♪ hosthis is washington journal satuay, october 26. election day is 10 days away but millionsf ters have already cast their ballot. to start the program we are asking early voters onat you decide to vote early?hy did

was this the first time? did you do it by maior in person, how lo youait in line. those are some of the questions we are asku. early voters only. t lines. republicans, 202-748-8001. mocrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. you can text your comments to 202-748-8003. be sure to include your name and city. you can also post a question or comment at facebook.com/cspan or on x @cpanwj. thank you for being with us. people heading to the polls or dropping the ballot in the mail already. this headline from cbs news with more, early voting for the 2020 election underway in dozens of

states with millions of ballots cast so far. with early voting underway in all seven battleground states and another three dozen states. millions of americans have cast their ballot already. more than 32 million people have voted early according to data from the university of florida " election lab with the most voting by mail. democrats are out posting republicans. more republicans have cast roughly 452,000 more ballots in person so far while democrats have returned 1.3 million more mail ballots then registered gop voters according to the election lab. that is from cbs news coming out yesterday just before 1:00 p.m. eastern. and, sincehen the data has

been updated. it was updated last night at just before midnight eastern time with total early votes now at more than 36 million. people have early voted. again we are talking to those who have already voted early about their experience. we will start with ellis in georgia, on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: how are you doing? host: well. caller: i enjoy c-span. anyway. i voted for harris because i just cannot understand the people that would vote for anyone that is a convicted felon , that is a pathological liar. and is a sex offender. and this is something that is proven in the court of law. host: let's talk about how you

cast your ballot. did you go to the polls or did you vote by mail? caller: i went to the polls. i did. matter-of-fact, and i am sorry if what i said was inappropriate. but, anyway. i went to the polls the second day. and it was quite quick. and i did not have any problems. host: was it the first time you voted early? caller: no. i have been voting here since i was 18 years old and i'm sitting in retirement right now. so i was able to vote. and i went to the polls. my mother wanted us to go to the polls to vote because our ancestors could not vote. for anyone who vote -- you does not vote in say my vote does not count i would say that is

ludicrous. host: ron in san clemente, california. the line for republicans. caller: good morning and thank you for taking the call. just a point to public service. i have been a poll worker since 1994. and one of the biggest questions that gets asked every time when i work the polls is does my vote count or is this going to count? i would advise everyone that wants to do mail-in ballots, as my wife and i have done for many years is to make sure that you fill out everything on the back of the mail-in ballot properly and sign it, date it and fill out the information required. if you do that, there is a better chance your vote will be tabulated properly and expedited into the voting system. that is all i have to say. host: have you and your wife

already done that? caller: we have. host: and then you drop them in the mail? caller: put them in the u.s. postal service and pray that it will go good for us. host: andrew. sterling, virginia. line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning, good to see you. my wife and i voted early. one of the reasons that we voted early for kamala harris and mr. walz, was because that we felt it was important that we vote and vote early to make sure or a statement that never again should this country ever elect a degenerate like donald trump again. another reason was we had a trip planned to go to normandy, france, to visit the gravestones of all of those brave american soldiers who died during the

normandy, omaha invasion. we stood there at that gravesite and saw hundreds of tombstones lying there one after another. it brought tears to our eyes. the fact that this donald trump has said that any american soldier who gave up his life in battle or lost a limb is a sucker and a loser is incredible. the fact that it was revealed that he made the comment that yes, hitler did some good things. he admired hitler's generals are so disgusting. anybody who votes for trust -- for drum has to be the most unpatriotic american ever. host: ed in ohio. line for republicans. caller: i am a 30 year veteran for the navy. it amazes me like your last caller. these democrat voters, those

things that he said were proven false. look, hang up on me. did you? host: i am listening. caller: i am listening to these democrats every day, they are my neighbors. i have every crack -- democrat sign in the world around my yard. they complained all four years and they blame it on trump. it amazes me. it is called low information voters like the laptop proven true 100% six years ago. they sat on it until after the lex -- the last election. the democrats live on fake news. host: ed you are on the line and waiting to talk before you heard the last caller. let's talk about your experience doing early voting. how did you do it? caller: no one should vote for this incompetence -- host: kent in norfolk, virginia on the line for independents. caller: good to see you as

always and good to listen anto be on c-span. i voted early and i le by city hall so i went ony nch break and it was in and out easy. we have numerous referendums on the blot and all of those are pretty easy. it took me about 10 to 1 minutes. host: was it the first time yo voted early? caller: it was not. i voted earl in 2022 d 20. host: why do you choe vote early? caller: it is there and the opportunity is there to vote to avoid long lines on election and usually it can be prett fast and convenient. host: hugh in maryland the line for democrats. good morning. caller: hello. my wife and i voted immediately when the m balts arrived. that is about the 24th of

september. we filled them out immediately and i walked the to e mailbo withinhour, i think of the mail arriving. we did not haveo think very hard about our choices, inuding a motion to protect the ability for women to get reproductive health care in maryland. so, we did not think it was very hard. i am a 30 year navy veteran who and i have voted earlyfts. hear in maryland -- here in maryland because it is convenient. i sometimes ride my bike to th polling station, and that gets passed the cans wh are 100 feet away from the polling station so i do not have to deal with them. host: that was hugh in maryland.

the presidential candidates have been talking about early voting on the campaign trail in the past weeks. this is vice president kamala harris talking about it during a rally in atlanta last weekend. [video clip] >> and dating -- and the extraordinary great congressman john lewis reminded us that democracy is not a state, it is an act. it is an act. so georgette now, it is -- georgia, it is now time to act. the baton is in our hands. election day is in 17 days and early voting has already started. you guys are setting some records, by the way. and so now, it is the time to make your plan to vote, go to iwillvote.com, and get all the information you need.

and if you have received your ballot in the mail, please do not wait, fill it out and return it right away. you know that george or own -- georgia's own president, jimmy carter, voted early. bless him. just days after his 100th birthday. look, if jimmy carter can vote early, you can too. [cheers and applause] because, folks, the election is here. it is here. [end video clip] host: we are hearing from early voters in this first hour, calls as well as social media. this coming from jim in il says "i voted on the first da of in person early voting in illinois i waited about 20 minutes because ther many other people who wanted to be among the first to vote also. lling place was organized

anready for a crowd. ." on facebook "florida is quick and easy. it is nice to see people supporting their maga gear while voting. i was surprised on the amount of compliments i received for my this was in a blue voting area." carolyn says "i voted early for vance and voted republican down the ballot. i had totand in line for about 20 min but everything went i would have stood i for an hour to vote republican against the communist democrats. trump-vance to save our country." phil in new hampshire. line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i early voted. i live in a nursing home and they asked to you -- if you wanted to vote. so, i did not have to go to the

polls. but, they did it in the primaries and two weeks ago for the general election. host: did everything go smoothly, no problems. caller: very smoothly, no problems. i thank god for that because i did not think i would have a chance to vote again. i cannot get to the polls now and less i take one of those ambulance things, which i do not have. so, but, i have always voted. i was never in the military but i have been a big supporter. my father fought against the chinese and the japanese in world war ii. and i had heard and told somebody that a chinese woman and she said the americans are held in great reverence by the elderly, not the government. i very much appreciated that. host: that was phil.

susan in massachusetts. line for republicans. caller: yes. i am republican but i voted for harris and tim walz. donald trump is ruined -- rude, impolite, disrespectful and has no character whatsoever. when he was president he did not do anything but give the top people big tax cuts. host: how did you vote? did you go in person or do it by the mail? caller: i went in person. host: how did that go? caller: very good. host: did you have to wait in line? caller: yes. it was a big line. i waited for about an hour. and got in and out. host: was it the first time you voted early? caller: no. no.

no. in 2020, i voted democrat too, i voted for biden. donald trump, he put us through hell. he inherited a perfect economy from obama. host: that was susan. matt in -- matlock in gary, indiana. line for democrats. caller: good morning. hello? host: you are on. caller: i am a democrat and i am voting for democracy. and i am voting for freedom. and i am voting for choice, pro-choice. we cannot stand to go back or insurrection and we cannot stand for a republican president talking about -- host: when you are talking about voting and how you are going to

vote, had you already cast your ballot? caller: i am going to vote -- i did vote in the primary but i have not voted. i voted for 60 years, i guess. i am a 77-year-old man and i have not missed one. host: when does early voting in indiana? caller: they are already early voting but i will vote on election day. host: harry in charleston, west virginia. line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning, my parents were poll workers for 13 years. and what they observed over that time was that it was a very slow process because there were huge books and you had to look up and verify the party and so, my

point is, please be patient because these are volunteers and yet they get paid a pendant -- a pittance. it is not going to be a microwave voting process that you get in and out in a minute or two minutes. secondly, the grand old party, my grandfather was a democrat. host: i am sorry, i'm going to ask you a question. have you voted early? caller: no. i do not vote early because things can change. host: that was harry. sherry in dallas, texas. line for democrats. caller: how are you doing today, thank you for taking my ca.

everybody needs to get to the pos and vote. everybodneeds to vote. host: have you already voted? caller:es i have, yes ma'am. i got on up there. i voted. host: in person? caller: yes ma'am. host: did youavto wait in line? caller: no. i am dabd. they bring the machine to the car. they just come rhtn out to the car. host: was it pretty quick? caller: oh yes. it did not take me anytime at all. everodneeds to go and vote. i mean that. i ve never seen so much hatred. host: betty in california. line for republicans. good morning. caller: hello. i would tell you a card that came in my mail with my ballot inside the envelope.

it tells you in california that you can print your own ballot. you go on your computer and download your ballot onto your computer. you mark and print your ballot, and then you sign and return it. and in any old envelope that you can buy at the dollar store so there is nothing official about your ballot. it is legal. that is what they are doing in california. if you want to do that go ahead and do it. host: have you voted early? caller: no. host: charles, florida -- fort lauderdale, florida. good morning. caller: hello. i had a long line to wait for in -- and they told me when i got to the polls, i voted for a blue line. and they told me i needed to sign a paper to vote because i am like -- i needed someone to

help me. i said no. so they told me to sign a paper and i think everybody is worried about abortion and all of this. i am more worried about the world war. all of these people coming from these countries. i am worried that all of the cvs and walgreens are shutting down. this country is going to hell. host: that is charles. don. charleston, north carolina. line for democrats. caller: good morning. this is charlotte. hello? host: your name is charlotte? caller: i am charlotte. thank you. but i want to first say thank you to the poll workers. i did vote early and i always

vote early. i think it is the better way to go dueo e fact that you can go to any site to vote instead of going to your issued voting place. again, i always vote early. i vote harris and blue down ballot. and we got this and we will win. obama was in the area yesterday and the crowd was on fire. host: that was donna. and this headline from usa today, republicans cut into democrat's early voting edge and what it means for the race. "republicans have cut into democrats recent advantage in early voting including inky ballot -- battleground states putting president vice -- putting kamala harris behind where democrats were four years ago on the preliminary vote tally following a consorted effort by republican nominee donald trump's campaign to

export -- to encourage voters to embrace early voting including voting by mail after the former president demonized the practice as a first year, 19 pandemic clashed with the -- covid-19 pandemic clashed with the 2020 election." former president trump was talking about early voting at an event. here is a clip. [video clip] >> the polls, despite everything, do you see what is happening? here, alabama, florida, south carolina, tennessee and georgia. [cheering] the polls are through the roof. what is better than that, the early voting is -- people have never seen anything like it. [cheering]

they have never seen anything like it because the american people are fed up with the people leading us down a road to disaster. so, the polls are open for early voting in georgia, every day from now until november 1. you have to get out there and vote, but more importantly just vote the way you want to do it. just get out and vote. be a little careful and make sure that you vote correctly. we are going to win georgia and defeat kamala harris and we are going to make america great again. host: with 10 days until election day, span coverage of the race continues today starting with republican vice presidential nominee jd vance who will speak to supporters and lantana at 11:00 a.m.. following that, donald trump be at rally in novi, michigan, a

suburb of detroi later, vice presidential nominee tim walz ll be in window rock, arizona, the capital of the navajo nation. and later vice president kamala harris will be joined by moechella obama in kalamoo -- michelle obama in kalamazoo, michigan. all of the coverage can be found on our free mobile video app, c-span now and online at c-span.org. back to your calls asking early voters about their experience. paul in culpeper, virginia. line for republicans. caller: good morning how are you? host: well. caller: that is good. i did some early voting and i had a good experience. there is one question i am wondering about. why is it that some judge said

it was all right for illegals to vote in virginia? what happened? host: connie in west virginia, line for independents. good morning. caller: hello? host: are you there? caller: yes. i am a democrat from west virginia. i told them i was from west virginia. host: ok. tell me about your voting experience. caller: sure. first of all, good saturday morning. my favorite day of the week. yes. am i the only one who ever read barack obama's book called " dreams of my father's?" has anybody else read that. it was written in 2012. is anyone familiar? host: have you voted early?

caller: yes. host: did you do it by mail or in person? caller: after reading that -- that book i voted republican. host: cheryl in new york, line for democrats. good morning. caller: hello and good morning. i usually go to the polls, but since my father had a stroke, it has been difficult for him to vote as well as myself in a different county on the day of. so, this year i planned to bring him on sunday in new york, and then i will then vote monday early voting. so just the situations of life. he always encouraged us to vote, and i encourage all of the republican, democrat and independent will vote for kamala harris. have a lovely day. host: karen in connecticut.

line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning, how are you? host: connecticut-ist -- connecticut is starting to be more republican than democrats. i early voted and sent my whole family to do it. no, i do not like donald trump's demeanor but i know that i had a lot more money in my pocket four years ago. that is my vote. i am very excited. i think that he has a big jump on kamala harris because people are voting for things -- host: did you go to the polls or mail in your ballot? caller: i go to the school. my son actually monitors the school. so -- host: is this the first year you have voted early? caller: yes. i'm a realtor so i have about 700 clients.

that are on the republican ticket. you know, wanting to vote republican. host: why did you decide to vote early this year? caller: early because i have ankle surgery coming up, very small. but i did not want to miss it. my family did not want to either because they will have to wait on me when i am done. host: i hope it goes well. indiana. line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. you are on. caller: yes. i am voting today. we are having a caravan in gary, indiana. we are meeting up at the headquarters in the state of indiana and we are going down to get the vote out this morning. i am very exciting -- excited to be leading the charge. host: do you normally vote

early? caller: i do and the reason why is because i am an advocate and this allows me to get others to vote. and not have to worry about longer lines and things like that. host: how many people are you planning on bringing down? caller: well, we registered a little over 40 cars, so i am not sure how many people will be in the cars. i imagine at least two per car if not more. and we have a little over 40. host: drive safe. steve in florida on the line for independents. good morning. caller: i voted early and in florida i think the 21st was when it was open. i have a lot of medical problems. i am a veteran. when trump ran against hillary i did not like either of them and i put my own name in. and recently, 2019 or whatever,

i have had a lot of medical bills and heart attacks and stuff. and, i was asking the v.a., when will you pay for this and i called them because i am getting a lot of questions and to make a long story story -- short the v.a. said it was a good thing because the v.a. won the presidency because he is paying for this and that. they opened up the doors for veterans a lot for medical and for the doctors. host: how did you vote, in person? caller: i went in person and i continue to vote for trump. i want to make america great. i am a veteran and i appreciate him keeping us out of wars and sending the embassy to jerusalem. i am not a jew, but i back them 100%. i am very against abortion. host: james in st. louis,

kentucky. on the line for republicans. in mornings. -- good morning. are you there? caller: yes. host: hello, good morning. caller: how are you doing? host: well. how did you vote early? caller: i did not vote at all, yet. host: are you planning to vote early? caller: i do not know. i'm just trying to figure out what to do. i have not voted since jimmy carter years ago. i want to be a republican instead of a democrat in a lot of ways. then again, there are a lot of arguments, a lot of people. there is just always an argument. host: got your point. sharon in georgia, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. hello. host: you are on.

caller: i voted early a couple of days ago. it was a good experience. host: did you go in person? caller: yes i did. host: did you have to wait in line at all? caller: i really did not. i got there and went right in. host: was at the first time you voted early? caller: no. it is not the first time. but i usually do the mail in. host: why do you prefer to vote early? caller: well, you can avoid the lines, for one thing. you know the weight is not as bad -- wait is not as bad when you do it early. so. host: that was sharon in georgia. the former president trump has been speaking out against his former chief of staff, john kelly, after interviews he has done.

this headline from "the washington post," trump rages against john kelly, once his chief of staff and now harsh critic. "donald trump called his former chief of staff john f kelly a total whack job and a nut job to start out with, lashing out days after the retired four-star general said the former president fits the definition of a fascist and raise alarms about his fitness for office. callie is one of many's former senior trump aide's and cabinet members who are publicly traded -- criticizing their old boss ahead of the presidential election. trump responded at length during a friday event in austin, focused on border policy, attacking kelly and denying new a reporting in the atlantic that he refused to pay for a dead soldier's funeral despite promising to do so." former president trump also talked about it during an interview on the joe rogan podcast and here's a clip from

the interview. [video clip] >> so the one question that you will ask me that i think you will ask me that people seem to ask. i always come up with the same answer. i had a lot of success, great economy, everything was great. we rebuilt the military and the biggest tax cuts in history. we had a great presidency, three supreme court justices, most get none. you pick them young and keep them there for 50 years. you know, even if a president is there for eight years they never had a chance and i had three and it was the luck of the draw. you know, i will say that it always comes back to the same answer. the biggest mistake i made was that i picked some great people, you know. but you do not think about that. i picked some people that i should not have picked. i picked a few people that i should not have. >> neo-cons?

>> yes or disloyal people. >> org they gave batted -- or they gave bad advice. >> a guy like kelly who is a bully. [end video clip] host: about 25 minutes left, hearing from those who have already voted. let's hear from pamela and maryland on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: hello. how are you? host: good. how are you? caller: i voted already. i placed mine in the dropbox about 10 days ago. i already got a notification that my ballot was counted. but, you know, i have a question regarding why does trump think that early voting is trustworthy now as opposed to during the pandemic when people were doing early voting?

just for the listeners? i just wondered that. host: john in new york. the line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning and how are you. i am voting over here for a man that has strength with all of these world leaders and out with all of the wars going on. joe biden was out with everybody out there, taking ice cream photo shoots and everyone else. and kamala harris is doing doritos and photo shoots. host: have you already voted. caller: yes. absolutely. host: did you go to the polls? caller: yes. the local firehouse. host: did you have to wait in line, what was the experience? caller: it went perfectly smooth. host: have you early voted

before? caller: i did. yes. host: how long have you been early voting? caller: i normally go on election day. host: why did you choose to early vote this year? caller: i feel it is going to be crowded on election day and a backlog and everything else so i want to get my vote in for donaldj. trump who will be a world leader with all of the wars going on. and i do not feel that she is qualified to run the country. host: jeanette in florida. line for independents. good morning. caller: good morning. host: hello. caller: how are you? host: doing well. caller: i voted early. and i voted for trump. host: how did you vote? did you go by the mail or in person? caller: i went in person. host: is is -- is it the first

time you voted early? caller: the first time i voted early. host: why did you choose to do early voting? caller: i had the time available and i did not want it to slip away from me and i thought it would be more crowded. i think we will have a lot of people out to vote on voting day. host: would you vote again early in the future elections? caller: i would. it was easy. host: it was not crowded at your polling place. did you wait in line? caller: i got there 15 minutes early and there was already a line let it move smoothly. host: chris in pennsylvania, line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. yes, i have started the whole process of voting early. i never voted in my life. so, -- [distorted]

host: you are breaking up. we cannot hear you. could you try that again? caller: can you hear me a little better. host: i think we are still having a problem. give us a call back when you have better reception. host: billy, texas. line for democrats. good morning. caller: i voted early. they were not many people there. but then the line got real big and i voted for harris because trump wants to -- good morning. host: go ahead. we are listening. caller: i wanted to -- i voted for harris because he wants to send a lot of the people back to mexico. a lot of the people who are in mexico were from mexico the farmers have them working in jobs that nobody else will work.

and he is going to be a disaster to the american people. host: teddy in california, line for republican. good morning. caller: good morning, how are you doing? host: well. how did you vote early? caller: while i did the dropbox at pomona. and are we so fortunate and blessed that we can vote in so many different ways, the day of the election, before, and all of these different things. i am hoping for the best for our country. we are so fortunate to be in a great country and we just need to continued the role of that. host: is this the first election that you have voted early? caller: correct. host: would you do it again in the future? caller: to be honest, it is such

a weight lifted off my shoulders you know? and i got to where my i voted sticker all day. it is a privilege and a blessing at the same time. host: that was teddy. gene, in virginia. line for independents. caller: good morning and what a fine day to be an american. yes i did. i am -- no doubt in my retired military mind that i would go out and vote. i was so excited when i walked in. i had on my rerearmy hat and i was so pudo cast my vote for kamala harris, and tim walz, yes indeed. i am tired of all of this i and and my, i voted for we the people, for our constitution,

soldiers, ils, marines and coast guard. i voted for our children and senior citizens. i am tired of an dualho en a has not served inry of r mitary. i am so tired of ime and my. host:an i ask you a question. you said you went to the polls and is this the firs you voted early? lewis and south river, new jersey. line for democrats. caller: how are you doing? ho: well. er: what is that? host: can you turn down your television in the band. caller: i can do that. there it is, i turned it down. host: tell me about your early voting experience. did you go into the polls or in -- or by mail? er: i go into the polls on

november 5. host: so you have not voted early. caller: i did not. host: ok. we are going to alan in connecticut on the line for republicans. good morning. call: nice to meet you. ank you for hosting this forum. i was just going to say it is such a relaxing experience, the people are cheerful, it is alstike being in grade school againilng in the little ovals. and hand it to the clerk and that is it. i got to try out my spanish. and i just want to say i want to be an example to the christian community because we are being extorted on christian views that we do not register or vote much. and it is so easy. i feel such satisfaction. it is the first time i voted this way and i have missed

before. and all of this grace period is pleasant. host: where there are a lot of people at your polling local -- polling location? caller: it was the first day of it and it was after hours of townhall and i got in about 5:30. there were only about two or three others besides me. host: brenda in new jersey. line for independents good morning. caller: can you hear me? host: yes. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am voting for kamala harris today. mail in. i usually go to the courthouse box so we vote early. the reason why, because of you know strong economics, she is going to do -- she is a leader for strong and giving the working class and the middle

class choices, freedom and also economics. also i want to say that everybody who is voting for trump, you know, obama was -- obama gave the economic -- trump did not have a strong economic plan. ok? and when he gave the stimulus checks out, ok, that is all he gave to the working class, and they were small and they were cuts. he mostly gave the big cuts to the billionaires and whatnot. and he inherited obama's. if you are thinking he had a strong economic, that came from president obama. host: let me ask you a question about your ballot. how long did it take you to fill it out before you dropped it off? caller: it was so comfortable.

i did it at my home. it is just so comfortable. i always mail in. i always just go and do it at my home, and it is convenient. i do not mail it and because all i have to do is write it out in my home. and all i have to do is drive to the courthouse which is the official box right in front of the courthouse. and all i have to do is just drop it right there inside. and and they pick it up the next day or today, saturday. so they will pick it up on monday. host: that was brenda. maynard in south carolina on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. this is the first time that we have voted early. i noticed that there were a lot more women than men. and we voted democrat. but, that is basically it.

it was very well organized. we got there early enough that there were probably thousands of people that voted early in that place. host: why did you decide to vote early this year? caller: i just thought it was a good idea. just go ahead and get it done and see what happens. i mean, south carolina might generally go read. but we are voting. that is the way we feel about it, regardless. host: that was maynard in south carolina. this headline from "the associated press," beyonce endorses kamala harris and a joseph -- joyful speech at a houston rally. the singer was at the event last night so here is a clip from the event. [video clip] >> i am not here is a celebrity or a politician. i am here as a mother. [cheering]

a mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in. a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies. a world where we are not divided, our pasts, are present, our future emerged to meet us here. imagine our daughter -- a daughter growing up seeing what is possible with no ceiling, no limitations, imagine our grandmothers and imagine what they feel right now, those who have lived to see this historic day. [applause] even those who are no longer physically with us. imagine all of their sacrifice, the sacrifices made so that we can witness the strength of a woman. [applause]

standing, in her power. reimagining what leadership is. for all of the men and women in this room and watching around the country, we need you. host: just about 10 minutes left in this first hour, hearing from early voters about their experience. brad in texas. line for republicans. caller: good morning, everybody. i had a good experience. i live in a small town and it was out the door. it never wrapped around the building, but it was. i expect that it is going to be worse on the day so i went early. host: how long did you have to wait? caller: probably just 10 minutes. it was really -- really easy when i got into vote. like i said, it was a different experience with all of the

people moving to texas. our little town has really grown. host: is this the first election that you have voted early? caller: no. i vote every chance that i get. i voted for world peace, so of course i voted republican because democrats are warmongers and they want to flood our country with immigrants. so, they will be in charge forever. if kamala gets in there she will bring in another 20 million illegals and they will be made legal and they will vote democrat because they are giving all of our wealth away and our children's future to the immigrants. host: brad in texas. a headline from the "texas tribune" talking about an election clerk that was assaulted during early voting in san antonio. the article says that the -- that there "-- deputies have

responded to calls where people wearing clothing in support of political candidates at polling places although none of the others have resulted in violence or arrest. that is why the man was arrested. voters are not aware -- allowed to wear any type of clothing that show support for a political candidate or measure within 100 feet or -- of a polling place. bexar county -- election minister's -- administrator send a statement that she wants voters to remain calm and the majority of experiences have been positive." let us hear from virginia in maryland. line for independents. caller: good morning. i voted early in southern maryland. the line was very long but very peaceful. it took about 40 minutes.

host: was this the first time you voted early? caller: no. i usually do vote early. i was just surprised at the line, it was so long and it was at 9:00 or 9:30. host: is that normal when you voted early before to wait in line that long? caller: no. i think the turnout was phenomenal. there were a lot of representatives and it was very energizing. both sides, independents as well. it was a different experience this year. host: why did you choose to vote early? caller: i have always done it because it is convenient for me at the time with working hours and different shifts. and they have a wider time range, i believe. and less people. mostly less people. host: that was virginia. marsha in florida. line for democrats. good morning.

caller: i voted democrat and early by mail. i live in a republican county in florida. i have experienced in the past some problems when voting. so, i like getting my ballot, and i like to study the people that i am voting for. host: when you sit down and fill out your ballot, how long does it usually take you? caller: how long does it really take me? usually about an hour, because i spend a lot of time seeing who i am voting for. i will not vote for anybody that i do not really know. so, and i am a democrat. so, i will be voting for kamala harris. host: what do you do with your

ballot once you have it filled out. do you put it in the mail or a dropbox? caller: i mail it. from home. host: do you track your ballot to make sure it has been counted? caller: i usually do. i have not done it this year yet, but i will track it. host: rachel in florida. line for republicans. good morning. caller: yes. hello. yes, i voted hello. i voted early in person yesterday. and i voted for donald trump because i cannot vote for a party that imports voters like they are doing in virginia, letting the illegals vote right off of the bat. host: how long did you wait in line? caller: about five minutes. host: was this the first time that you voted early? caller: no, i have before.

like i said, i vote for donald trump because well, i cannot see a party importing voters. that is cheating. host: becky in wisconsin. line for democrats. good morning. caller: hello. host: hello. caller: hello. i voted thursday, early and in person. i have voted all the different ways you could vote, by mail, in person and at the polls. and it was about an hour and 45 minute wait. and i had to be outside waiting and it was a good thing that we had a beautiful day because if it had been raining it would've been hard to wait that long. everyone was cheerful and friendly. no antagonism that i saw at all. i saw one person wearing a political shirt and i have no idea if they managed to get through the in person voting

without getting spoken to about that. i thought you were not supposed aware political leaning things. anyhow. host: when you have gone in voted early in person before, has the weights been that long? caller: one time it was and i cannot remember which election it was for. i believe it was a presidential one. and they had it at the convention center. that took a long time. i do not remember why. and then i have gone through when they had it at city hall and got at -- got in and out. this is longer than i normally would be but probably not much longer than it was the time in the convention sector -- center. i'm guessing it was one of the bushes. i have done them all of the different ways. host: that was becky in wisconsin. the last call for the hour, alan in mississippi.

line for republicans. caller: good morning, c-span. i would just met -- i would just like to make a comment regarding the clip c-span made a few days ago of tim walz accusing president trump to be a nazi and racist. this is completely false. host: we were hearing from those who had voted early in the election so we will leave it there. that is it for this first hour. still ahead, it is the final day of the battleground states series. this morning we are focusing on north carolina. next the wral state government reporter, will doran will discuss the state role in campaign 2024 and what the candidatesre doing to appeal

to northarolina voters. later, catawba college politics and history protect -- professor michael bitzer will discuss the political geography of the state and issues motivating voters. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. aaron sheehan-dean with his book on how the bloody civil war could have been worse. watch the tv series historic presidential elections about what made these elections historic and the pivotal issues of different eras. this week the election of 1968 where richard nixon defeated democratic vice president hubert humphrey and former alabama governor john wallace as the --

he was running as the independents candidate. and then paul renfro on the life and death of ryan white who emerged as one of the faces of the aids epidemic in the 1980's. on the presidency, the great-grandchildren of herbert hoover gathered in his presidential library to talk about his life and legacy onwaty weekend and find a full schedule on your program guide or w online at c-span.org/history. >> book tv, every sunday on c-span2 features authors discussing nonfiction boo. at 4:00 p.m. eastern, the inspector general for the department of defense and justice under presidents inn, george w. bush, obama and trump talks about corruption

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gives you something different. watch the presidential race, the state races that decide the balance of power in congress. no political pundits, no spin, no commercials. just the candidates, the result and you. follow c-span beginning at 7:00 p.m. eastern live on tuesday, november 5, on tv, online or on the free c-span now video app. >> washington journal continues. host: all week on washington journal we have been focusing o battleground statest wi decide this year's presidential election. arexaming what has chsinc020, the issues and litical trends, motivate voters on election day. this morning we are putting the blood of the spotlight on the state of north carolina.. will doran is a reporter for wral-tv in raleigh and joins us now.

guest: thanks for having me, tammy. host: we know there's a lot going on down there. why don't we start with where the presidential race between vice president harris and former president trump currently stands. what is the polling looking like? guest: the polling has been remarkably stable in the race over the past week. we have seen four or five polls that all put it at a 50-48 advantage for donald trump. well within the margin of error but clearly a tight race. very few voters still undecided here in north carolina based on all the polling we have seen recently. host: there have been several candidate visits in the past week. what type of events are they holding? who are they trying to reach? guest: both sides are just trying to rally the base and make sure the most reliable voters are going to continue to be the most reliable voters. the trump campaign has been

sending people to more rural parts of the state. places like goldsboro, raeford where jd vance was yesterday outside of fayetteville. the harris campaign has been sending people to bigger cities. former president obama was in charlotte on friday. first lady jill biden was on the raleigh suburbs. she was in nashville surveying the recovery efforts --ashevil le surveying the recovery efforts in hurricane helene. it's been trying to buckle down on your areas where you know you will be strong and make sure you get as many votes out of those areas as possible. host: you said the polling's neck and neck, very close. what are you hearing from voters? what issues are most important to them? how many are still undecided at this point? guest: the 50-48 split we have seen in the recent polls, that is the exact same margin that trump won north carolina by in

2020. it's about a 1.5 point win for trump. it looks like the same issues that were important and driving people in 2020 remain driving people in 2024. there has not been a lot of movement in the parties. the economy is a big issue. you hear about inflation anytime you talk to people. prices have gone down but prices for cars or groceries, plenty of other things are still pretty high. that is issue number one. immigration is also a huge issue. we got some polling at my station. it found immigration is really driving a lot of republican voters. that's no surprise anybody. a lot of democrats also have concerns about immigration policy in the u.s. and they want

to see politicians doing more on that. if there is one thing that could maybe flip voters on that side, i think that is one thing. if your going to flip from republican to democrat, abortion is a big issue we heard. democrats are in the suburbs with women, people who may have voted republican in the past but they think are gettable this year because of the messaging on women's rights. host: when it comes to women's rights and having vice president kamala harris as one of the nominees after president biden was the presumptive nominee for the democrats until about july, what changed in the state? how did that play out for vice president harris? guest: the fact that the race is looking as can because it is was very much -- neck and neck as it is was very much not the case in the summer.

trump was leading by 6, 7, 8 percentage points. switching to harris, it is only a two point race. that is made north carolina a competitive state once again. we have seen enthusiasm from black voters shoot up. also young voters. the harris campaign spent a ton of money get out the vote programs on college campuses all across the state. they are hoping they can resurrect that -- the obama coalition a lot of people talk about that helped president obama win the state in 2008. that victory in 2008 was the only time since jimmy carter in a democrat has won north carolina. they help they will have a shot of finally getting back to that stage. host: we are talking with will doran, state government reporter

with wral-tv abouthe battleground state of north carolina. y have a question or comment for him, you can start calling in now. the breakdown for the segment is different. if you support trump-vanceyo can call (202) 748-8001. if you support harris-walz, is (202) 748-8000. if you're undecided or support others, the line for you is (202) 748-8002. if you are a north carolina resident, a special line for you, (202) 748-8003. the presidential race is close they are but so is one of the races for the house, the first district between democratic incumbent representative don davis and republican challenger rory bookout. gives the latest on that race.

guest: this is the first district seting from the outer banks to the middle part of the state near raleigh rym. it's of rural district but is incredly competitive. there are a lot of rural black communities in the district. and for decades it has sent a black democratic congress. this is the first time since the 1990's that could change. republicans have a shot at winning. the republican candidate is laurie buckhout. they are both former military officers. we have for liberty, camp lejeune, norfolk naval face just over the line. those issues are near and dear to the hearts of a lot of people there.

economy and immigration obvious they are two of the main issues in this district. it is really close. i was crunching the numbers and the district voted something like nine points to the left of the state back in 2016. by 2020, it was about two or three points to the left of the state. in the 2020 midterms it was actually a couple of points to the right of the state. this is an area that has been shifting to the right. the big question for democrats and representative don davis are will they pull get back to where it was in 2022? or, will continue the rightward trend and elect a republican for the first time since the early 1990's? host: we are talking with will doran out of raleigh, north carolina, about the battleground state. we will hear from francine in north carolina on the line for supporting harris-walz.

good morning. caller: how are you? host: doing well. guest: good morning -- caller: good morning america. i am from harris-walz. i am tired of trump beating down america, saying this is a terrible country, a garbage can. he talks about immigrants as if they are not human. every time he says immigrant i know he is talking about brown and black people. i am tired of it. i'm in my 70's. i think we should all turn the page. let's start a new life here, a multiracial, multiethnic country which we are supposed to be. i want to remind people why we fired trump. he choked when he was president when the pandemic hit.

remember all the lies he told us? member how many times he said it will be gone in two weeks. remember all the people that died that were stacked up in refridgerated trucks where he couldn't handle things. remember how he help the ventilators when hospitals were begging for ventilators that held -- held the ventilators. don jr. said they had 900 ventilators stashed in washington somewhere. host: we will get a response from will. guest: to her point on a multiethnic society, north carolina has been becoming incredibly diverse. that is giving democrats hope they are going to be able to break through in the state that has been pretty consistently republican leaning. it hasn't quite happened yet

except as i mentioned earlier the 2008 win for barack obama. every year we are a booming state and is becoming more racially diverse here. democrats think it's a matter of time and maybe this is the year. host: sarah in conover, north carolina, on the line for undecided. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a problem that people are going around talking about women's rights. i've had my rights since 1970, since we burned the bra. i don't understand this abortion. a woman wants to have it, let her pay for it. no taxpaying money should be taken. that is their decision. let them pay for it. you have a great day. guest: i think there is a long-standing federal law that

seeks to ban taxpayer dollars from funding abortions. that is a big issue here in north carolina that has driven people for years on both sides of the aisle. we are part of the bible belt and people have strong opinions on abortion here. it is going to be a big issue. all the democratic candidates want to make abortion a key focus of their ads. for the first time in years it's an issue that republicans really don't want to talk about. host: another race in north carolina that has gotten some attention is the open seat for the governor's seat between democrat josh stein and republican mark robinson. what can you tell us about the candidates and where the race stands? guest: the governor's race is going to make history in north carolina no matter what. if mark robinson wins, you will be the first ever black

governor. if josh stein, the democrat wins, the first ever jewish governor. to the point i was making earlier, this is an increasingly diverse state that does not necessarily look like it did 30, 40 years ago. i think that is probably exhibit a, the governor's race. mark robinson is the state lieutenant governor. josh stein is the state attorney general. they both have experience in government. robinson is very much a newcomer to politics. he went viral in 2018 for a video when he was just a private citizen talking to his local city council meeting about gun rights. that has catapulted him into gop fame. he's very much a fiery speaker. that has won him a ton of fans and also turned off people. people have heard about a cnn report about alleged comments he reportedly made using a

pseudonym on a pornographic website. mark robinson denies that in assuming cnn. -- and is suing cnn. that has taken over the race. josh stein was already winning the race based on all the polls. he already had a pretty substantial lead. ever since that article about the comments came out about a month ago we have seen stein doing even better than he had been. you are setting up for a continuation of what we have done in north carolina for a long time of looking like the state may favor a republican for president but they also favor a democrat for governor in a state for people like to be tickets witters, like the boat -- ticket splitters, like to vote on both sides of the aisle. north carolina voted for donald trump for president but also roy cooper for governor. he is term limited and cannot run so we have a race between robinson and stein to replace him.

so far, based on polling, it is not looking as close as the presidency. host: to your point on ticket splitting, the headline from axios. trump unfamiliar with north carolina governor race despite mark robinson's endorsement, backing away after the reporting from cnn. how often from voters -- how often are voters from north carolina ticket splitting? guest: it is small but big enough number of people. in the polling it's been about 5% a percent of republicans -- to 8% of republicans or trump supporters are planning on supporting josh stein for governor. you could have some democrats who are supporting trump for president but probably the bigger number in that is republicans supporting josh stein for governor. it is something we do here in

north carolina. it is a facet of the state where people -- a lot of times people say, oh, i think the national have gone to liberal. -- too liberal with the local democrats are ok. you see people vote for democrats, sometimes for the state legislator seats or the governorship even though they like trump as president. host: let's hear from anthony in maryland on the line for harris-walz. good morning, anthony. caller: good morning. i am part of a labor union. although i voted early in person yesterday for harris-walz, i've been catching a bus with a bunch of other marylanders down to north carolina to support and canvas for harris-walz. my experience has been running into people in north carolina, i was in asheville the last time, who are enthusiastic supporters of harris-walz. my question is, how reliable are

the polls you are looking at in north carolina? is there a chance they are undercounting support for harris-walz in north carolina? guest: that is a great question. i don't think there's any doubt polls are not perfect. we have seen that in the last several presidential elections. because of cell phones and a lot of other factors it is really hard to do polling accurately as you once could. absolutely. those polls could be off in either direction. it could be undercounting harris supporters. it could also be undercounting trump supporters. what we look at is the trend. basically all the polls we have seen recently have trump vary slightly up. even if they don't agree on the exact numbers, it is what they show. even while trump is slightly up in the polls they are all within

the margin of error. absolutely, you know, this race could go either way. in 2020, we were the closest red state in the country. we had five point 5 million people vote in north carolina. trump won by 75,000 votes, little over 1%. this is a really, really close state. it could come down to just, you know, a few thousand people here and there in a couple of different cities. do they decide to get out and vote this year or do they decide to stay home? host: william in north carolina on the line for support trump-vance. caller: good morning. how are you? thanks for taking my call. i want to piggyback something he just spoke on. that was the fact that i used to be a straight line -- can you hearing? host: we can hear you. caller: i used to be a straight

ticket, a straight line. now i find myself because of mark robinson deftly going to support josh stein. i'm deftly going to -- the rest of my ticket will be republican. my main focus as i grew up in california. i've only been in north carolina for four years. it amazes me how people here on the eastern seaboard, down south and up north in places, they latch on to a candidate. they know very little about whose background. no one fact-checks who brags on prosecutor julio -- prosecutorial excellent but that's not the case. trump is off the mark when he accuses harris of being soft on crime. he is soft on crime from a class perspective. it amazes me how many blacks in north carolina and other places that don't know her record in

the black community in california, how they seem to be playing the race game far more than they accuse donald trump of. it irks me as a christian to find one of the most important campaign issues in our nation at this point is something we should take for granted anyway, a woman's right to choose. i just don't see the issue. whether the state does it, the federal government does it, it just doesn't matter. for me the constitution is bedrock. states rights trump almost everything. the federal government is an overseer. host: we will get a response from will. guest: yeah. what he mentioned about kamala harris's back on as a prosecutor is something that i have heard, before in -- come up before in

conversation with organiz ers. one of the group that is a little skeptical of kamala harris's black men because of her record as a prosecutor. a lot of them, from what i've heard from organizers, they have questions on what executor role in the justice system was. was she perpetrating what a lot of people see as systemic racism in the system or was she trying to improve on that and make it better and fight against it? that has been a challenge for democrats when they have been canvassing in black communities. trying to talk to people about harris's record as a prosecutor. maybe that is what the election comes down to. i don't know in north carolina but that has been something that democrats have told me has been an issue they needed to message harder with folks they are reaching out to who are

skeptical. host: larry in gaetz, north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i'm trying to put the two things together. i have already done my early voting. as an independent i like to research all the candidates. i have some scenarios with mr. davis and ms. buckhout in our district. i was curious as to what will would like to say about the differences between the two. i had done some research myself with the immigration scenario more than a year ago and called mr. davis's office, spoke to a nice young gentleman, a staffer. i just did not see him doing

anything concerning the border. we have had a blitz in our area with placards coming in the mail saying basically numerous derogatory statements about ms. buckhout, who had believed was a colonel in the u.s. army and served in war. i would like to know the differences between esther davis and ms. buckhout for anybody out there that would be interested. -- mr. davis. guest: that is a great question. laurie buckhout was an army officer and don davis was an air force officer. beyond that there are plenty of differences between the two candidates. the immigration issue is a huge thing that has come up. you have seen a lot of the ads in this district focus on immigration. don davis has been one of the

most probably moderate democratic voices on immigration. he has voted with republicans, not on every single immigration bill but on quite a few, including one recently that harshly criticized, harris -- kamala harris as being the borders czar with failed policies. he was one of only three or four democrats in all of congress who voted for that. he has tried to change that messaging that democrats have not done enough on the border. he in particular has not done enough on the border. whether or not that's ways people is yet to be seen. plenty of his ads are videos of him down at the southern border talking with were to patrol agents, things like that. he clearly sees that as a weakness for his campaign. something he needs to address. something that's a huge concern in that district.

abortion has also been a huge issue he's tried to hit buckhout on. saying she is too extreme on abortion. she would back national restrictions on that. both campaigns have really been hitting the other one heart. we have seen a ton of national groups pouring millions and millions of dollars into this race as well. we are a key battleground state for statewide races, for the presidency, but when it comes to congress this is the only competitive congressional seat in north carolina. with republicans only having i think a two or three seat majority in congress now, you know, if they can flip this district that would really help them hang onto power coming into 2025. they will be 20 or 30, maybe more millions of dollars spent on this one congressional district in north carolina. yes, immigration is a huge issue. abortion is a huge issue. i think in the end, come down to

the presidents -- it might come down to the presidential race. if the district continues trending right, kamala harris will have to win the state by a large margin for don davis to hang on. on the other hand, if don davis can turn out a lot of the democrats in the district who have had lower voter turnout rates in the past, that could help harris over the top and north carolina -- in north carolina. host: let's talk about early voting in north carolina. according to the election lab, these numbers last updated yesterday. almost 2.3 million early votes. how does that compare to previous elections? guest: we are setting records for early voting in north carolina. people are clearly interested in this race. we clearly want to go out, make their voice known ahead of time. make sure the vote counts.

there were a lot of concerns because of hurricane helene about a month ago hitting western north carolina. it was the deadliest natural disaster in state history. it did tens of billions of dollars of damage. it devastated about a quarter of the state. there were serious questions about whether places out there would be able -- the people would be able to vote and get to the polling places. if the roads would exist to let them get out of their neighborhoods into the polling places. it has really been shocking for a lot of people. that area -- the voter turnout is above average compared to the state as a whole. those folks, even though they have all this devastation in their communities they have been turning up to vote at a higher rate than the state as a whole. the state has been setting records. we are on pace for what looks like a record-setting year. we had 75% voter turnout in

2020. it looks like we could be right there if not above it this year. host: tim in charlotte, north carolina. good morning. caller: how are you? host: doing well, tim. caller: can you hear me? host: yes, we can. caller: i want to piggyback off of what you said. i'm an independent. i was born in charlotte but i have lived all over the country. i want to address the lady that made the first comment about how trump failed with all his policies with covid. what i wanted to say is the people of western north carolina , the people in augustine, georgia -- augusta, georgia, fema did a horrid job. the federal government response was terrible. if it wasn't for franklin graham and other independent people that came in to help these people, timing it's in a -- i mean it's an abomination what fema is doing.

look at what cuomo did in new york. he killed how many thousands of people up there? he was the governor. he let how many thousands of old people die? this lady wants to talk about this and healing everything. this country is very divided because nobody wants to use common sense and try to really get things done appropriately the way they should. my last comment is when i moved back to charlotte in 2010, the spanish-mexican people all came in at one time. there was a republican mayor. they decimated charlotte for over five to seven years. you can ask any black person that lives there. they were not thrilled with it. that goes way back to obama and immigration and the catch and relief. on these people with a call and talk about trump -- i'm not a great fan. i'm looking at the lesser of two evils.

i'm commenting on what has gone on in that state and south carolina because i have lived there too. host: both get a response from our guest. guest: donald trump has been slamming the biden administration over its response to hurricane helene. we have heard from plenty of people on the ground that thousands of fema workers were there and have been helping out. we have seen fema hands out hundreds of millions of dollars to people on the ground already, but that doesn't change the fact that yes, there was still massive devastation. thousands of people died. people are obviously struggling with this. the fact you have seen voter turnout in the western part of the state exceed the rest of the state shows people out there are fired up, they want to make their voice heard and that is a very conservative part of the state. that is something republicans have to be pleased by. host: i wanted to ask about the one statewide ballot measure in north carolina that has to do

with noncitizen voting. what can you tell us about it? what would it mean for north carolina if it were to pass? guest: we have a constitutional amendment on the ballot this year. it would say that only u.s. citizens can vote in north carolina. our state constitution already says that. this would not really -- it would tweak the language but it would not change the rules. but there have been issues in other states where a few cities have allowed emigrants to vote in local elections. emigrants are never allowed to vote in federal elections but some city say if you want to vote for the city council or school board, we will allow immigrants to vote. it is very rare but it really took off in some conservative media circles. north carolina says basically -- the way the constitution is worded now allows maybe for a judge to come in and interpret

that at some future date that immigrants could vote in north carolina. they want people to pass this amendment reinforcing our support of only allowing citizens to vote. host: 10 days until election day. what are you watching for between now and then? when can we expect to see north carolina results? guest: i will answer the second question first. we should get most results on election night. in 2020, there were several states that took days to count their ballots. in north carolina, we can start counting the mail-in ballots a little ahead of time. we should get the results quickly. if a race is really close and in recount territory we will not know immediately. for most races we should know on election night. we have talked about some of the main reasons -- races to watch. the first district, the

governor's race, the presidency. the race for attorney general is interesting. there are two sitting u.s. congress men running for attorney general. republican dan bishop and demographic -- democrat jeff jackson. north carolina has not elected a republican attorney general and well over 100 years since reconstruction. the race has been getting close. dan bishop could pull it off. jeff jackson is going to be hoping to keep it in democratic hands. that's another key want to watch. host: our guest will doran is the state government reported for wral-tv in raleigh, north carolina. you can find his work online at wral.com. thank you so much for being with us this morning. guest: thank you for having me. host: next on washington journal our north carolina battleground discussion continues with catawba college politics and history professor chael bitzer . we will talk about the pitical geography of the state and the

issues motivating voters this year. later, north carolina political anchor tim boyum will join us to discuss the role of battleground states in campaign 2024. we will be right back. >> book tv every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing the latest nonfiction books. at 4:00 been eastern, glenn fine talks about corruption in the u.s. government and the role inspectors general play in the democratic system in his book, "watchdogs." 8:00 p.m. eastern, former navy seal jack parr shares his book, "targete beirut." looks back a the 1983 u.s. marine barracks bombing in beirut that took the lives of 241 serviceman.

at 10:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, florida republican congress meant mike walls talks about serving in afghanist as a green beret and how his military career influences his decision-making in his book, "hard tth" he's interviewed by reporter paul mccleary. watch book tv every sunday on c-span2, and find a full schedule or watch online anytime at booktv.org. ♪ >> and his 836 page book titled "reagan: his life and legend," says his is the first definitive biography of the resident. it suggests edmund morris appeared to be so flummoxed by the complexities of reagan's character that he produced

"dutch," a memoir that was widely criticized in spite of its acute insights. max boot points out in his introduction i am fortunate that ronald reagan's story cannot be told as never before because we possess far more archival sources and far more historical perspectives. >> author max boot with his book "reagan: his life and legend" on book notes plus with ryan lander. e c-span now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us now to continue our discussion about the battleground state of north carolina is michael bitzer, the politics and history professor at catawba college in north carolina. thank you so much for being with us this morning. guest: it is my pleasure. thank you.

host: what makes north carolina about a gram state? -- that'll ground state? -- battleground state? guest: it's a microcosm of our politics. we see it play out here in the state. first and foremost, we are very competitive, highly polarized electorate. by my calculations and analysis basically 95% of the north carolina electorate, the voters who show up to cast ballots are party loyalists. they will be voting basically straight party ticket down the ballot. north carolina has had a very long history of swing voters, but that population, that slice of the electorate has collapsed to about 5% of the electorate. really it is a battle of polarized politics. we see it play out in the

urban-rural divide. we are seeing a very clear generational divide in the state as well. so much of what makes north carolina a true battleground state is really the energy and enthusiasm and mobilization of the voters. we saw a record turnout in 2020. a lot of people are thinking maybe we will hit that same percentage of three quarters of registered voters casting ballots this year. we will have to wait and see. already we are seeing about a third of the registered voters in north carolina casting an early ballot. that is ahead in terms of in-person early voting for this state. host: we look at north carolina as a battleground state. some of those factors. how has north carolina changed in the past few election cycles when it comes to critically demographically and culturally?

guest: to me the key election in north carolina was 2008. if we go back 20 years now to the election in 2004, incumbent president george w. bush won north carolina by 12 percentage points. nobody in their right mind would declare north carolina a battleground state when the presidency was decided by 12 percentage points. on the same ballot we reelected democratic incumbent governor mike easley by 12 percentage points as well. the split ticket phenomenon was basically a 24 point swing between voting republican at the federal level and voting democratic at the state gubernatorial level. 2008 really shifted the dynamics in north carolina, the politics of it.

we saw barack obama swing that 12 point republican state to basically half a percentage point democratic win. we have been within this very tight margin of victories. 2010 further solidified the party loyalty. ever since then we have been a slightly republican presidential state and a slightly democratic at the state level state as well. that is going to be evident yet again. it is all dependent on who shows up and who turns out. north carolina has seen a massive in-migration of immigrants. we are seeing the generational shift play out the state as well and the rise of the unaffiliated voter. it's been very pronounced in north carolina. does not necessarily mean they are political independence.

-- independents. it's being driven by voters under the age of 40. there are a lot of cross current pressures going on in this year's election. little shifts in the electorate could have huge consequences come november 5. host: when we look at the congressional makeup of the state, it is evenly divided between democrats and republicans. there is only one house race in the first district considered a tossup. why is that? guest: north carolina, since the 1990's has never gone through a decade where we have had a complete set of legislative maps, u.s. house, statehouse or state senate survive that decade period. we are one of the key litigious states when it comes to redistricting. we are operating under a new congressional map that was redrawn by the republican

legislature. now we are shifting basically from a 7/7 even delegation split to now by all accounts at least 10 republican congressional seats, three strong democratic seats, and as was mentioned, the first congressional district in the northeastern part of the state is a competitive but very slightly leaning democratic seat. but again, it is dependent upon who shows up and how much strength of party loyalty they will be among the voters. host: we will bring our audience in. our first caller is lewis from north carolina. he's just down the road from you and saulsberry. he's on the line for harris and walz. good morning, lewis was caller: good morning -- lewis. caller: good morning. i have a comment into question. there was a young man they just

moved here about four years ago, a black guy, african-american. he wants things to go back to the state. our young people don't realize about jim crow. i remember the time -- i'm old enough -- i remember the time we had to go to the back door of the movie theater and the balcony. we couldn't really actually walk on the sidewalk because he had to walk in the street because white people was walking on the sidewalk. there was also a time back when the states took care of things a black person would have to try to count his jellybeans in the jar just to vote. they don't really know what they're talking about when they said they turned things back to the states. another gentleman said something about trump not dropping the ball. trump dropped the ball. per member when the nurses had were garbage bags for ppe because they had them all in the white house?

plus, they say they are christian and vote for trump. that is hilarious right there. how is it that we can see that josh dine -- stein has over 15 points or 17 points ahead of robinson, which robinson and trump are from the same cloth. how is it we can see josh stein 14 point ahead and we can't see that dealing with the presidential? shouldn't they go hand-in-hand if you go straight down the ballot? i will wait for your answer offline. guest: that's a great question. we will have to wait until the evening of november 5 to really see what the margin of victory is for the gubernatorial race. most analysts say that stein does have a fairly countable margin. some polls show a six to eight point lead. there have been some double

digit for stein over mark robinson. i think what is happening is that classic dynamic in north carolina politics. one race may be an outlier but the other races across the ballot me again reflect -- may again reflect that natural tension of semi people being party loyalists. if you look at some of the polling, particularly among republican voters, robinson is losing about 30% defection right to stein among republicans. that is certainly not a good sign for the robinson campaign in such an evenly divided state. certainly, the news he has gone through over the past month has not helped his candidacy at all. particularly outside of republicans -- republicans outside of north carolina have given up on this race but he's actively campaigning. he is trying to get his message

out. i think of the stein campaign sees a fairly healthy margin of victory it would be an anomaly in north carolina. we don't know what the up or down ballot affect is going to be. people could be certainly voting for donald trump, flipping over to vote for josh dine in -- josh stein and pretty healthy numbers. do they vote for the republicans for council of state offices? that will be a key test to see if there is any spillover effect from the stein margin of victory to other races here in north carolina. host: let's hear from joe in wilmington, north carolina. the line for undecideds. caller: good morning. i believe in north carolina, at least in the 20 something years i have lived along the coast, we have seen a dramatic shift in people leaving the big cities,

new york and new jersey and people from california coming over to the coast. some moving into the cities of charlotte and raleigh. a lot of the people, like the other caller, they have their issues with the city. people on the coast -- i don't like to go to raleigh. i'd like to go to charlotte. it is too chaotic there. we look at the economy as a major factor in this retiree community along the whole coast, which is made above a lot of different areas. we have to look at the u.s. deficit in the trillions of dollars. there has to be a repeal of citizens united and super pac's. it has got to be congress, both

houses should never vote on anything but the -- that they can't pay for in their budget. we have to do something about things that are reflective of ancient politics. in new york city in the 1800s or everybody who came off the boat were given food by politicians and who to vote for an election -- in the election. i have been on the border many times in many areas. it is a concern. who was profiting from that but for big businesses that deal with building and looking for labor. i don't think the polls are reflective of the common citizen in north carolina. certainly not a professor from a small college and saulsberry,

north carolina. thank you. host: professor? guest: i think he reflect the regional dynamic at play here in north carolina. we do not do any polling here at catawba college in terms of horserace polling. we have done polling ith past to look at the political dynamics of the state. i think certainly on the eastern part arod e coastal areas of north carolina you are seeing a huge influx of retirees that is certainly shaping those communities. other cities in north carolina, charlotte, raleigh, durham, the triad area, winston-salem and greensboro have seen tremendous growth from migration as well. along with retirees moving into the western part of the state.

this state is a complex date. it is regionally based in terms of different dynamics and certainly different voters in different regions. if you travel anywhere in north carolina, basically an hour from whatever point you are in, and hours drive will take you into a very different community within north carolina and a very different set of political attitudes and behavior. host: a headline from the carolina political review says unaffiliated voters are now the largest political party in north carolina. what does this mean for 2024? how do you answer that? guest: that is the great unknown question here in the state. the rise of the unaffiliated voter. right now they are 30% of the seven -- 38% of the registered voters in north carolina. the largest block of voters. they tend to have a lower voter

turnout rates. we will have to see if that dynamic shifts this year. they are already healthy proportion of the early vote. they are about 30% of all the early votes cast so far, state. -- in the state. it's been driven by a lot of the under 40 age group, along with people moving into the state .perhaps people moving into north carolina don't know, don't recognize the political dynamics. they tend to register unaffiliated and then have the option of voting in either party's primary when it comes to primary elections. i think what we know about the unaffiliated voters, the research i have done along with some colleagues have found about half of the unaffiliated voters tend to be consistent party primary voters. the other half are what we call

the on board voters. -- unmoored voters. they float based on the level of competitiveness. this has become the great unknown. this is a huge swath of north carolina's voters that the campaigns are trying to better understand. we will have to see what the dynamic is after november 5 in terms of what percentage of folks who are unaffiliated show up. we know registered republicans have the highest voter turnout rate among the three major groups. registered democrats tend to meet the state average. unaffiliateds are slightly lower. it's an interesting mix of who shows up in the election. host: sophia in raleigh, north carolina. caller: good morning to both of you. thank you for taking my call. a question for mr. bitzer.

i caught the end of the other segment with the other gentlemen answering the question about the referendum on the citizenship. i don't think he gave a clear answer in the sense that to my understanding the way our constitution used to read about the u.s. citizen, it also included u.s. citizen and naturalized citizens. i know naturalized citizens can have all the right-sided except they cannot be -- all the rights i do except they can't be president. that was not stated by the other gentlemen. i wonder what mr. bitzer thought about that. i did just vote absentee. there is a one dollar 77 sent charge for stamps -- $1.77 chart for stamps and i wonder if people would assume voting is free. thank you.

guest: great questions. certainly on the constitutional amendment process, that language doesn't shift the -- does shift the actual wording to citizens. we will have to wait and see. , freight we have to wait and see how potentially the courts interpret that particular provision. that will go through state constitutional scrutiny and state-level courts to try to determine it. as will indicated, only citizens who are 18 years old or meet other minor restrictions are allowed to vote in the state. this would be shifting the language in a way that we have to wait and see how the courts interpret that dynamic. in terms of the absentee by mail vote, yes.

some voters are surprised by the amount of postage needed to return a ballot. there has been some questions about whether the return ballot envelope should have a prepaid postage by the state, but ultimately that would be paid by the counties. the 100 counties of north carolina are the one to actually administer the elections. the other dynamic at play we have this year here in north carolina is that absentee by mail voters must include a photocopy of an approved government id to be mailed along with the ballot they are submitting. we will have to wait and see. there have been some ballots that have needed to be cured. they have requested that photo identification among other dynamics at play. we will have to wait and see at the end of the election cycle how many were accepted, were

cured, and ultimately not accepted here in north carolina. host: according to election lab, which is through the university of florida, sophia is one of the almost 2.3 million north carolina residents who voted early. this is something you have been tweeting about and following. what stands out to you in terms of early voter turnout? guest: a couple of things stand out to me. first and foremost, the party registration dynamics. we are basically even in terms of registered democrats and registered republicans submitting both absentee by mail but also in-person voting. in-person voting is actually exceeding where we were four years ago. that dynamic has shown we are very competitive in terms of what registered democrats and registered republicans are

doing. they are about evenly divided. registered unaffiliateds power about 30% of the balance coming in. most of the ballots tend to be much more white than the voter pool itself. they tend to come from more suburban areas than necessarily the urban cities. rural areas are meeting their percentage when compared to the voter registration dynamic. there are a lot of new dynamics that play with this pool. about a third of north carolina voters. we have a week to go. early voting ends next saturday. we typically tend to see a very high number of ballots, on friday before that final saturday -- come on friday before the final saturday. it looks like we are trending towards a majority if not potentially reaching almost two thirds of all the ballots cast in north carolina's

host: tommy in new york on the line for support a harris. caller: good morning, thank you for c-span. i would like to is ask mr. blitzer the two major candidates we have for president, how did we get here? it is my understanding if you polled the american people the majority say they wish they had different candidates. they really don't like either one. how do we get to this point? guest: that is a great question. we see that often in several recent presidential elections a general unhappiness with the two major party candidates. certainly on the republican side it is the influence of trump and

his consistent candidacy. here in north carolina in the primary in march he 2k3w09 75% of the -- he got 75%, nikki haley got about a quarter of a percent so the majority of north carolina republicans wanted him to run for a third time. the uniqueness on the democratic side looking at their politics you have to think about pre-july 21 to post july 21 when president biden made the decision not to seek the reknowledge -- acknowledged harris and she she became the nominee. certainly in are strains of

people who say i want somebody different, somebody else. we have seen that in recent presidential politics. but this is who we get in terms of the two major parties. the influence is really much more throughout the primary elections when we generally tend to see a much lower turnout rate across the state. host: lori in north carolina, good morning. caller: good morning. hi, professor. i'm on the undecided line because although i'm sure of presidential pick i do not vote up and down ballot. i'm an independent voter and these people are spepbtdzing money, time, resources and i believe they deserve every

consideration. so i have a question do more vote down ballot and i want to make a comment. i live in with waxhaw which is kind of rural and i have as many neighbors with trump and vance signs as harris walz. the interesting thing for of the robinson signs have disappeared. you can't find one any more. guest: that is an interesting phenomena. north carolina has had a historically long ballot. we elect all of our statewide executive officers so everything in governor to lieutenant governor, attorney general as will mentioned, superintendent of public construction, state auditor appear treasurer.

just a wide variety of executive offices. then you get into state legislative, u.s. house and local races, county commissioner, city councils. so, north carolina has a very long ballot that the voters have to work through, and in general we do see what is called drop off or run off down for the ballot. we will typically see the most votes at the presidential and gubernatorial level but as you work down the variouses offices of the ballot you will see less votes being cast. that is just a kind of i think human dynamic. as you are getting further down, unless the voter has done the research and thought about the candidates, for some of these offices they might say i don't know who is running particularly if it is a nonpartisan race like

school board races you would tend to see a higher drop off rate of voters casting ballots. host: north carolina is one of the states that has seen the most campaign spending with ads. we want to play a couple ads and we will talk about them. >> sentenced to life kamala harris pushed to use tax dollars to give him a section change. it sounds insane because it is insane. she was the first to help pay for a prisoner's sex change. >> i used it in a way to push forward the agenda. >> i'm dodge j. trump and i approve this. >> i worked in the trump administration.

he would suggest not giving disaster relief to states that had not voted for him. >> one time after a wildfire in california he would not settlement relief because it was a democratic state. we looked up how many votes he got in those areas. they are people that voted for you. this isn't normal. the job of the president is to protect marines. >> if he is elected again there will be no one. you will have yes man imming project 2025,en checked power, no guard rails. >> i'm voting for kamala harris because she will put the safety of every american first whether they vetted for her or not. host: your thoughts on the issues highlighted in ads and what impact have they had on

north carolina voters traditionally and the outcome of elections? guest: i think that those were two kind of classic ads we have been inundated with here in north carolina for months. we have truly seen in the summer those kinds of ads ramp up on north carolina television, north carolina social media venues as well. for the trump ad that really hits the kind of cultural conservatism that is core at the republican base. i think that identifying and promoting some of the policy issues that harris has advanced i think speaks to again the republican base vote. that is certainly something that they are trying to energize to mobilize to ensure republicans particularly be social

conservative republicans show up to vote. with the harris ad against trump i think that speaks to democrats' concerns about the safety of our democracy and integrity of our democratic representation. they both speak to select audiences when it comes to the campaign messaging and framing that they are doing. that to me really kind of identifies the kind of base level politics that drives so much of north carolina's overall politics, very few swing voters or persuadable voters particularly for the the end of november 5. we are going to continue to see all of these ads and more, special interest groups are involved in campaign messaging as well. this is kind of the norm, the

new norm of north carolina politics. the air war certainly is very intense but so is ground game operation, get out the vote campaigns from both sides as well. host: sean from north carolina on the line for harris walz. caller: thank you for taking my call. i find a real difference because people won't vote to donald trump because he is attached to mark robinson. he came on saying how he supported mark robinson. i have two unaffiliated sons living in my home who both voted for harris and walz. so did my wife appear myself. most of the people in sheryl of

sherill's ford are patriotic americans. we don't want people talking about nazis a hitlerment i can't see these polls -- and from what i'm looking at the r.n.c. didn't put a ground game together but they have gotten a lot of information into the polling systems and as far as not helping our citizens, come on. did you see the great job -- i sat here in sherills ford and saw numerous hells flying to the mountains and every around here. this is a disgrace. on top of it, look at january 6. when i stood in line and voted i saw so many women in line and all i saw is a lot of mean disgruntled men who look the like our country is a trash can.

god save this country and god save -- bless all our women for standing up for their rights. guest: i think certainly this caller is identifying one of the key things that we as political scientists will look at an that is the gender gap in voting dynamics. typically we tend to see nationally as well as sometimes here in north carolina, is that women tepbtd to be support democratic in their support. men tend to be more republican. i think that is really going to be an interesting phenomenon particularly through the exit polls come tuesday november 5, when they get release in the state to see how wide a gap there is between the division based on gender and generation and regionalism. i think there are a host of areas we as political science

professors will look to try to better understand the dynamics of 2024. there are some shuttle shreufts going on within this electorate but we'll see that come out in analysis of this year's election. host: you wrote a book about redistricting and jerry phapbltderring. we talked about the make-up of the concern congressional seats but in is the first presidential election since north carolina got an additional electoral vote. how could that impact the presidential outcome? guest: i think that north carolina along with georgia are right hyped pennsylvania as one of the top vote gets in terms of the electoral college. as we have seen migration particularly to the american

south increase over the past several decades, that is going to be reflectsive in an electoral vote shift from particularly the midwest down into the south. i think that north carolina and georgia are the new battle ground states in the south. we have often talked about from the 1980's into the 2000's a solid republican south. north carolina is one of very few states in the south that have statewide democratic office holders but the populations are changing. the demographics are changing like the incumbent as well. so, i think this added population is going to continue to increase north carolina's relevance in terms of the electoral vote to get to 270 electoral votes. i don't see anything changing in the not too distant future in terms of the level of

competitiveness that north carolina will see moving forward. >> we have time for one last call to california. kelly on the line for harris and walz. host: professor, my question is similar to the gentleman had called a few minutes ago. with everything that is going on with the republican party do you think that the increase in republican early voting we have seen in north carolina could be impacted by them, at any rate and maybe knows numbers they are republican identified but they might not have voted for trump? guest: that is a great question. i think that is one of the unknown questions that i can answer at this point. i would point to the march

primary here in north carolina when nicky haley was the sole contestant against the former president for the republican nomination. she got about a quarter of the republic primary votes and her base was coming out of major urban county like mecklinburg and wake county. the 250,000 nikki haley voters i really would love to know how are they thinking about voting this year. even if there is half of them voting that is a sizable number. 120,000 to 125,000 republicans who participated in the primary. donald trump only won this state for years ago by 75,000 votes so the margins are so tight and close in this state that what i'm seeing is any kind of subtle

minor shift, 1 to 2 to 3 in percentage points do have huge consequence for the enresult on november 5 in north carolina. host: michael blitzer is with can tailback bad -- catawba policy. professor, theufrpg you for being with us this morning. guest: my pleasure. host: next on washington journal north carolina political anchor tim boyum the host of front porch politics will discuss the role of battleground states and campaign 2024. >> in his 836 boot titled reagan is the first definitive

biography of the 40th president. it with suggest edit popped morris appeared to be so flummoxed by the complexity of reagan character he produced dutch that was widely criticized in spite of its acute insights the he said i'm fortunate that ronald reagan's story can be told as never before because we have more archival sources and more historical perspective. >> t reagan, his life aan legend. it is ble the c-span now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcast. >> sunday night on c-span's q&a the dragon from chicago she

talks about the life and career of journalist of the berlin bureau chief from 1925 to 1941. he provided the rise of adolf hitler and was one of the earliest reporters to warn about the dangers of naziism. >> she had one of the one-on-one interviews with him in december of 1931. it was an important interview because in the interview he basically made it clear he didn't have to take germany by force, that he was getting more and more power with every election. he really thought that he would be in control within a year. he missed that by only a month. he also made it clear once he and the nazis were in power they intended to undo the weimar

public. >> that is the dragon from chicago sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. you can listen to all the podcast on the free c-span now app. >> c-span delivers something different not just the presidential race but the state races that will decide the balance of power in congress. no political pundits or spin. no commercials. just the candidates, the results and you. follow c-span this election night beginning 7:00 p.m. eastern live tuesday november 5 on tv, online or on the free c-span now video app. >> washington journal continues.

host: welcome back. joining us to discuss campaign 2024 and battle ground states is tim boyum with spectrum news 1 out of raleigh, north carolina. he is losseses host of capital tonight and front porch politics. welcome to the program. guest: thanks for having me. host: we are talking being battle ground states and you are based it north carolina but you recently completed a 10 day cross-country road trip where you hit multiple battle ground states. tell us about the trip. why did you decide to do it and what was year goal? guest: we interviewed candidates for governor and president. we interviewed candidates up and down the ballot. one thing we realized is that i think people's voices feel like they are not being hurried of heard. so it puts the focus on ever day

people in our communities. i did an r.v. tour across north carolina in 2022ed a it was pretty well received. i like to do interviews in jamaica ways. we did one whitewater rafting. this time we wanted to take a national look and there are so many battleground states. so we said the great american road trip. so that is what we did. we started at the statue of liberty and went through pennsylvania, ohio, up to michigan, wisconsin, illinois, missouri, oklahoma, texas, new mexico, arizona and nevada and he woulded up a at the santa monica pier. we decided to try it in electric cars because taste getting a lot of attention. host: during those 10 days who did you talk with? where did you go? guest: some of it was set up

ahead of time because it is hard to get things and i wanted to hit a number of topics. i didn't want to get all the same people. so away met a local g.o.p. leader in north carolina and he is not a trump fan so he,doorsed kamala harris publicly in the philadelphia enquirer. he went on cnn and got applauded. we went to butler, pennsylvania where the assassination attempt took place. we met a sculpt or he built a consultant -- sculpture of that. we were in wisconsin to talk with farmers. they feel left hyped and that is

important. then st. louis every day business owners, we went,3,000 feet in an air balloon at the international balloon fiesta in new mexico. the pilot couldn't get away from politics. in arizona and nevada they are newcomer battle ground states and they are still adjusting to it. we talked to democrats a.m. republicans. we talked to a former governor in nevada who is trying to say the vote is secure. so we were all over the please. host: back to north carolina, which is typically our focus, talk about some of the similarities or trends that are the same or different across the different battleground states compared to north carolina. guest: first of all, the difference between battleground

states and non-battleground states is night and day. it is wild. for the first three days we were in the blue wall in pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. and just the intensity. every commercial break is full of political ads, nonstop. you don't see ads for anything else. their candidates are nonstop. people are just can't get away from it and it is almost like this artificial intensity in the battleground states because they can't get away from it. so they feel the divisiveness probably more than anybody else. in missouri there was a breath of fresh air and they were talking about traditional issues, putting food on the table, child care. whereas in the other states you are hearing about what you see on the tv ads, abortion, immigration and grocery price we hear as well. but the one thing i learned the

most is at the end of the day those issues were less talked about than wanting candidates that would get our country past the divisiveness and do what they say fulfilling the promises. back to the original question, north carolina is very similar to a lot of those states inundated with ads. the issues are different. michigan is trying to figure out the auto industry with electric vehicles and so on. wisconsin agricultural is big deal there in a different way we saw ads of people in overalls next to tractors but not pennsylvania so north carolina has become sort of nationalized in its politics. in a lot ways it is very similar to many of those states. you talked about the lieutenant governor run for governor mark

robinson i would say we see ads nonstop about mark robinson republican candidate for governor even if it is not the group race. we see him in ads for other candidates running for republican candidates. >> we are wrapping up or series on battle ground states with our guest tim boyum with spectrum news one. if you have a question or comment being start calling in. here are the lines. you mentioned at the beginning that you took an electric vehicle as the car of choice

that you rented to do this road trip. why did you want to use an e.v.? and what role are they playing in battleground and other states? guest: i interviewed donald trump in recent months and seen so much talk of elon musk and in our trip there was a at dropped in michigan against harris. less than 10% own look vehicles so the big knock on e.v.'s is can you take long trips so why not try it. the important part is talking to everyday americans but it is something we wanted to try to see if we could, what it is like. it is not meant to judge the industry or particular brand or say it will work or not. it was to give the viewers chance to ride along.

it was fascinating. we refpted in no, a tesla and we did fine. it took longer the charging time but the super carjacking network is expansive even into west oklahoma and texas. the cartels you where you will need to stop and charge so that took a lot of the guesswork out. we talked to enthusiasts along the way. the infrastructure is not there in some and that is what the biden administration is trying to do to push up more public stations. so in the battle ground states like michigan the ads were there. kamala harris said they won't temwa kind of car you need to. in ohio there was a plant that lost car plant and they have

e.v. battery plants. they don't know if that will replace the it economy. so you can see we made it. host: let's talk with our callers. larry in salisbury bring, north carolina for harris watches. caller: how are you doing? host: we are doing well. caller: i'm 69 years old and 2020 was the first time i ever voted in this time is the second time. you can't be a judge if you are a felon. so how can you be a president if you are a convicted felon? guest: that is with your hearing from the harris campaign as we go across the country. mccaffrey in pennsylvania we talked about, he -- that is one thing as republicans he is

pushing others to do is to vote because he can't vote for a felon. we are seeing that in ads in the battleground states. we saw it in michigan, playing out in some ads. it is playing in out in north carolina as well. that is part of the push against the trump campaign at this point. the fulfillment of all these cases are still ongoing is not going to be resolved for their presidential election, so a lot of those questions will be figured out, sorted out, after november 5. there is definitely a push that even summer republicans are taking back. host: recent polling shows battleground states are too close to call. they are not and that. when you spoke to people on this road trip, what did they say about choosing between vice president harris and former president trump? are they happy with her choices, or are they undecided, because i cannot decide between the two? what did they tell you? caller: obviously, the

supporters of donald trump, they will support him no matter what. the hard-core democrats will support harris no matter what, just so trump is not in there. there is not a dramatic amount of people who are just not sure. when i spoke to independent voters in michigan, there is a group of them. i spoke with four of them. i think there are some questions -- first of all, the common thing we hear is the lefts are too evil. that is more a sign that people are tired of the divisiveness. there is a group of people who say they will not vote trump, no matter what. there is a sliver of people, and we met at least a couple in michigan, that still felt like they needed to hear more from kamala harris. even though she is rolling out these plans, they will point to it every time someone says they have not rolled out their plans -- this is part of the challenge that she has only been in the forefront as a candidate since august. i think the closing argument, or

closing statement, she is going to make in the next week or so is probably going to be vital for some of those voters who may not want to vote for trump but aren't sure, but at least feel they know more about what trump may or may not do than kamala harris. i know it is wild for some people to hear that, because -- some people vote more on gut feeling and personality and understanding who people are than the unknown. host: richard in north carolina on the line for support trump-vance. caller: good morning for the reason why people do this is no news will report they spied on trump's campaign. no news will report the russian dossier was bought and paid for by the democrat party hillary clinton. no one will report any of these lies that they have been telling

since the beginning, all the lies. trump has not lied about nothing. he may exaggerate about the size of a crowd, but he lied about nothing. and you people will not report it. ok? guest: thank you for your call. i would disagree. i cover north carolina, largely. i do not investigate all these national claims and whatnot. but numerous news organizations have done all kinds of investigations and tallied up the misstatements that have been made over time. the same is happening from journalism organizations for the kamala harris and, before that, joe biden. part of that is we are in an era that people are watching news that reinforces their own beliefs -- this is not about the gentleman who just called. but we were seeing a lot of one-sided journalism out there. at spectrum news, we are possessed with violence and truth and we try to fight

against that. i don't think there's anything i cancer or anyone could say that will make that gentleman or people who feel that way believe that that is happening. host: going back to your point of harris supporters supporting her and trump supporters, you're not going to be able to change their minds, while you were out in arizona, you spoke with a gentleman about accepting election results. tell us about that conversation. guest: this gentleman, we were driving into flagstaff. this gentleman was on the side of the road with a trump sign. he had a helmet on, too, with an american flag. we just pulled over, and i wanted to talk to him, why he was out. i think it was 7:30 in the warning. he said he was wearing a helmet because liberals wanted to attack him, and he really felt some danger about that, because it is so divisive out. anyways, i asked him -- i didn't

even ask if it was a close race. would he accept the result if donald trump lost? he said, without even hesitating, no, he would not believe it. he would believe that, in arizona, there was fraud long before 2020, before 2016. which much of that was even investigated after 2020 and there was no found evidence of that. there is no evidence of widespread fraud anywhere. then i asked would he believe the results of the election if donald trump won, and he said yes. he said that is because the american people have overcome all the fraud out there. you know, i thought it was important to illustrate that in the story. because regardless of investigation, things that come out from agencies that prove or disprove things, there's going to be a lot of disbelief in the results of the election regardless. and i think people need to be prepared that there is probably going to be that, even if it is

5%, 6%, because they're such as belief in the system. that is why we went to nevada and met with the former governor, who is trying to convince fellow republicans that don't believe in the system. i will say there are a lot of people, democrats, there who will not believe donald trump won, if he does. but that is going to be a major story after november 5, as this country tries to figure out who the next president is going to be. host: dan in -- ben in connecticut on the line for undecided. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for the call. i am puzzled how anyone can vote for a person or a human being who claims that adolf hitler has done some good things or who aligns himself with putin, the russian dictator, or for coming

on tv and making lewd statements, such as envy of another person's genitals. this is below the lowest of humanity. how can americans vote for someone like that? guest: i am not so sure you are undecided. [laughter] it is interesting to me, because when i was in butler, pennsylvania, where the attempted assassination happened, against the former president of the united states, i met with that sculptor i mentioned. he was never really involved with politics before, did not pay a whole lot about -- of attention until donald trump came along. i asked him, butler is a small rural town, 13,000 people. when we rolled into town, it is kind of cliché, but you cannot imagine anything like that happen anywhere, let alone this quiet place about 30, 40 minutes

outside, north of pittsburgh. i asked him how can you connect with a gentleman who is a billionaire, who lives in a skyscraper, gold-plated rooms in new york city. he kind of laughed and said that is one of the strangest things. somehow, we just relate to him and feel like we could have a beer with him. i do think -- scientists will research this forever about this connection between rural north carolina -- rural america and the new voters he brought in starting in 2016 that will be necessary again here in 2024 if he wants to win. that connection they make. and i do not know we know the answer to that except that he found a way to be a voice for people who feel like they have been left behind in politics, underrepresented. they have lined up so shortly behind him that those things you mentioned, they do not believe it the same way you do. they either cast it aside

because they believe he will resent them are godless, or they just don't care. it is amazing. i do not mean that negatively to those people who support trump or negatively about donald trump, but it is one of the most fascinating things about modern political history. host: on the line for support trump-vance. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i would like to know, with a gentleman's trip to the battleground states, how people felt about trump -- our open border situation that has overwhelmed this country and has actually de-united this country?

there are going to be questions about this election. i'm 99.9% of the people i socialize with, when biden-harris took over the white house, they opened the border, people were pouring in by the hundreds of thousands. now there's probably 15 million or more. a lot of them, as we all know, unfortunately, are not good people. some of them are. some of them are coming here to seek a better life. some of them, they're monsters. but i'm afraid, and most of the

people i associate with -- we see it happening already, about illegal --i call them insurgents, because they are here illegal. whether they were thrown in over the border on a jet, paid for by biden-harris administration -- host: we will get a response from tim. guest: thanks for the question and the call. i heard three things about immigration. it did not come up extensively. the issues are more personal when you talk one-on-one with people across the country. you will hear the parroting of ads running nonstop in states, so some of the issues that gentlemen up in butler, he was clearly parroting some of the things you are listening to the news or those ads out there,

sort of the broader concerns from what you heard from that gentleman. in states even like north carolina, but pennsylvania, too, people were very concerned about the situation at the border because of fentanyl, drug overdose, and that becomes very personal. in wisconsin, there's this nuanced concern about broader immigration, because culture is such a big deal, and in my home state, it is a big deal. they need -- it gets swept up in the larger discussion of it and nothing goes anywhere when it comes to congress on this issue. in arizona, even flagstaff, which is way up in northern arizona, almost every ad we saw was related to the border issue. arizona, i think they are really inundated with that issue. it does largely paired a lot of the ads we've seen across the country. it's kind of a wide variety depending where you are across the country and whether you are speaking about it from what you

hear on the news or you are personally involved because of an overdose from someone in your family, or agriculture, immigration is a massive topic for that industry. host: james in madison, wisconsin on the line for undecided. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i would like to start off, for the folks in north carolina, there are a lot of military installations there hit i would like to remind the folks there, as in wisconsin here, that not a single one of trump's family members have ever served in the military. i think it is time for the citizens to give him a dishonorable discharge come this election. also, as far as him not being a liar, his own sister, who is a federal judge, says he is a liar. if a federal judge, who is one

of your siblings, says you are a liar, you are a liar. the other thing about election week is where's the wall he says he will pay for? the only thing they manage to get done was make sure that those tax breaks -- the ones on the super rich will carry on forever, unless the law is changed. thank you for taking my call. guest: first of all, when i was in wisconsin, i visited madison and just outside madison. beautiful city. the world dairy expo is going on there, which is that taylor swift of the dairy industry there were dozens of countries represented. it was amazing to see it up that was why the trip was so important, i think. some of the points you are making, the thing is, about whether he is a liar or some of

the issues you are talking about, with the wall, i'm not so sure people -- maybe this is the case for you, but i think people are baked in about whether think about donald trump and whether he's a liar, his promises he made and kept or didn't keep. i think that's all baked in. i'm not sure that is going to make the decision for people when they vote. but we'll see. this has been one of the stranger elections i've covered, because generally, we know where people are going to go. as dr. bitzer said earlier, it is very confusing in north carolina. we have a lot of undecided voters. we know where they will typically lean. but we have early voting. the truth is republicans have pushed republicans to early vote

this year where they did not do that as much in the past. is that just replacing votes that would have come on election day? it's really fascinating about, a, what's going to happen with turnout so far and, b, what is going to determine those folks who may or may not vote for one of these candidates? there is more unknown in the last couple weeks here than i can remember. host: someone based in north carolina, one of the battleground states, but is immersed in election news and following all the happenings, was there anything that surprise you on your trip? was there anything you were expecting to see but didn't? guest: first of all, the divisiveness -- i will put it this way, and this is how i ended the show. the america we see online is not the america we saw in person. people of all stripes were

wonderful to us. they were wonderful to their neighbors, when we were there. they were not using the same language and the same tone that we see online. i do not know if that was surprising, and i do not know that gives people heart about the future of this country from that perspective, but the one thing everyone's united on, whether -- whatever their gender, race, political affiliation, is they are tired of this, this era we're in. whether that motivates people to vote one way or the other i'm no sure. i just spent this whole last week in western north carolina, which you have heard the last couple hours, has been devastated by hurricane damage. i mean devastated. one of the most surprising at inspirational moments the entire time is we were in newland, the neighboring county -- it's hard to even describe the damage. but we were at an early voting

site. a woman pulled up in a pickup truck. the gentleman we were up went up to her and said, would you talk to the news? she said, of course i would. we were surprised she was so open to it, because what we found out was that woman, three weeks ago, or i think four weeks ago today, literally lost everything. everything. she showed us pictures and videos. and she made sure she went out and early voted that day. if that doesn't gave everybody purpose to go out and vote, regardless your support, i don't know what can. these people turning out in western north carolina -- there is still not drinkable water in asheville, which is a big city. it's a big place. that has been beyond inspirational, particularly this last week. host: throughout this interview, i've been saying you, as an you went out on this road trip you keep saying "we," because you went with someone. do you want to give that person a shout out? guest: of course.

john stamp is my photographer, and i call him my producer, because we did this together. it wasn't just him, it was an entire team at special news, from new york city to florida, and everywhere in between that helped us put on the show. but yeah, john helped me do this and help provide a new way for people to be interested in politics again that feels so disenfranchised by coverage that is just bickering talking has all the time. i'll tell you, there was some critiquing of news earlier. one of the other surprising things along the way is people thanks us -- thanked us over and over again for talking to them about the election. even 3000 feet in the air in an air balloon. we saw a different america than people are seeing online, and that does give me hope. host: paul in canton, georgia is next. good morning. caller: good morning.

hello, good morning. host: go ahead, you're on. caller: oh, ok. i voted -- this will be my 13th presidential election cycle i have voted in. my wife and i used the mail-in ballot and utilize the dropbox to place our split ticket votes thursday. i wanted tim to tell me where travel to battleground georgia, what was the political climate he found there, and how does that light up with our neighbor in north carolina? guest: i actually did not go through georgia. we only had 9, 10 days. we went up north to those three battleground states, then crossed through illinois and missouri. dr. bitzer hit a little bit on this last hour about north corunna georgia is it's been a

race to be the purple state for some time. a lot of people think, as these two states grow dramatically in population, that they will just eventuate turn blue or go blue in an election. for those listening, north carolina has only gone blue in the modern era in 2008 care before that was 1976. barack obama, in many ways, was a generational candidate. georgia has sort of turned faster because atlanta is such a behemoth of a city and has a large african-american population, which tends to trend democrat. we don't want to make it a monolith, just note demographic trends that happen there. north khanna has sort of small or big cities in charlotte, greensboro -- north carolina has sort of smaller big cities in charlotte, greensboro, raleigh, where i am. there is still a large sense of

rural north calendar that is powerful. the state legislature is full of powerful republicans from rural areas. that is the difference. what i can tell you from other times i've been in georgia, kind of in relation, is both states have become completely nationalized. when people would come to north carolina, presidential candidates in the past, they use to get first-rate, because we would ask all kinds of questions that were very specific about education or environmental policy, whereas you go to other states and it is kind of the same discussions you hear all over the national talk shows or in ads everywhere. that has changed dramatically over the last decade or so in both north carolina and georgia, where these elections are nationalized. we're a representative of the national debate about issues and policies to candidates in our two states. host: liz in new jersey on the line for supports harris-walz. good morning. caller: morning.

just a couple things. i've noticed when tv -- i'm in the philadelphia media market, even though i live in new jersey. when they interview people about the election, they always seem to find the person who has zero grasp on the electoral process and not the best civics, so it is a little disheartening. but i still think the disgust americans have for former president trump will manifest itself on election day, and we will not -- he will not regain reelection pair only one president has had interrupted terms, and i doubt they have the same -- with trump, his chaos, his

criminal convictions that still out there. i just inc. there's an undercounted pro-harris vote that will show itself. some republicans as well. guest: thank you for your call. to your first point about news coverage, that is exactly why we started front porch politics. a lot of the coverage out there focuses on the horse race, polling, and process, like you are talking about. some of that is very important for news organizations. we're still adjusting fully to photo id in north carolina. getting that information out there is clearly very vital. when you talk about how people want to vote, that's why we took a road trip like we did and we sat down with a dairy farmer in wisconsin, we went to his farm. we did not ask about photo id, we asked about his industry, and

why what these candidates could do to help their industry or what they are concerned about with their industry. we went to st. louis, we met with some small business owners about what they need to help them. the discussion becomes more about what the people need rather than the process that occurs, because i do not think we are talking about that as much. we're talking too much about the candidates. and not even necessarily but what they will do or not do. it is about the candidates and what they said in a three second clip. americans, in a lot of ways, feel left behind in the process. that is exactly why we took the trip we did. host: cheyenne in montana, on the line for supports trump-vance. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: doing well. caller: i just wanted to ask this tim fellow if he truly believes in an election -- in

election integrity all across the board, not only swing states, is it really all that -- i don't know how to say this. people stuffing ballots are dead and horrible things for the other thing i want to ask him is if he thinks the accountability to all the people breaking crimes daily, including kamala harris, not protecting our babies, killing babies. all she cares about is abortion. if the justice department, alphabetical-wise, across-the-board, if anybody is going to be held accountable once trump comes into office? trump doesn't lie. he's a kind, honest, caring person. he does things people do not know about because people doing things on honestly makes god smile. we voted for you in montana. the laws will be accountable, from clinton to the rest of them. and is our election integrity

really as honest as it can be? guest: thank you for your call. on the latter point, that just depends on where you stand, on what you believe in each candidate and what they are telling the truth about and what may or may not constitute a crime. i can't predict what donald trump is going to do. we heard what he has said. he said in the past he will not go -- it's wait and see on that front. on the election integrity front, all i can tell you is what i've seen and talk to people about. there have been countless accusations, and arizona, nevada, where we were, in the 2020 election. they were all investigated. there was no evidence of widespread fraud. what i can tell you, too, is we met that gentleman who just will

not believe it. in my home state of north carolina, the chairman of the republican national committee, he is a north carolinian. he told me he believes in the system. he is also part of the rnc who sued several times, but they believe that state has put in steps. i will warn people, because this just happened yesterday, there was an image that went out about ballot boxes that were full, just sitting out. it spread like wildfire they were not they were empty boxes. i would warn people to not dramatically see something, spread it that it is 100% the case. i believe that the election workers are doing their best, they're working hard under circumstances that election workers may have never seen in this country before. i've had republican officials tell me, too, in a lot of these

pentagon states, republican officials are questioning the integrity of it. that is a long way of saying i do not know of any large-scale evidence that it is not secure out there. that said, even election officials in north carolina that i know well, they say we want to know about it, because these workers and employees want everyone to vote and for it to be fair and secure. i think everybody has that same goal. but even when evidence is presented, there are those who will just not believe it. that's what we have to be way -- wary of, come november. host: we only have about a minute left. now you are back in north carolina with 10 days until election day, what will you be watching? guest: two things. what does it early vote look like this week? does it continue to be almost breaking records and north carolina? then, the day of vote, which we will not know until that night. donald trump has, in north county, it was close, close,

close, and he had this surge on election day that always takes republicans over the top, except the gubernatorial race. will it happen again, or have many of those people voted early and will it come down to those 10,000 votes? host: our guest, tim boyum, the host of front porch politics on spectrum news 1. you can watch the entire, just a little over 40 minutes, his piece on the 10 day road trip across america, hitting battleground states. you can find it at thank you so much for being with us this morning. guest: thank you. host: that was the last on our series focusing on the battleground states. if you missed any of the interviews, you can findt on our website, c-span.org, or you can listen to them on the campaign trail podcast available

wherever you get your podcasts. that does it for today. we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. with another show. enjoy the rest of your day. ♪ >> c-span's washington journal, our live form involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics and public policy. from washington and across the country. coming up sunday morning, w. joseph campbell discuss his concerns about pulling accuracy in the final days of campaign 2024. and then seth kaplan talks about social decline in ame