuous lying t soal security and medicare. every cycle democrats bring up social security, that reans are going to somehow the fact is there is no polical party, democrat or republican, that wver that because it is political suicide. it has always been political suicide to mention any cuts to social security and medicare. rick scott proposed -- it was a proposal to examine social

security. host: do think it would be fair to take if -- a look at it every five years? caller: i am assuming that is what scott was getting at, was it would not be uncommon to find that there are thousands of people that are on social security that really should not be there. i do not see any problem and looking at that. -- in looking at that. host: we will be back in wisconsin later in our show as part of our free election battleground series on the washington journal, but we will go now to massachusetts. this is andrew, voting for the democratic candidate this cycle. caller: i am voting democrat because i am a christian and

anybody backing trump -- his idol is the author of mein kampf . he said that man was a brilliant man who had good ideas. trump caused the supply chain problem by stopping boats from coming in from china and everything else. he wanted to make himself look good to put out the vaccine for the plague. he just wanted to make himself look like the hero of the world when the only think he cares about is himself and money. if you are christian, you would vote anybody out of office who backs that man. host: this is rod in shreveport, louisiana, voting for the

republican this cycle. caller: hello? i am a republican. i used to be a democrat. i am 67 years old. i hear people talking about they are christians but they believe in abortion. on the other end, you have joe biden peered the first thing he did once he was signed in, walked over there and shut down the pipeline and open the border. we have people in this country who are homeless. how can we take all those people and we are not taking care of our own people? donald trump set america first. democrats are saying ukraine or anybody comes first but not taking care of people who are here. presidents say if you are black and you do not vote -- if you do not vote democrat, you are not black. i am going to reverse that. if you are black and vote

republican, you are that. host: a few more comments from social media. this is mark, saying his mind was made up when democrats fumbled the afghanistan pull out. this is saying it was on january 6. no republican for me. stephen saying his mind was made up the moment that joe biden took his oath of office. have not voted for a democrat and nearly 20 years and likely never will again. this is from steven in michigan saying i will not vote for a republican until they dump trump. i'm an independent and want a person who will work for the betterment of our country. this is donald out of raleigh, north carolina. caller: i wanted to say i will be voting democratic this election, although i am an independent.

the reasons are because social security is on the chopping block. benefits are on the chopping block. medicare is on the chopping block. republicans intend to do that through the budgetary process. republicans, as far as i'm concerned, no lie is too big for them to repeat. for those people concerned about inflation, think about insulin. there are a lot of people on insulin in the united states and $35 will be the out-of-pocket maximum. do not tell me that is not important. i am encouraged by those americans who call in and express logic and reasoning and are not swayed too far by the left, nor by the right.

and the black guy that called in from louisiana just now, without the democrats having done what they have done in the past, you could not sleep where you sleep. you could not live where you live and you would just about have to petition the establishment to be acknowledged as a human being before you got anything done. think about that. host: donald in north carolina along with the campaign as we have been showing you trying to keep you up-to-date on the latest when it comes to the polls about the midterm election and the gallup organization is one of the best out there, noting that enthusiasm about voting in 2022 is down from 2018 but about average for the midterms. america is listen to the astec about voting in this year's elections than 2018. adults say they are -- who say they are more enthusiastic to vote than 2018 marks a decline.

today's enthusiasm is in line with the average since 1994. you can see that average going back to 1994 and the jump that happened in 2018 after donald trump was elected president. this is monte in oregon, undecided. monte is not with us. we will go to bernie in kentucky. caller: i made my decision for the midterms in 2015. i was registered democrat and changed my affiliation to vote for john kasich in the primaries . in my thinking, if we could beat trump in the primaries we would not have to worry about him running for president. so that is what need my decision. i did not vote for trump for president. i thought he was the least

qualified person. in liberal kentucky, we have a huge race coming up for mayor. louisville has been a hotbed for a while. it has been tense because of the breonna taylor situation, so we will be changing mayors. that is a big race. rand paul is up for reelection. i will stick with the democrats and hope everything works out. host: when you talk to folks in louisville, what about enthusiasm down by 18 points from the last midterms in 2018? are you sensing that among folks who are voting the way you are voting? >> we have not talked much about that. i did not really see the chart you had up, so i cannot really comment on that, but we have three counties that are pretty

much blue and the rest of the state's red. most of jefferson county vote for democrats but the rest of the state is usually voting republican. some more than likely we will be looking at rand paul again for senator. charles brooke is a good man, but i do not think he has the backing to overcome rand paul's campaign. host: we will head to indiana. this is jim. good morning. caller: good morning. i used to be a democrat and then i switched over because i did see the light. i am voting pocketbook, which is republican. i went in the grocery store and there is not anything that was the same price it was before. plus you have the deficit.

it went from 8.3 during his tenure and is now 8.6. that is our deficit. it went up again. interest rates are going up. even in the hardware store, everything is going up. lastly, some of them said about how the republicans lie. i need to remind them that obama said if you like this dr. you will get it was the plan. that plan is very expensive. my daughter tried to get it and said, it is really expensive. the way they presented it was cheap, but once again i am not a multimillionaire. i go in the grocery store and cannot buy any red meat. it is way up.

chicken is seldom on sale. when they haven't on sale, a herd of elephants comes in and buys what is there. everything since this so-called leader of our sons got into office, everything is double, even cars. now it is on the floor, take it or leave it. come on. it is getting terrible. you need control. one last comment no one made when trump was in office, he called every day to rush the vaccination through. the only problem was they did not know how bad it was going to be. i believe that trump did not tell us the beginning it was so bad because he was afraid there would be mass hysteria like you

saw in south korea. one last important comment, we have two problems occurring. we have north and south korea at it again. instead he 15, the iranians have been bombing saudi arabia that is the oil supply. we used to have emergency oil but our leaders bet i better use it because i have to get some votes and i have to give students money so they will vote for me too. host: jim in indiana. was there a moment this cycle that made your decision? when did you know you were going to vote democratic or republican or are you undecided? here are a few more comments from social media this text message from florida. it was early in biden's

presidency. he has done nothing right and everything wrong. republicans must clean up the mess. and this saying when republicans stopped supporting public education and started lying about voter fraud and climate change and trickle-down economics. i started voting for democrats only. robert says every time i see biden on tv i want to vote for republicans. and this from joan in minnesota. after afghanistan, i am so disappointed in the misinformation being put forward. honesty matters. two more of your calls here. when did you know your decision in the midterm election? pennsylvania, this is ernie. caller: i hope you give me enough time. elections do not determine the

state of affairs. our countries is being run by cartels. you have the oil cartel and the medical cartel and that is who determines the course of current events. in the communication act, politicians are allowed to lie. broadcasters cannot censor political content. all these people who are calling saying they are independent and then they vote democrat or republican, i cannot vote either one. i am an independent. they better wake up. both parties are all for unlimited spending. they say america first, but nobody is stopping illegal

aliens coming in. 5 million came in this year alone. if we counted how many foreigners in this country, there are over 70 million. there are a lot. host: this is greg in illinois, democrat. good morning. caller: i made my decision after charlottesville. there are not very fine people on both sides. and watching the gop insurrectionists. democrats lost the electoral college and did not smear the capitol rotunda in feces. i made my decision the moment i woke up to see that paul pelosi had fallen to the avalanche of vitriol. i am watching you on tv. you look great in that blue suit. please, i'm talking to the producers around you, do not forecast the polls. no one knows what is going to

happen. get out there and vote. there are a lot of men of conscience out here. when we saw what happened with roe v. wade, they told us they were going to do it and they did. that is what they will do with social security and medicare. they are going to take it. if you're prepared for that reality, vote republican. otherwise, check in with your conscience and do the right thing. you know what that is. host: this is jim in new jersey, voting republican. >> i do not like how they treat illegal immigrants and senior citizens. that is why i am voting for republicans. they get everything for free and we have to pay for them? it is not right. host: just a couple minutes left here. one other story this morning, the today expected to order a

big boost in interest rates as questions bubble up over how much higher borrowing costs will go before inflation starts to come down. that is the npr story. we will cover jerome powell's news conference in which he will be talking about it on c-span today. you can also watch on the free c-span now app. this is dave in virginia, independent. caller: i wish there were more independents like the guy running against mike lee in utah who really made a good case for why both parties really are useless. it has become a circus and sensational. people just want to get people to react so they vote against the other guy. nobody has a plan. the republicans are all about power. joe biden wants to pay everybody's student loan debt

off. that is not the way our government works. you're supposed to go through congress to appropriate those funds. nobody cares about people that elected them. this is supposed to be a representative government and i am not sure we have that anymore. the head clown came in two years ago. people bought it. some folks talked against it immediately after the insurrection and then all of a sudden that did not really happen. so all the clowns are in the tent and we need to speak up for the people to be representative like they are supposed to be. host: last call in this segment, steve in new jersey. when did you decide you would vote for the democratic candidate this cycle? caller: i never intended to vote for republicans. i wanted to make comments about

people who routinely call in saying that the republicans are not going to go against social security. i'm looking at a fact-check here that all federal legislation should be sunsetted in five years. when people rail about the liberal media, i do not know what they are talking about. fox news has higher ratings than msnbc and cnn combined. people listen to the nonsense that tucker carlsen spews. hannity the other night was making state was about how biden is senile. it is appalling. the other, and are like to make is the website people go to to get republican talking points, people call in routinely and say the same things. as if he's got personal control

over anything like the covid crisis or the ukraine war. it is disturbing to me that so many people are so deluded that trump was a good president, when he was probably the crookedest president to serve in american history. it is sad. host: keith in new jersey. our last collar in this first segment of washington journal. next, we will be joined by politico congressional reporter andrew desiderio about the attack on nancy pelosi's husband and subsequent calls for security for lawmakers in congress. the top battleground states in this election cycle. that conversation with the associated press state house reporter in wisconsin, scott bauer, later today. ♪

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races with our coverage of debates, rallies and candidate evts events as they happen on tv and th c-span on demand n website. c-span.org/campaign2022. >> "washington journal" continues. host: politico reporter andrew desiderio joins us in the wake of the attack on speaker nancy pelosi's husband. you reported this week that attack has spurred calls from members of congress for increased security. what are they asking or right now? guest: there is very few by way of specifics right now. we are looking toward congressional leaders when they come back to telegraph what exactly they want to do. there are many legislative angles here they can take. the first is an existing pass

over a measure that was slipped into the annual defense bill. that would allow federal judges to scrub their addresses and phone numbers from the internet. this was legislation spurred after a federal judge and her family were attacked in new jersey a few years ago. senator rand paul, republican of kentucky, had been holding up that legislation because he wanted to allow lawmakers to take advantage of that. in other was, allow members of congress to actively scrub their personal, identifying information from the internet. that is the most obvious pass they can take here in terms of something already in the works. yesterday, you saw that rare statement from the capitol police's chief, thomas manger, in which he explicitly did call for more funding. he said that he would not telegraph specifics publicly in terms of what they were asking for, for obvious reasons. i think you can see a security

supplemental appropriations bill come together sometime after they come back, or they could tack it onto some of these other moving trains out of the station before the end of the year. host: it was a lengthy and rare statement from the chief of capitol police. here are -- here is part of it. the chief saying, today's political climate cal more resources to provide more layers of security from embers of congring this time of heightened political tension, we monitor thousands of cases ss the country in an effort to stopontial threats before they make the headlines. during the past five years, roughly 12% of cases in which we identified people making threats have been actually prosecuted. we hope to see more of these cases pseted to the fullest extent of the law. us is working tirelessly to keep everyone safe airing these tense times in american politics. how is that statement received on the hill? guest: you have seen congressional leaders receptive

to that. a spokesperson for senate majority leader chuck schumer told me earlier this week that everything is on the table in terms of additional security resources from embers of congress, congressional leaders, their family members, including those who are more prominent positions like paul pelosi. i think you can see something come together fairly quickly once lawmakers return to washington after the election. i think that is what tom manger was tipping his hat toward. host: back to paul pelosi and this attack. washington post last night had this story, capitol police missed having seen that attack and in real-time security cameras at the pelosi household not being monitored is the lead story in today's washington post. a lot of details in that story about the monitoring at the pelosi home, capitol police installing cameras around the home about eight years ago. hours after pelosi left san

francisco to return to washington, d.c., much of her security ended up leaving with her the night of the attack. the continuous monitoring of the video feeds at her house was not happening. your thoughts on that story and revelations? guest: capitol police has been stretched thin ever since the january 6 attack on the capital. they have had trouble with recruiting, withholding retaining -- with retaining staff. this is an example of that. they had security cameras there. if they were properly monitored, the attack potentially could have been stopped sooner. it took paul pelosi faking having to use the restroom in order to call 911 and get police to the house as quickly as possible. whereas, if they had been monitoring these camera feeds they had proactively installed eight years ago or so, maybe the attack could have been thwarted

altogether or stopped sooner. we know paul pelosi has sustained serious injuries. he has a skull fractures. he had multiple surgeries as far as we know. this is another example of the january 6 attack, really stretching the capitol police thin. one of the suggestions of how to remedy that is what we mentioned before with tom manger, additional funding. host: andrew desiderio is our guest from politico. threats to lawmakers is our topic. if you want to join the conversation, phone lines as usual. i believe in this segment, let me double check to be sure. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002.

break this down for us. speaker nancy pelosi had a lot of security in washington and at home in san francisco. what other members have a security detail with them, how far does that go and are there calls to have more specific details for your members of congress? guest: the members who have security are the top two lawmakers in each party in each chamber. we are talking the speaker of the house. she is unique, she is in the presidential line of succession. she is second in line to the presidency. you've got these -- the house and senate majority and minority leaders, majority whips and minority whips. you've got at least nine members of congress right now who have full-time security details with them 20 47 all the time, even when they are just walking around the capital talking to reporters. over the years, we have seen the need for specific rank and file

lawmakers to have full-time security details when the capital lease assesses there are legitimate threats, ongoing threats against them. i am thinking more recently, of senator marco rubio, who for a you -- for a few years had full-time security details because of threats he had emanating from venezuela. senator rubio had that detail around him. senator ted cruz has a full-time security detail, that is mostly because of a federal charges filed against a maryland man a couple of months ago who threatened to kill him. some members of the january 6 select committee have security details. some are full-time, some are part-time when they are washington or at home and not necessarily traveling around the country. generally speaking, it is those eight or nine lawmakers at the top. those congressional leadership.

on top of that, you have any lawmaker that capital police assesses has an active threat against them. host: on leadership security detail, to remind viewers -- in 2017, minority with steve scully's, his security detail first engaged the shooter at the republican congressional baseball practice in axaria, virginia. stevecuy hadn't been there on that baseball field, there would likely not have been any armed security. guest: the rest of the lawmakers there were rank and file lawmakers who didn't have any sort of security protection. you think about the awful scenario that could have happened if steve scalise were not there and if security detail were not there. that is part of what has gotten other lawmakers outside of leadership thinking about the best ways to protect themselves, members of their family, especially when they are traveling around the company -- country, doing things for

themselves and other candidates. especially more recognizable rank and file members. people like ted cruz and other lawmakers who could benefit from that kind of security protection, especially if they have active threats against them on an ongoing basis. so if you are not in leadership and capital police have not assessed you need specific detail, can you get your own protective security, and you pay for that out of your pocket? is that something that comes out of a congressional budget? guest: there have been efforts to do that in the congressional buffet -- budget in recent years. members, when they do campaign events or are traveling around the country, their campaigns hire private security for them. for the events they are doing, and the member. that has been the run of it over the years. it remains to be seen what kind

of package they could craft in a lame-duck period at the end of the year. they could alter that. as of now, it is an individual decision by the member, him or herself, and his or her campaign. host: i want to focus on numbers put out by the capitol police. this is there threat assessment team. it is there threats that of come in against members of congress over the years. lots of numbers here, it is a trend you can see that is trending upwards over the years. in 2017, the number was just under 4000 threats from the threat assessment team. in 2018, that went up to 5200 threats. 2019, just under 7000 threats. 2021, -- we do not have the numbers from 2022. this only going up, and very

fast. guest: i think it is because the rhetoric has gone up. it has gotten more intense. you have seen politicians and their supporters using social media to promote conspiracy theories and violence against certain members of congress. you see, it is getting worse. you can just tell by the numbers. the january 6 attack on the capital was a wake-up call for everyone in terms of how real those threats can be. host: usa today, one of their stories today -- the fbi released investigate of documents through 2017. they asked for perry's threats, they have been tracking those in charge with threats against specifically nancy posey. here are examples of those charges. the department of justice -- the

police arrested those who made charges against nancy pelosi. five they tracked. last year, a man in north carolina was sentenced to prison for threatening to shoot the house speaker. a georgia man who drove across the country with a rifle and threatened to kill pelosi sentenced to prison last summer. in february, a arizona man sentenced in prison sending threatening voicemails to the speaker. just some of these stories behind some of those numbers we had just talked about. guest: you are seeing it happen more, rank and file mentors at an increasing read -- rate and the speaker of the house. polos he is a recognizable figure in the united states, she is someone who is in the presidential succession line. for that reason alone, she needs the full detail.

on top of that, her prominence in politics, and campaign ads has ratcheted up that tension. and, caused other congressional leaders to consider other ways to protect themselves and other rank and file members -- ranking file mentors. host: let's take questions for college. rick out of buffalo, new york. go ahead. caller: i want to know, how do you feel about the whole, defund police movement that has gone on, and you think that has something to do with the problems going on in this country right now? guest: i think it has been a rallying call for the far left in recent years. you have seen it quiet down recently, especially after the 2020 elections when moderate democrats thought that effort was harmful to their electoral gains.

or rather, lack thereof. i do not think that is part of the equation when it comes to members security. host: minnesota, nancy, go ahead. caller: i am concerned -- the gentleman, andrew, started off saying it is going to cost, it is going to cost, the discussion ended on that topic. what i need to tell you is, when you are shut up with monitoring, there are monitors that monitor those from offline. not the people who are actual security body people, but there are people who do that. the excuse saying, all pe losi's safety was with her, i take issue with the fact that if she has a security and it was monitored properly and as a homeowner would have, there

would have been quickly, safety people going there to prevent what happened. i think it is another excuse for the 9000 and so many tricked people that supposedly made tricks against the government people. i think it is another excuse to impose more cost for the government. i believe the security -- if the security was set up properly, it would have been taken care of. host: let's talk about police missing the pelosi attack again. washington post last night reading that story, are we expecting the capitol police will have to answer questions on mass -- this? guest: it comes down to who is in charge of those divisions that are responsible for this. this was a serious mishap they

are going to have to answer for. to the caller's point, throwing money at a problem doesn't necessarily solve it. i think what they are talking about is the more targeted way to use this funding. extending protection to prominent family members of congressional leaders, things like that. i think the money component of this is one part of it. you also have the capitol police having to make sure they are streamlining their processes and answering for these apparent mishaps. host: one question that always comes up in budgetary hearings for the capitol police and security hearings, is the idea of how open this capital campus is and whether to put up a fence around the capital. when is the last time you heard that discussion, and has that picked up in recent years as threats have picked up? guest: you saw in the aftermath of the january 6 attack, there was national guard protection

around capital hill. host: there were temporary barriers. guest: exactly. when they got rid of the barrier, they said it was a retractable system whereby it could be put up basically at a moments notice if needed. that is still the case today. if something happens or ahead of a major event on capitol hill, they can put up that fence again within a day's notice. host: and then came calls for a permanent barrier? guest: i don't think anybody has been calling for that, especially since the capital is open for tours. the tours are carefully choreographed. they are carefully screened. many people get those directly through their member of congress. of course, it is a concern. as the capital has opened back

up to the public after the covid pandemic and the january 6 attack, there has been less of a discussion about permanent barrier, only this idea for major security events -- they are doing an event outdoors, maybe on the capitol grounds, putting that temporary barrier back up just as an extra layer of security, rather than having it be permanent. host: loretta out of cleveland, ohio. good morning, you are next. caller: good morning, john gray good morning, andrew. andrew, my fear is what is going to happen when the republicans lose again. every time something happens, one of their guys go off the rails and commit some type of crime. they come back and say, mental

illness. so, what is going on with the republican party? i remember when obama administration, they went through 15 different mail bombs. after that, there was gabby gifford. everybody talked about steve scalise, no. gabby gifford was injured to the point she could not return to congress. after that, charlottesville. good people on both sides, oh no. oh, no. i have never seen a good nazi. after that was george floyd. a lot people do not understand what the difference is in the 2020 protests and january 6. host: let's go back in time. gabby gifford, and how that changed feelings about member security among members of

congress you talked to. guest: that was one of the earlier incidents in terms of what we have been talking about with lawmakers being directly targeted. the possibility of having armed security with them, even at these events. i believe gabby gifford was at a meet and greet event with supporters and constituents. you have seen over the years, calls for allowing lawmakers to tap into their campaign accounts for private security, even for just one off events like that. not necessarily 24/7 around the clock, full security detail, but having basic protection of the member of congress at these types of events. you never know what can happen. host: the constant question, access versus member security and how folks are feeling about that today versus when you first started covering congress. guest: right.

i think it is best illustrated by what we have seen on capitol hill in terms of logistics over the last few years. we have seen the capital closed off to the public because of the coronavirus pandemic. after the january 6 attack, and there was so much handwringing and accountability to be had and after action assessments to make sure the capital was properly protected, to make sure this did not happen again. this had the effect of shutting out the public, which had always historically had access to the u.s. capitol building on a daily basis. for tours, for meetings, things like that. even today, if you do not have a scheduled meeting or hearing on capitol hill, it is tough to get into one of the office buildings . pre-covid, pre-january 6, any member of the public and go through security and get in and stand in line outside their member of congress or senator's

office, ask questions, sign a signature book and have things submitted that way. it has changed over the years. we are still not fully back to what it used to be in terms of that overwhelming access. host: are the public galleries fully open at this point? guest: the public galleries inside both chambers are fully open at this point. host: do you stand outside the capital line to get to one of those spots? guest: it is for people who have existing tour reservations. there are only sections of the chamber where you can observe what is happening inside of the chamber and access is still limited. it is not like it was before january 6 and before covid-19. host: alexandria, louisiana. this is cornelius. caller: good morning. john and andrew, i used to be a

military police officer. i had top-secret clearance. i told our base, we want everybody to be armed because if you are not armed, you cannot defend yourselves. these senators and congressmen need to be armed to the t. the public needs to be armed. the best way to do this stuff is to stop blaming each other and stuff like that. january 6 could have been prevented. donald trump asked for 20 to 10,000 troops for security reasons in case there was a riot or uprising. nancy pelosi denied it, along with which mcconnell. and, the d.c. mayor said she did not want it. i wish people would go to the sub stack. michael schellenberg has a special article about this guy and he is an illegal alien and stuff. he's got black lives matter flags and gay flags wherever he

was staying at. host: cornelius, let me pause and come back to this january 6 issue. and security on capitol hill. who runs a security on capitol hill, how does that process work, who is in charge on capitol hill? guest: it is run through capitol police. there are multiple divisions that have their own specialties. the intelligence division is among the most important. this is the part of law enforcement on capitol hill that tracks potential threats, ongoing threats, makes sure that they know the whereabouts of congressional leaders at all times. things like that. i think what you saw in terms of the washington post story last night in terms of these apparent mishaps, not properly monitoring cameras at speaker pelosi's home in san francisco, that division is going to be responsible for this.

as a result, the capitol police she is going to have to answer for it and be more specific in terms of, what he wants to see in terms of additional funding, security measures, that is something lawmakers are going to be asking. host: how did the house sergeant at arms and senate sergeant at arms fit into the picture at capitol hill? guest: they work closely with capitol police. they are responsible for the protection of the buildings themselves, tracking online activity of the congressional staffers, things like that. and, making sure for special events that happen on capital hill -- which are almost every day, that there is proper security. they handle logistics for that. they handle access to lawmakers on capitol hill. they really set the rules and do so in conjunction with capitol police. host: the caller brought up the

idea of members being armed. firearms on capitol hill, carrying a weapon into the capital. can members do that? guest: members of congress do not have to go through any sort of metal detectors or security when they come through the capital or into one of the office buildings on a daily basis. however on the house floor right now, to get onto the house floor, you have to go through a metal detector. that was something imposed after january 6. speaker pelosi decided to set that up. republicans, when and if they take control over the house, which we expect likely at this point, our probably going to get rid of that. it used to be able, you could walk on the house floor, no problem to and from. now, you see long lines outside the house floor at various entrances for members of congress trying to get there. host: one more question on

structure. the capital police board overseas united states capitol police. the sergeant at arms of the senate and house and the architect of the capitol serve on that board. the capital police chief is a nonvoting member on that board. why the architect of the capital in that picture? guest: the architect of the capital is important, this is the person who handles not just logistics but very much on a granular level, the way equipment is moved around the hill. the construction elements, renovations, things like that. that element of security is very important for special events, especially when you have historical artifacts. you've got statues being dedicated, just the week they left i believe they unveiled a new statue from the state of missouri that speaker pelosi spoke at. in terms of getting that repaired and making sure it is done in a way that respects the

historical nature of those items , that is very important. that is something the architect of the capitol handles. host: was it the harry truman statue? guest: exactly. host: we covered that as part of our programming on c-span, it is going to air on american history tv. guest: that happened right before they left. the architect of the capitol, that has them and their duties written all over it. host: time for a couple more calls. anthony, kentucky. go ahead. caller: how are you gentlemen this morning? host: good. caller: i am a big fan of getting up early and watching cnbc. when they passed the chips bill, nancy pelosi and them had $60 million to invest in chips. but, they do not have enough money to invest on security. i have been a lifelong democrat,

i live on $10,020 a year social security. i need my social security, i need them to pay for their own security, not take it out of taxpayers money. host: andrew, is a way of doing that possibly through campaign funds? can embers use campaign funds, is that -- members use campaign funds? guest: yes, it is usually a one off event. they are doing a town hall or appearing with another candidate, appearing on behalf of him or her. that is the most frequent use campaign funds for security. they are less of a use for private, around-the-clock, ranking file members of congress. host: andrew desiderio is a politico congressional reporter. you can find him on twitter. last night, tweeting about the

philadelphia phillies. congratulations. guest: thank you. we are not done yet. host: always appreciate your time. time for our open form, the part of the program where we let you lead this show. phone numbers for democrats, republicans and independents, we will put them on your screen. democrats, it is (202) 748-8000 . republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. start calling it now, we will get to your calls after the break. ♪ >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store. browse through our latest collection of c-span products, apparel, books, home to core and accessories. there is something for every c-span fan. every purchase helps support our nonprofit operation. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. ♪

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picture yourself as a newly elected member of congress. we ask this year's competitors, what is your top priority and why? make a five to six minute video that shows the portents of your issue from opposing and supporting perspectives. do not be afraid to take risks. be bold. amongst the $100,000 in cash prizes is a thousand dollar grand prize. videos must be submitted by january 20, 2023. visit our website at studentcam.org. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. host: it is our open form on the washington journal. any public policy, political, state issue you want to talk about. if you want to talk mid term elections, now is your time to call in. democrats, it is (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001.

independents (202) 748-8002. phone lines are yours. as you are calling in, i did want to note the federal serve expect it to order possibly a big boost in interest rates today. we will find out exactly what will be happening when jerome powell speaks today at 2:30 p.m. eastern, we will be covering it on c-span and c-span.org and the free c-span out that you app. turning this program over to you. we will start with robin in michigan, independent. it is open forum. what is on your mind? caller: i heard a gentleman call in talking about the national guard and january the sixth. it is my understanding, perhaps i am incorrect, that it was up to reaching president trump, so he could order the national guard to come out and assist in january 6. am i incorrect? he blamed pelosi, mitch mcconnell and other people not

getting the national guard in there to help the capitol police. host: did you watch those january 6 hearings, the video that we saw, that last hearing of nancy pelosi and chuck schumer reaching out to the white house asking federal troops. what did you think of the video? caller: i thought it was remarkable that he could call this line and say that they didn't try to get the national guard and there. i hope he is still listening, because he is so wrong. i thought maybe i was wrong, because i did watch those hearings and i saw them trying to get the troops in their. it was up to the president to reach out and ask, i believe, the pentagon to send in the national guard. host: this is cheryl in daytona beach, florida. republican. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i think this is the saddest time

the country has ever been in. it seems like based in the 1970's, when vietnam was going on, even before then. host: why are you feeling that way today? caller: look at where we are at. russia, china, north korea, misbehaving horribly. america is a special country. we have always been a special country. the whole world needed country -- america to be a special country and a beacon on the hill. we have done so much around the world that is unacknowledged. especially in florida where we suffered hurricane ian, to see the level of support that is common, the volunteers that have come down, the millions of dollars -- people walked away from their lives and homes to help each other. america is a good and decent country at heart. americans are basically good and decent people. i think we all want what's best for our families and future.

having security is the most important. i feel a lot of people do not feel that now, especially with the threat of nuclear war and that open border is just and on godly mess --ungodly mess. until the left is held as accountable as the right, it is hard to feel like there is much justice on both sides of the aisle. i hear a lot of hate from the democratic party and unrest from some republicans. it is wrong all around. we all need to step up, take sponsor ability for ourselves and help each other out. god bless america. i hope it is never too late. host: this is jeanette in vermont. line for democrats. good morning. what is on your mind? caller: hi, good morning. i have been a lifelong democrat.

i have voted for republicans before. we have a great republican governor in the state. it is the discord, it is people hating each other. i had open heart surgery. the surgeon was great, saved my life. later on, i went to some rally. some democratic rally. then, i went to a republican rally. i saw my surgeon, my heart surgeon was a republican. it was like, i have this life-saving operation. i did not care if he was republican, i did not know what he was. the hate has got to stop. people, try to love one another. you never know when you are going to need help. policeman, if that crazy person is a democrat or a republican

yelling at you, do not know what they are or what they can do for you in the future. just stop it. just take a deep breath before you ask and just this into the other side. i am just asking that people -- it sounds kumbayaish, come together, but if we do not do that, we are going to end up killing each other. host: i've got to ask, what motivated you to go to a democratic rally and then a publican rally, both -- republican rally, both after having heart surgery? caller: it was maybe years later. i started talking to a republican one day. i was at a democratic -- before you go and vote, i had a sign up. a gentleman had a republican sign. i started talking to him. he invited me to go to this rally, they were going to have speakers. i went.

i didn't go there saying, i hate republicans. i did not have that mindset. i was open to it. i am open to people having ideas. i am a democrat, but i voted republican before. the hate never gets anybody anywhere. you just end up hurting each other and violence breaks out. please, america, we are all americans. come together, listen to the other side. we are not demons. either side, we are not devils. host: that is jeanette out of vermont. an op-ed you might be interested in from doug hi, who was the former director of the republican national committee -- the former communications director of the republican national committee, the headline on his washington post piece. i helped run the fire pelosi effort, toxic politics have gone too far. this is what he writes. more and more politics, loudest,

most vices was his get the most attention and money. real solutions and politicians to put their heads down and do the hard work get short shrift. selectively, he writes we have to lower the temperature here and people get -- people keep getting hurt. we are lucky nobody has gotten killed. yet. this is josh, arlington heights, indiana. what is on your mind? caller: it is actually arlington heights, illinois. we are talking a lot about the political polarization, heightened tensions and acts of little violence. what i think is left unsaid in this, the underlying -- what i would consider the underlying cause of this is economic inequality. thomas gettys, one of the underlying themes of the book is the correlation of political unrest, political polarization and economic any quality.

we have seen that in history, via in the 1930's during the depression and out of that coming the rise of fascism. post 2007, 2008 financial crisis, this rise of far right will attend see. -- militancy. and a all right resurgence, as well. i was wondering if that would be addressed by anyone, it is not a capitalist society -- i do feel these issues of political polarization and political violence can be addressed until the underlying cause of economic inequality is at least talked about. that is all i've got. thanks very much. love the show. host: this is jay, walnut, mississippi. good morning morning. you are next. caller: good morning, c-span. you know, i think republicans

are going to pick up the house and senate. i even think republicans going to win in some areas where nobody is possible. we will find out about next wednesday. thank you. host: we head to kentucky, this is kansas city, kansas -- i am sorry. line for democrats. i will get my states right. caller: yes. what i was calling about was nancy pelosi wanting extra money to have her security. her husband just cashed in $1 billion worth of stock, and you are telling me that she cannot afford her own security?

host: what we were talking about, members of congress, concerns about the security and whether to add legislation to bills moving through congress, for all members to take steps to add to their security. it was the capitol police. caller: she said, right now, it was for certain ones. host: it was the capitol police chief calling for more resources that said, there have been threats against all members of congress and in a letter yesterday, a statement he put out yesterday specifically calling for more resources to protect all members of congress. caller: yes, but what i think is that her home security -- if he just cashed in $1 billion worth of stocks, not too long ago, why can't they monitor their own home instead of making the

taxpayers do it? host: not up to date on the financial situation of the pelosi's. this is robert in indiana. republican. good morning. caller: right. i would like to make a quote from a hold -- a old song in the 1950's. a ton of the keys, barry bad -- carry bad news. until you make no mistakes in your life, be careful of stones that you throw. you talk about security for these people. nancy pelosi a couple of weeks ago threatened trump, would like to punch him in the face. schumer threatened to supreme -- two supreme court judges. what is the difference between an ordinary person -- these idiots, they make threats

against other people, but yet, they get by with it? that just do not make sense to me. this country is going to hell in a hell basket. biden do not know how to get off the stage. host: that is robert in indiana. this is kathleen in neapolis. good morning. democrat. caller: here is a pastoral note. in the 1960's as a college student, i had a small group of friends that went out to campaign for democrat and campaign for republican. we saw it as a learning experience. at this point, i live in a building that is a senior collaborative. that -- and jimmy carter put together so that it was constructed in 1979. the idea of thinking about citizens and having good

housing, what do we have today? we have thousands of people who do not have affordable housing, and we do not have congress that can solve the problem of creating affordable housing. do we live in a civilization, or not? host: kathleen, do you remember who you were campaigning for back then? caller: bill frenzel and another person in our district. i am not remembering his name right now, shame on me. host: what was the impetus for doing that, for going out and campaigning for a candidate in one party and the other? caller: it was a college activity. we had a big college convention. mayor john lindsay came to speak. it was a big event for people who care both about politics and cared to participate. host: kathleen, what did the

other students who did that with you -- what was your take away from that? caller: we saw these as good people, we thought of the prospect of people choosing which subjects mattered to them because these were both good people. host: thanks for telling us about it. that is going to do it for our open forum. we are turning back to our battleground series on "washington journal." a look at key states this election cycle. we are focusing on the badger state of wisconsin. first, associated press statehouse reporter scott bauer will join us. later, professor and direction of the elections research center of the university of wisconsin, madison. stick with us for those discussions. we will be right back.

♪ >> live sunday on in-depth. from the texas book festival in austin, author and historian mark undergrowth president and ceo of the lbj foundation will be our guest talking abo u.s. presidential history. his books include the last republican and incomparable grace, jfk and the presidency. join in the conversation with phone calls, facebk comment, text and tweets. live this sunday at noon eastern on in-depth on tv on c-span two. ♪ ♪ >> be up-to-date in the latest in publishing with book tv's podcast about books. with current, nonfiction book releases plus bestseller lists, as well as industry news and trends through insider interviews. you can find about books on c-span now, our free mobile app, or wherever you get your

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here, or anywhere that matters america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. ♪ >> this election day, november 8, the control of power in congress is at stake. will republicans retake the house? can democrats regain control of the senate? from now until election night, follow c-span coverage and see house and senate races with coverage of debates, rallies and candidate events. events as they happen on tv and the c-span now app on demand and our w, and find our election page at c-span.org/campaign2022. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. host: it is battleground week on the washington journal. we are focusing on key states in the midterm election. today, we had to wisconsin. scott our is the associated press stacy -- state house

correspondent in madison. let's start at the top of the ticket. tony beaver's is being challenged by republican tim michael's in wisconsin. tony evers, the governor trying to win election -- reelection. a close race according to polls. the question, why? guest: wisconsin has a history of close elections. people call it a purple state. i would call it a red and blue state. that is a microcosm of the country right now. urban areas, heavily democratic rural areas, heavily republican. the governor's race is an example of that dynamic right now. you have a race that polls show is within the margin of error. both sides seem to think it could go half point, one point, either way. remember watch wrote years ago when tony evers, the democratic

-- four years ago, tony beaver's beat scott walker by i believe one percentage point here and we are use to close elections four of the last six presidential elections were decided by a few points. host: who is to michael? -- tim michaels? guest: he owns a family run business, they employed abo ut 8000 people across the country. he dabbled in politics before. he ran for state legislature in the early 2000's. he ran for the u.s. senate and was the republican nominee in 2004, losing to russ feingold. he hasn't lost since then. -- ran it since then. he has kept a low, public political profile until relatively late this year he

jumped into the republican race. he got the endorsement of donald trump. he won a hotly contested republican primary in august and is running neck and neck with the incumbent democratic governor. host: what is his message to voters? guest: the themes we are seeing in wisconsin are similar to what we are seeing across the country. tim michael's is talking about crime, the economy, inflation, and were specifically to governor ebert, he is hitting him on school performance in the state. governor eve's was the former state education secretary. he spent his career in public education. tim michael's has been talking a lot about that, he has been talking about the governor's reaction to covid in 2020, saying the governor was not quick enough in reopening businesses and did not do enough to get the state back open.

governor evers says he was following science and saved lives. those are the themes. democrat, talking a lot about abortion and other things, trying to make this race a referendum on that. also talking a lot about elections and tim michael's plans to transform the way elections are run in the state. host: dig down on that, that last topic. guest: in wisconsin, the secretary of state is not in charge of elections. we are one of the few states that is not the case. elections are overseen by a bipartisan commission created by republicans called wisconsin elections commission. tim michaels once to create a new entity. he has said he would sign into law a number of bills that governor evers vetoed from republican legislature that would make it more difficult to vote absentee, would ban private money like we saw from the mark

zuckerberg funded groups, ban that from coming into the state. those sorts of things. democrats say what the intention is is to make it possible for republicans to exert more control over elections. that, combined with the trump endorsement and michaels has been -- he said he was open to the certifying -- decertifying the 2020 outcome. democrats have tried to capitalize on that. host: scott bauer, our guest talking about the badger state, the other big race at the top of the ticket and the senate race and ron johnson trying to win reelection. mandela barnes is his opponent this cycle. are we seeing the same issues set you talked about in the gubernatorial race for this

senate race? guest: we are seeing a lot of the same thing. senator johnson and his allies are hitting mandela barnes on crime. the ads on that have been unrelenting for a long time. mandela barnes has tried to distance himself from the defund the police forces, the abolish ice people, senator johnson has tried to tie into that and say he would be soft on crime. and that he is not a good candidate in this environment. mandela barnes is african-american and is trying to become the first black u.s. senator from wisconsin. he is currently lieutenant governor from a walkie, he has tried to also talk about abortion but also talk about senator johnson's record, his role in downplaying the january 6 riots at the capitol, he had

wanted a slate of fake republican electors for the vice president on that day. these are things mandela barnes is talking about on the state -- around the state. he is trained to bring in democratic voters in milwaukee which is the largest democratic voting hub in the state, that is where mandela barnes is from, focusing on that, and cutting into the republican advantage in rule areas and doing work out there. a tight race, polls show not as tight as the governor race, they show jobs with a slight advantage so we will see how that shakes out. earlier in the program we showed viewers the latest from the campaign trail. yesterday the big names are brought out. president biden in florida, former president obama in nevada, vice president mike pence georgia, what big names are being brought into wisconsin for this senate race?

>> some of the same -- guest: some of the same names. former president obama was a milwaukee saturday with both carnes and eve are -- evers rallying for them. friday, bernie sanders be in wisconsin, friday and saturday, making a number of stops by himself. the one notable thing we have not seen is donald trump. he did come in before the republican primary after he endorsed to michael's and held a rally for him -- to michael's and held a rally for him. it was a typical trump rally but ever since michaels won the primary, trump has been absent from the race, he has been quiet. michael's doesn't talk about his trump endorsement as much because as we said at the top, we are purple/red blue state and he is trying to win over that small sliver of voters who call themselves independent and trying not to lose voters --

republican voters who might be more turned off by the trump endorsement. host: on the other side of the coin, how much is tony evers and mundell a barn talking about joe biden on the campaign trail? guest: not a lot. you don't hear a lot about joe biden, you have not seen joe biden, so barack obama welcomes with open arms, joe biden has not been here. i cannot remember the last time he was here, certainly not for a campaign event for the democrat. there has been a number of other sarah gets who have come in, pete buttigieg who was here, cory booker going around the state area did there are number of surrogates in the republican side, ron desantis was here, glenn youngkin, it has been a parade of folks but the biggest ones as we have talked about, biden and trump, have not been here. host: let me invite the viewers to join in on the discussion as we focus on the badger state of wisconsin. part of our battleground series, we focused already this week on pennsylvania and georgia.

today, the focus is on wisconsin. here's how you can join the conversation, democrats (202) 748-8000, republicans, (202) 748-8001, independents, (202) 748-8002. and as we have been doing all week long, a special line for the state we are focusing on, wisconsin residents call in at (202) 748-8003. scott bauer, the associate press, with us for the next 15 to 20 minutes on the "washington journal." as folks are calling in, we focus so much on the governor and the senate races around the country when we do these series. what are the down ballot races that are most important getting attention in a state that we may not be talking about as much in d.c.? guest: there is one congressional district open with the retirement of democrat ron kind. westerdiounts andict borders with minnesota, a district training republican.

donald trump won it thpa two elections and ron kind was able to overcome that fairly and win reelection. ron kind is retiring in that race. looks like the republican, dare and horton, who ran and narrowly lost last time is running strong this time around against the democrat. that is a district republicans are up to mystic they will be able to flip this year -- are optimistic they will be able to flip. host: what does redistricting mean for wisconsin this year? guest: really the biggest thing, that district came or republican but it really had more of an impact on the state legislative districts, where through a series of court rulings, the wisconsin supreme court said the districts to be drawn this year need to be as close as possible to the existing districts and those districts were drawn by republicans in 2010, favorable

republican districts, so the republicans are in a position potentially to win enough seats this year to have a super majority, which would mean they would override any veto from the governor, so the democrats have kind of a two front battle here. they are trying to get governor eve is reelected and are also trying to fend off republican gains in the legislature because an eve or's when with a -- evers wind would be a hollow victory. host: other statewide races in wisconsin, that we should be paying attention to, what is on the ballot this year? guest: there's another interesting race. the attorney general race, democratic incumbent attorney general facing a challenge from a republican d.a., eric tony, and the secretary of state's race, which normally gets almost no attention because in wisconsin the secretary of state

has nothing to do with elections, duties, but this year, the longtime incumbent who has been in office since 1983 and who served a term prior to that is secretary of state facing a challenge from a republican who wants to work with the legislature to transfer some election duties to that office and it raises a lot of alarms with democrats who fear republican takeover of elections. so that is another race everyone has their eye on. host: let's take some calls here for a few minutes. it is (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 40 publicans, independents (202) 748-8002. we have want to hear from wisconsin residents, (202) 748-8003. if you are the better state. richard in maryland, line for democrats, you are up first in the segment, go ahead. caller: good morning.

you are mentioning mr. mandela barnes and that was all very accurate but he is also pushing to uplift the minimum wage for the residents of wisconsin and i think that should be elevated as well because that will affect republicans and democrats and unfortunately, his concern is that the wages are rising or going to be on the same level of many red states which is very dismal and i think he brought to focus that mr. johnson's well has vastly doubled since he became a senator, so he is not really a senator for the people and i think that mr. barnes is good for the state and he will be successful. i think you for your input, sir. it has been educational. host: mr. bauer. guest: it is tremendous barnes

has been talking a lot about those issues. he comes from a middle-class family, he talks about his parents being longtime union members, his mom was a schoolteacher, dad worked for decades in a factory. mandela barnes does not come from wealth, he is not a wealthy individual. he talks about that, talks about raising the minimal wage, about having the wealthy pay more in taxes and ron johnson is a millionaire. he is retired from owning a plastics factory, he talks proudly about his vote for the 2017 tax bill which benefited his wealthy donors and he cast it as a tax bill that benefited a lot of as nurses, including those that supported him. there is definitely a strong economic message and a stark difference between these two candidates on that issue as the caller pointed out. host: a text this money from our when i may medicine -- in medicine. wondering how johnson's plan is

being received by republican tyree's in wisconsin. can you talk about social security? guest: senator johnson talks about that social security and medicare should not be entitlement programs because it cannot be sustained. he argues he wants to save these programs and the only way to do it is to control other spending and create a way to fund these programs other than having them be entitlements. there is -- this is another issue mandela barnes tried to capitalize on an president biden also talked about his mention of senator johnson by name on this topic not here in wisconsin but in washington. the democrats cast it as johnson wanting to put social security and medicare on the chopping block. senator johnson said that is not his intention, his intention is to save the programs but in order to do that, he says you have to control other government

spending so that is kind of the issue. host: santa fe, new mexico, john, you are next. caller: yes. yesterday, i came home and i went to school in wisconsin and it was really around there to get a feel of the politics back when the vietnam era was going on and i had friends from up north that were very conservative and i saw things play out a little bit. one of the things i'd seen over time with johnson is that it is not -- he does not seem to be a smooth politician in terms of looking out for our people and last night i came home and my wife was upset.

her sister has diabetes. and she was really concerned about her sister who just had her toe taken off and johnson was one of the people that kind of stood in the way, kind of looking out for people there. i thought maybe it was time to say some things like that. let people understand it does impact people's lives. anyway, i will leave it at that. i know you have other people to call. host: he brings of health care issues and ron johnson again. guest: of course ron johnson has a long record. he has been in the senate for 12 years now and there are a lot of votes there to talk about and mandela barnes who has been talking about those on the campaign trail as well and so health care is certainly one of the issues that has arisen during the campaign. i would not say it has taken on part the level of some of the

others we have heard about. what we just talked about relative to the tax bill and the economy and crime is a portion was certainly a threat and it is when the caller points out is important obviously a lot of voters. host: on the banks of the wisconsin river, this is john, an independent. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. my question is, what kind of job has mandela barnes ever held down? i've seen his parents would what has he done in his lifetime? also, on the health care for the caller, the diabetes with insulin thing will be until 2026. so there's some discrepancies out there with what being ash what is being said for both sides. that is just politics nowadays, they both tell untruths about each other to try to get

elected. use have to vote for who will do the best for you. are you better off today than two years ago? host: before you go, do you know who you are voting for? caller: i kind of lean republican a little bit right now. i voted for democrats before in the past, but right now i'm kinda leaning towards ron johnson and tim michaels. this close to the election that's probably who i will go. host: thanks for the call. mr. bauer on that call? guest: he's the kind a caller that keeps democrats up at night. the independent voter who says he is leaning toward voting republican this cycle. john is one of the rare voters out there and he is one of the ones that both sides are trying to our -- trying hard to get and that is one of the problems the democrats have this time around

is voters like john who say they will vote republican. host: voter registration numbers into the 2022 election, what did we find out compared to 2020? guest: in wisconsin, we do not register by party so there is no way to know whether democrats or republicans are doing well when it comes to registration. turnout numbers in the primary, the turnout was the highest for a midterm primary in 40 years so i think both sides are expecting high turnout. early voting has been going on for a week now, democrats tell me they are happy with where the early vote -- votes are coming from geographically but they also worry that maybe there voters are more inclined to vote early so they are seeing higher numbers early on but republicans will be more inclined to vote day of, so there is just the general on both sides question

of who is going to turn out to vote and just like on most every election, it depends on who gets there voters out better, especially in a midterm, do democrats tap into the voters in milwaukee they need to get, our suburban women in conservative areas coming out to vote or not? are they staying home? are those votes suppressed on the republican side? so really it is -- we are expecting a higher turnout election. obviously it won't be like what we saw in 2020, probably higher than 2018 and the key will be where do those votes come from? host: where their big wide races on the ballots in 2018 that increase turnout guest: this cycle compared to them? we had the governors race in 2018 which was the biggest raise that year and so this year we have the governor and senate race, which obviously will add more interest then we had four

years ago. host: just compared to the polling out yesterday showing voter enthusiasm down 18 points nationally compared to 2018 but as you pointed out, if the primary voting numbers are any indicator, it would seem the enthusiasm is up in the state of wisconsin. guest: it is always an engaged state, always have high voting turnout numbers. we do see as we see everywhere kind of both sides attacking one another relentlessly so the approval ratings for these people on the ballot are pretty abysmal across the board. a function of both sides tearing the other side down, but it seems like we will have pretty strong turnout. host: another question from our text messaging service from next-door, carly in minnesota.

how did he rise to hear was him in that state. kyle rittenhouse and the impact you have had in wisconsin. guest: your views on him will depend largely on your political views, for those who don't recall, there were large protests and riots in kenosha, wisconsin after a white police officer shot a black man in 2020, jacob blake. kyle rittenhouse was one of the people who showed up in the days after that, a teenager armed with an assault rifle and he shot and killed a couple of protesters that night. so he was acquitted and the kenosha -- you don't hear his name so much in this camp -- campaign so much with the kenosha rights in the way governor eve is handled those in the way mandela barnes as lieutenant governor talked about those, those are definitely issues ron johnson and tim

michaels have been talking about an awful lot and it feeds into the crime narrative and whether democrats are able to handle that issue as well as republicans could, republicans arguing eve or is an barnes did not -- did not do enough quickly enough to quell what was going on in kenosha and governor eve's saying i did everything i was asked to do, i responded, and this is being portrayed in a way not -- that is not accurate. host: time for couple more calls, mary out of las vegas, you are on with scott bauer of the associated press. caller: good morning. compassionate conservative server to's him is gone. these mag republicans, the politicians, 157 out of 211 of them support privatizing social security and repealing medicare. they want to send your trust funds to wall street, people.

ron johnson calls it a ponzi scheme. it is nice of him to say it is entitlement. it is. i have been paying into it for 50 years, i'm entitled to it. it's like an insurance policy and the dividend is coming due. ron johnson in -- and all of these other people, when they retire, they get $7,000 a month pension paid for by the taxpayer. why don't they take a haircut? i want to know what ron johnson -- i think it was 2018 and the fourth of july, there was a delegation of seven republicans that went to russia erie where they on holiday? ok, so johnson wants to cut social security annually, i do not think they expanded subsidies for medicaid. they literally want to throw grandma off of the train or send her back to work.

then him along with the rick scott from florida who was part of the largest medicare fraud in u.s. history -- host: we are running short on time. what do you want to pick up on from there call? guest: she is voicing a lot of the frustrations you hear from voters on one side of the aisle and she is not in wisconsin but you hear a lot of the same concern voiced here. host: scott bauer is with the associated press, the statehouse correspondent there in wisconsin. appreciate your time this morning and thanks for joining us. if viewers want to follow him it is@sbauerap. we will let you get back to covering those races in wisconsin. host: we continue with our discussion about the better state. up next, talking about state politics in wisconsin with a political science professor, director of the election research center at the university of wisconsin madison. stick around for that discussion. we will be right back.

0 live sunday on in-depth, from the texas book festival in austin, author and historian, president and ceo of the lbd foundation, will be our guest, talking about u.s. presidential history. his books include the last republican and incomparable grace, jfk and his presidency. join in on the conversation with your facebook comments, text, and tweets, live this sunday at noon eastern on in-depth on book tv, on c-span two. ♪ 0 middle and high school students, it is your time to shine area you are invited to participate in this year's c-span studentcam documentary coetition. in light of the upcoming midterm elections, picture yourself as a newly elected member of congress. we asked this year's competitors, what is your top priorities and why?

make a five to six minute video that shows the importance of your vision, from opposing and supporting perspectives. don't be afraid to take risks with your documentary, be bold. $100,000 in cash prizes, a 5000 dollars grand prize. videosust be submitted by january 20 23. visit our website at studentcam.org for competition rules, tips, resources, and a step-by-step guide. 0 there >> are a lot of places to get political information. 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, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here, or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable.

announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: we continue our focus on wisconsin as part of "washington journal"'s midterm battleground series. our rest is university of wisconsin madison lytic vassar -- political science professor larry burton. what is it about wisconsin that makes it a battleground state? and not just this cycle but at least since the year 2000 and maybe even before that. guest: i think that is what is stunning about wisconsin, it remains competitive even as the demographic in the state shifts. like many states, there is in flux and out flux, populations in different parts of the state but there is sort of a magical balance that, as democrats, they gain -- democrats makings in one place, republicans gain elsewhere and they seem to offset perfectly. an example in madison, there is a large democratic vote thing to growing, booming part of the

state, delivering a lot of votes to democrats but seems to be offset almost perfectly by the rise of republican votes in rural parts of the state and greater success republicans have had in growing suburbs around milwaukee area did it is sort of a tit for tat over the last 20 years and kept both parties competitive statewide in the elections. host: where is the battleground in the battleground state of wisconsin? guest: there are not a lot of places left where there are true battlegrounds with voters up for grabs and a lot of sway double voters that both parties are courting, especially with only a week until the election. parties have turned their attention to get out the vote efforts. there are communities where maybe split ticket voting or swing voting is a little more likely. there are two or three i would say bellwether counties, some of them in the middle of the stay, places like this county, an hour rth of madonn south central wisconsin. small towns, rural communities,f

just the right hodgepodge of different identities and places that i think voters there are open to listening to listening to republican and democrat voters but a lot of counties are predicable in their voting and increasingly on one side or the other. that leaves fewer voters and that swing category. host: i will just read outnumbers from elections dating back to 2000, and i will let you fill in the details. the 2000 presidential election, democrats with 47.8% of the vote, republicans 47.6%. 2004, democrats 49.7 percent, republicans 49 3%. 2016, democrats with 46.5% of the vote, republicans 47.2%. we are talking about really close races here. guest: that's right. you could add to the mix the governor's election four years ago with tony devers by just a

point. the last presidential election when joe biden was victorious by about a point. what stands out in that history are the two obama elections in 2008-2012 where he wind by large margins, he won by double digits 2008. it seems hard to imagine any candidate doing that in wisconsin now, both sides have really dug in in ways that prevent either party from running up the score far. host: how did they do that? what has been the strategy in wisconsin? guest: i think during the 2000, particularly during the governorship of scott walker, there was increasing partisanship on both sides. republicans developed a very good get out the vote machine that relies on call centers, volunteers who go to republican offices and make phone calls to feller voters around the state. they claimed during some of the walker and ron johnson elections during the 2000s to have made

millions of calls in individual election cycles. democrats have relied more on face-to-face got to vote like canvassing door-to-door and they have a team of volunteers, they had tremendous success raising money over the last couple years under the executive director of the democratic already, ben winkler, and they have used that money for advertising and mailing and other things in addition to their door-to-door campaign. it is different strategies for each party but both have a sophisticated operation at this point. there's a lot of national money coming in, especially for the senate race, attracting a lot of national attention. both parties are going out to vote. host: what should viewers know about the demographics of wisconsin and whose votes in wisconsin? guest: it seems everyone votes. wisconsin has one of the highest voter turnout rates in the country, typically in the top five, top three in the ranking of states in terms of voter turnout rates. the demographics are it is largely a white state.

there are small, lack and hispanic relations each accounting for 6% or 7% of the population. hispanic votes noticeably lower rates but they end up making a bless of the voting pool. there are two larger cities, milwaukee being the largest, that is majority/minority city in the southeastward of the state. that is where a lot of the population cenr is in kenosha, racine, and suburbs around milwaukee. madison state capital, it is a growing city democratic city and a young co democrats tend to draw a lot of votes there, increasinglyo, but moving north and west of those communities, the population becomes sparser and sparser and some of the counties in the northern and west part of the state are only 10 to 20 to help people in the entire county but there are lots of those places so republicans in particular racked up large statewide totals by stitching

together a lot of small towns and villages in northern and western wisconsin. it is a mix of things, a purple statement there are not a lot of purple people or places, it is a precarious balance of different communities that together lead to an overall competitive state. host: if you want to talk wisconsin voting history, political patterns in wisconsin, that would be a great time to call. it is (202) 748-8000 free democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, independent, (202) 748-8002. larry byrne's political science professor at the university of wisconsin madison and it is elections research center he runs there, taking your calls this morning. we start in class fill wisconsin an independent -- independent, donald, you are on with the professor. caller: hello? host: go ahead. caller: i'm 85 years old and i have been in business for most of my life, i'm in residential

rental property right now and i need that to supplement social security but i'm not worried about social security for myself. i think what ron is trying to do, ron johnson looking at him, he is trying to protect it for future generations here and i do not think he will take anything with him at the moment, that is the way i understand it. i understand social security [indiscernible] i think it will be insolvent by that time. i'm worried about future people but not myself. i'm leaning toward ron johnson at this point. host: professor burden, the social security is an issue in wisconsin and in past elections. guest: it is a bigger issue in this election than previous ones because ron johnson's statements on social security are being used by mandela barnes against

him. johnson got into politics because of his concern about fiscal issues back in 2010 as the chief party wave, he dumped -- jumped into electoral politics, someone that has never been on the scene in republican party or stay wide politics, concerned about the expense of obamacare, the size of the deficit and debt, and entitlements like social security any set over the years, including this year, he believes it ought to be a discretionary program, part of the annual budget process rather than something guaranteed or automatic. it is a little less clear what that means for current beneficiaries versus future ones which is john's question but i think were mandela barnes, it does not much matter really what the details are, he is focusing on the fact johnson is willing to put security on the chopping block or consider a different model. in midterm election, older voters turn out at high rates than younger voters, even in wisconsin where overall turnout is high. it skews toward older voters

social security is particularly relevant for those of retirement age or will be reaching it soon. i think barnes in particular will keep it up in these remaining days. host: in orlando, line for democrats, good morning. caller: good morning. hello? host: go ahead, orlando. what is your question or, for the professor. -- professor? caller: is it true that a lot of republicans are election deniers and some running for office now are also election deniers and a lot of republicans were in the insurrection and it came close to a coup area why should i vote for any republicans who still believe election was illegal?

why should i vote for them if they also support -- supported this coup that happened at the capitol? why should we vote for these people now? host: orlando in d.c.. professor burden, january 6, 2021 as an issue in november 2022. guest: it is an issue in the wisconsin senate race because of ron johnson's connection to the january 6 insurrection. as i think was mentioned during this cob our segment earlier, johnson was asked to deliver two slates affect -- pay collectors from wisconsin and michigan to vice president pence, he did not do that but it did become a subject of one of the january 6 committee hearings. it is part of barnes criticism of johnson. johnson also said he does not believe the january 6 events were true insurrection because he did not view them as violent. he said he was not concerned that day in the capitol, didn't really know was happening outside but that he would have

been concerned had they been black lives matter protesters rather than insurrectionists or elections cap this -- skeptics or deniers be a that rhetoric has been used as well against him. republicans running statewide in wisconsin are not of the same election dinar quality saying the republicans in arizona or some other states are. both michael's and johnson have expressed concern about 2020, they both said no biden is the victor, but they do not believe election procedures were followed property. they both want changes made to the state elections commission and other aspects of state election law. so it is sort of an ambiguous area between accepting the results of 20/20 and really challenging them. i don't think we know exactly what they will do, particularly michael's if he is elected. host: back to the badger states in plainfield, wisconsin. this is deborah, thank you for waiting. caller: hi. i have a question, what do think

about the the vote toward the gop? guest: i was a white evangelicals have been a very durable part of the republican coalition nationally and in wisconsin. it's a good question as to how that plays out this year in wisconsin in particular because of the dobbs decision from the supreme court in early summer that overturned roe v. wade. that has come up in this year's campaign. mandela barnes in particular has been criticizing johnson because he said he believes dobbs was rightly decided and he would not necessarily stand by roe v. wade . wisconsin has a lawn the books from 1849, the second year they existed, that essentially bans all abortion in the state and once dobbs was decided, the abortion providers in the state stopped providing services. so that has made abortion an

issue much more relevant here maybe than other states where the practice is still allowed or the law is not quite as stringent. a come up -- it has come up and the governors and senate race. evangelicals i wonder whether they are motivated because they are excited by that decision, believe it was decided rightly, and now having accomplished the 50-your mission since roe are motivated to take parts. it might be democrats feeling more than threatened by the supreme court and might want to take action to undo that. host: 20 minutes left with very burden, a political science professor at the university of wisconsin madison. director of the elections research center. tell us more about the election research center, what you do there. guest: we are a nonpartisan institute at the university wisconsin madison devoted to us -- studying elections in the u.s. and other countries and improving them. it is serving as a hub for all of the activity on campus that

we researchers, students, and hers. we put on acer owes him open to the public both in person and virtually if you are not located in madison that happens one month after election day and information can be found about that on our website. host: also on twitter at elections at center. for viewers that want to be savvy consumers on election night of the information coming in about wisconsin races, how should they be reading results and maps? where are the results going to come in first? when will you get a good sense of which way wisconsin is going in six days? guest: there are a few things to watch on election night. one thing for viewers to know is there is not a state agency that collect election resulted -- on election night. without a secretary of state or statewide office, there is not one place that is a government source the viewers can go to find all of the election returns. so they tend to be collected by

media outlets, places like the milwaukee journal sentinel, wisconsin public radio, other state sources. i think they are really useful and do updates throughout the night. polls will close at 8:00 p.m., assuming there are no problems with the polls. that is when the close statewide by about 10:00 central time, we will have a good sense for how the candidates are doing. one exception is milwaukee. the state's largest city, the largest number ballots cast there. in milwaukee, all of the absentee ballots are counted centrally at one location. that does not happen until after polls close at 8:00 p.m. so milwaukee totals 10 to come in late, absentee ballots often added to the statewide totals after midnight. that was true in 2020 and also true in 2018. that is a city that bows predominately democratic, at least 70% of votes will be for democratic candidates. viewers should not be surprised if lane the evening republican candidates appear to

be doing better than expected and once milwaukee as those ballots to the total is ships things back to where things will finally end up. places to watch i think one thing to watch is voter turnout. the marquette lawful, the gold standard survey in the state suggests republicans have the upper hand when turnout is lower. barnes may be trailing by five to six points in the lower turnout scenario but turnout is higher approaching the total number of registered voters then it is probably a tossup. democrats are counting on a late start of turnout. there is same-day voter registration in wisconsin so voters unregistered can show up on the polls on election day, register and vote angered wines. both parties have a use of that, republicans more likely to vote at the polls in recent years, democrats are also looking for a surge. i think turnout is one of the factors to be watching. host: a couple badger state residents waiting to chat with you. still in medicine -- fill in medicine. good morning. caller: good morning.

i heard last night that they're going to have you going to have to show proof of id. this is clearly targeting and allows targeting. my concern is within a week of the election, when you never had to have show proof of id now suddenly you do. is there anyway we can get some injunction? guest: this has been a controversial issue in wisconsin. there is a fairly strict voter id requirement in the state, one of the stricter around the country, does require a voter to show something like a state driver's license or passport or military id. it was passed believe it or not way back in 2011 signed into law by scott walker what was subject to lawsuits and controversy and did not go into effect for the first time really until the 2016 presidential election, but there are number of voters still unsure about the law, may be unaware of it.

i see that just watching some of my students for the first time. it is a process of educating and reeducating the public in each election cycle. a large number of wisconsin voters carry the proper kind of id with them already but there are these pockets in the population, young people, people of color, people of big cities, who are less likely to have a driver's license or passport. it is a political issue and also a logistical matter for parties and voters to make sure voters have what they need to get a ballot. host: apple 10, wisconsin, john, good morning. caller: good morning. host: what is your question or comment for the professor? caller: when michael's running for governor, but was a comment made by him that if he gets elected he would change our election status where he would fire the whole board that runs that and set up an election board of his own? wouldn't that just -- what is the sense of voting of something like that happened?

our freedoms are over. guest: yeah, it is sort of striking in wisconsin, the election system itself is a perennial system in elections and more so this year. the elections commission is only about five years old. as scott bauer mentions, created by republicans in 2015. it was preceded by a different agency called the government accountability board only created in the early 2000. the state has undergone turn in what our statewide agency looks like. to michael's initially when he got into the race said he wanted to make changes to the elections commission, certainly the weight operated and structure, but i think reflecting additional pressure from president trump and others in his party, he decided at some point he wanted to scrap the election commission altogether. he said -- has not said what the replacing agency would look like. we don't know whether the secretary of state would be brought into that process the way they are in some any other

states, whether a bipartisan structure, a partisan structure, i think he mentioned having local election clerks involved in some way, so i think what voters now is he is unhappy with the election commission and wants to replace it but it is unclear what he would do instead. host: with about 50 minutes left in the program, we go to james in connecticut, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. professor, i would like to ask you a question related to the last election specifically for this election as well about dark when he. a lot of people do not know this because it was underreported but the owner of facebook, mark zuckerberg, and his wife, secretly set up that'll llcs to quote out the vote and gave 400 to $430 million to democratic party organizations that were run by former obama election people called community get out to vote in the key states. at the same time, i think we all

agree digital townsquare of sharing information today for most people is basically facebook, google, twitter, and here we had him blocking anyone from sharing information about things like the hunter biden laptop. my curiosity is to ask you, in your own research, what actually happened with all of that money? when republicans say election was rigged, what we mean is we cannot share information about hunter biden's laptop and the biden relationship with china and when you look at the key for states that won the election, it was only 46,000 votes. 27,000 people had switched in key states, donald trump would be president today. when we mean a rigged election, we mean we cannot use free speech because facebook was blocking us while he was secretly putting 420 million dollars into democratic community action groups on the ground, which might actually be what i call bribery. because i know what walking money is.

i have been in politics for years. in the old days, you would walk in and give the minister $50,000 in a briefcase and say i don't care about receipts, i just want as many votes as your congregation is possible. i would like to hear your information on what you researched about this. host: professor. guest: dark money is a big role as does super pac money which is not dark money, it is public really reported just like camp in and impact contributions are regularly but those two tend to get blended together. mark zuckerberg and his wife have been involved in the public and the election in some ways. most viewers will know about the funding zuckerberg's nonprofit provided or election administration in 2020. that was several hundred million dollars. i do not know if that is what the caller is referring to but those were grants given to election officials, including wisconsin, hundreds of communities in wisconsin receive funding to help all workers

higher salaries or to buy protective equipment to protect against the covid virus being spread at polling places and that kind of thing area apparently it is not secret because the caller knows about the funding but i do not know about the details. he is right that joe biden won by a fair margin in the national popular vote, but it was closer in a lot of key plane states that would have taken a lot to change the outcome but that was also true in 2016 when donald trump lost the popular vote but one the electoral college with narrow wins in wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania. there are lots of groups whether wealthy individuals like george soros, others getting involved in politics, both of them spent money into campaigns in wisconsin this year, or in other ways. i know that on facebook the top 10 most shared topics tend to skew conservative and toward supporters of trump and his allies. i do not think the platform is

preventing that kind of activity. i understand the viewer's concern about individuals affecting what happens to the public sphere. host: brooklyn, allen, line for democrats, good morning. caller: good morning. going back to talk about ron johnson and social security proposals, one of the reasons we have a long-term budget priority given to social security benefits is that there was a reciprocal burden on average taxpayers of having having automatically withdrawn but not only regularly over years but at a regressive rate because effectively they were paying a higher share of their income toward fica, wealthy people, because of their fica taxable income was cap. so somebody made $1 million per year was paying a small percentage effective fica rate. the idea we will take money that has been raised for decades in this regressive fashion and put it into the ordinary annual

discretionary budget process makes for a giant regressive tax subsidy for the entire federal budget. and it is not being discussed adequately that way. the idea of turning this into that kind of ordinary annual approval, when they already have the benefit of these reserves that will raise or aggressively is an outrage. it should be discussed that way. host: professor, any thoughts? guest: the caller makes a good point, social security is funded any different way, as is medicare from other items of the federal budget because it has this dedicated source of funds from the payroll tax, the fica box, on the people at paychecks. i think johnson and barnes understand that but just have different views about what they would do in the senate, johnson has been a fiscal hawk since he arrived in 2011 and has gone after --entitlement programs rate i think he has been frustrated with his time in washington and frustrated aching big changes because they were defenders of the existence -- existing system.

johnson said when he first ran in 2010 that he would only serve to to -- two terms. those terms are coming to an end but he changed his mind this year because of his concerns about spending on entitlement programs in particular from the biden administration. barnes, for his part would be more sympathetic to the caller's view and would probably want to lift that cap on social security taxes on the fica tax so that it is not fully progressive, less progressive, so you would pay that on your full income rather than on the first $150,000 or whatever the amount is today. that is likely to continue to be an issue in the final days of the campaign i guess because older voters tend to be more involved because it is more salient for them but johnson's comments on social security let it become an issue in a way it might not have been otherwise. host: staying on the senate for a second, i believe at this point, it is only six states in the country that has a split senate delegation, a senator --

one senator from one party and one senator from another party. i wonder what you think that says about the badger state. guest: it says a lot. wisconsin is one of the few states with a split delegation. it might be the state were the two senators have the most different voting records. tammy baldwin is an unapologetic progressive, a liberal voting record, she supported the biden administration. ron johnson clearly a conservative, closely tied to trump and the trump administration. so these are pretty different kind of politicians who represent the same voters, interesting to watch alden on the campaign trail. she has been campaigning in madison, milwaukee, and other places with surrogates that have come in free verse and barnes. she is essentially campaigning get -- campaigning against her colleague, her fellow senator from wisconsin. it seems hard for a lot of voters to understand how a state could produce two types of

candidates, two types of elected officials from the same constituency. i think part of it has to do with the cycle of senate elections. it's never the case the two of them are up in the same cycle. ron johnson has benefited in both earlier elections from a republican wave that helped assist him in his elections over 2010 and 2016. this year, there is another boost to his party, baldwin for her part ran in 2018 was a good year for her party in 2012, again great year for the democrats. a little luck of the cycle with these candidates having to be up and i do not see a change to that anytime soon. host: how much do baldwin and johnson or have they tried to appeal to moderates? to the middle? or is it a matter of pushing out your base when it comes to their victories in the same state? guest: they were probably both appealing to moderate voters but i think baldwin made more of a concerted effort there.

in 2018 when she reelection, tony evers was at the top of the ticket and one i one percentage point. her race was probably of next most interest and she won reelection by 11 percentage points. that is a big margin in state like ours where elections tend to be decided closely and she did it by making inroads in suburban and rural communities where democrats have not done well. it has been a dedicated strategy of hers in office should she first ran for senate to try to find areas of common ground with rural communities, whether on issues of health care, sponsoring bills in the senate to encourage by american policies by government agencies, something donald trump push for, so i think her image of a progressive from medicine has softened by her outreach on those issues. it has not been ron johnson's approach, though he certainly made a pitch for modern voters. i think he has such a strong backing from the republican party he is really the most popular central figure in the

gop in wisconsin today. and he has a successful voter turnout machine. he runs campaigns, even when he has been the underdog, even when the national party pulled out in the fat -- in the final days of the campaign answer not supported him, he has pulled it off in two consecutive elections and i think he has done that by appealing to his supporters more so than reaching out to the middle. host: st. louis, missouri, a line for republicans, tim. good morning. caller: good morning. earlier mr. burda noted that wisconsin voting rules suppressed voting to some degree and said it had any effect on people of color. he made it sound like saying based on the pigmentation in your skin, it would have an impact on your ability to get paid and identification. to me that sounds racist. i wonder how mr. burton would defend that statement. guest: that's not quite what i

said. the evidence is voters of color were less likely to have the kinds of id permitted by the state's voter id laws that are white voters, that was true and the lows past and came up in litigation as this was under dispute in both federal court and state court for a number of years before it finally went into effect. that is still the case that black and hispanic voters are less likely to have a driver's license or veterans id or military id required to vote to get a ballot, whether by absentee or in-person. and those voters tend to have lower incomes. it has been i would say more of a challenge for nonwhite voters and for white voters. and because there is a partisan difference in how white and nonwhite voters vote, that meant a challenge for the democrats, trying to make sure their supporters know about the law, are educated about it, they don't have id, that they take action early enough for election day to get the id so when they arrive during the early voting

period or on election day they can receive a ballot. it is an ongoing effort. to make sure electorate is educated and making sure they can get the ideas to cast ballots. host: back to the badger stay in wisconsin, dells. this is anita, good morning. caller: good morning. i am a product of a family, norwegian, outside of the famous wisconsin dell. we are not kids anymore. but we follow politics. we have from the time the captive times was at our table. it was a time to discuss politics of the day and it concerns me today that there is so much money in politics and you either have to be rich or you have to kiss up to somebody

who is rich. i do not think that is good for our democracy and i am wondering , years ago, people stayed in their own locale but today, they are all over the united states and the world. would it be better to have a system that is uniform, throughout the united states, in voting, voting is a treasure to keep our democracy. couldn't that be better then what we do now? host: professor burden. guest: the caller raises a few different issues. the amount of money being spent on campaigns this year in wisconsin is undeniable. the governor's race at one point in the fall was the most expensive in the country. there has been about $55 million spent at that point. we are well above that now. the senate race is not at this

very top, not up there with george and some of the other states, but it is in the top five i think for spending rate a lot of that money -- majority of the money is not from the candidates, not from barnes and janssen but from outside organizations whether they are super pac or 501(c) dark when he groups, just millions of dollars. i think to the caller's point about her frustration, voting only happens in your jurisdiction. you can vote for the candidates on the ballot where you live but money flows across state lines and much of the money going into the hot senate races this year including wisconsin is coming from out of state, it is interested people who are in other places who want to influence what is happening here. i would not say the outcomes of elections are decided by money but the ads have a surprisingly small effect. political science research would say it is in a couple percentage points but in a close,

competitive state like ours, that is enough to to the balance. analysts welcome, they look back at previous elections and can point to an ad or two that seem to be effective in moving the needle just enough, at least for some groups in the population, to to the outcome. unfortunately i do not think we will see changes in campaign finance laws in the state where the federal level. there was a bill in congress, the democrats were pushing, that would change campaign finance laws, provide public funding for congressional candidates. that has gone nowhere, particularly in the senate. this is the system we have. unfortunately it is voters in the end who make the decisions so if you are able to see through the ads or ignore them him in the end it will be the days on election night and after who decide to wins. host: she mentioned the famous wisconsin dells. what are they famous for? caller: initially -- guest: initially they were famous for the wisconsin river that runs through the area and there were rocky bluffs who

people 10 years ago would tour by boat and piping and they are still a beautiful place to visit but now it is also the world's largest waterpark. there are water parks and casinos and lots of other tourist activities that have built up around that area so it is a destination for a lot of people in wisconsin and beyond. host: less than a minute left and i wanted to ask, professor, what the election research center will be doing on election night. what is your plan for election day and election evening? guest: i have been working in my colleagues have been working over the last couple weeks to assist the voting process on campus. our campus has three early voting locations and students who are just turning 18 are learning about the voting process, getting the ideas -- ids they need to vote, doing a number of debate watches and voter education efforts on election night, at least my attention will ship to what is happening statewide and nationally. i will probably sit in front of the screen like this, keeping up

with all of the results, talking to journalists and hoping it is an early night with clear results without some-- without s we think could emerge after election day. wisconsin does have a history of recounts. we did a recount of the two largest counties after the latest presidential election and a recount of the entire state after 2016. maybe a late election night is not enough. host: if you want to follow professor burton on election night. thank you for taking us on a tour of the badger state. guest: glad to be with you. host: that will do it for our program today but we will be back here tomorrow morning. in the meantime, have a great wednesday. . ♪

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