♪ judy: good evening. i am judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, the trump and biting campaigns intensify pitches to voters as early ballots are cast. then, an important shift in a dramatic departure from catholic tradition, pope francis calls for civil unions for same-sex couples. plus, separated families. lawyers remain unable to find the parents ohundreds of children taken from their families under the trump administration immigration crackdown. and, a generational divide. millennials are set to be the

largest voting group in the u.s. stark differences from their predecessors. >> in the next 10 years, given the size of the generation, we could see them being the generation at the forefront of influence in terms of political, social and economic factors. judy: all's "pbs newshour." >> funding for the "pbs newshour " has been provided by -- ♪

>> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. ♪ >> consumer cellular. johnson &ohnson. finaial services firm raymond james. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems. >> the lentils and -- the len elson foundation. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a moreust and verdant world.

and, with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. judy: the campaign for the white house is about big bucks and early ballots. a former has entered the fray as the sides strain for every advantage. yamiche alcindor reports. >> the waning days of a presidential campaign. for the candidates, no end to the work to be done. today, the focus for both sides, north carolina, where more than two million voters have already cast their ballots, nearly three times more than at the same point in 2016. in asheville, democratic vice presidential nominee kamala

harris urged voters to keep that going. >> 13 days to go and we cannot spare a minute, sisters and brothers. we cannot spare a minute. we're talking about an election that's taking place right now, where over 20 million americans have voted. yamiche: this eving, president trump also headed to the state for a large-scale rally at an airport just outside of charlotte. his opponent, however, stayed off the campaign trail. for a third straight day, former vice president joe biden has been holed up, preparing for his final debate with president trump. it's planned for tomorrow night in nashville. instead, this evening, in philadphia, his former boss, president barack obama, stumped for him at a community roundtable, and later at a drive-in rally. it was obama's first in-person appearance on behalf of biden this year, and it was aimed at upping enthusiasm among black voters. >> and if you do not vote, you are not at the table. >> donald j. trump! yamiche: president trump was also in pennsylvania last night.

he flipped the state in 2016. and during his visit to erie county, he admitted he once saw the county as a shoo-in, until the pandemic happened. pres. trump: there was no way of his coming. i did not have to. i would have called you and said, hey, erie, if you have a chance get out to vote. we had this thing won. yamiche: now, without an easy path to reelection, the trump campaign is trying to hit a number of key states in the days ahead. this evening, vice president pence traveled to cincinnati, ohio, after spending some time in portsmouth, new hampshire. >> in this election, come november 3, it's going to be a choice between trump recovery and a biden depression. yache: but the trump campaign is trailing biden when it comes to funding. new filings with the federal election commission show the democratic nominee entered the month with a stunning $177 million on hand, nearly triple the $63 million held by president trump. with just 13 days until the election, the nation's political divisions gave rise to a dangerous new development federal criminal complaint filed , a today said a man in frederick, maryland, has been arrested for threatening to kidnap and kill biden and harris

earlier this month. for the "pbs newshour," i'm yamiche alcindor. ♪ judy: stephanie: i am stephanie sy with newshour west. we will return with the latest headlines. the director of national intelligence raised new concerns about election security. john ratcliffe said intelligence discovered iran is sending intimidating emails to american voters using their registration data. >> this data can be used by foreign actors to attempt to communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos, and undermine your confidence in american democracy. stephanie: voters in four battleground states have

received threatening emails purporting to be from the far-right groups proud boys. russia is also trying to interfere using voter data it obtains. pharmaceutical giant purdue pharma pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy and paying kicked tax to doctors in the opioid epidemic. it involves painkiller oxycontin and is part of an a billion-dollar settlement. some states and congressional democrats say the settlement is not sufficient punishment. they could still face criminal liability. pope francis has become the first leader of the catholic church to endorse same-sex civil unions. in an interview for a documentary film he says homosexual couples have a right to be a family. we will take a closer look at this after the news summary. more has come out on supreme court nominee amy coney barrett 's past work. she served on the board of christian schools that barred children of same-sex parents and openly gay teachers.

this came as barrett spent the day meeting with republican senators. they vote on her nomination tomorrow. democrats now say they will but -- boycott the vote. in nigeria chaos gripped lagos after soldiers fired into a crowd overnight. it is unclear how many were killed, but it fueled a brewing crisis in africa's most populous nation. >> it was at this tollge in lagos when security forces opened fire on protesters last night. >> sit down. >> the nigerian army said soldiers were even there, but eyewitnesses claimed the opposite. though nigerian media poured scorn on that claiming dozens were killed. the governor appealed to young nigerians to observe today's curfew and countered nobody had

died it all. >> when confronted that we have not recorded any fatality, against a widespread -- [inaudible] >> president buhari has been in power for four years now. he called for calm and promised police reform. the president has agreed that abolitionist police unit accused of torture and murder, though that did notng to quell yesterday's unrest. witnesses said troublemakers had infiltrated otherwise peaceful protests in lagos and that a police station was set alight. in london this afternoon, hundreds from the u.k.'s nigerian community came out in support of meaningful reform, as

well as justice from what the u.n. secretary general has described as multiple deaths. stephanie: that was jonathan rudman of independent television news reporting. still to come on the "newshour" in a notable departure from tradition, pope francis calls for civil unions for same-sex partners. hundreds of children remain separated from their parents after the immigration crackdown. policy with china becomes a critical issue in the closing weeks of the campaign and much more. >> this is the pbs newshour west from weta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: as we reported, pope francis make -- made remarks that went further than he has

before in support of same-sex unions and legal protections. william brangham looks at the latest development and whether it signals a broader shift within the vatican. william: that is right, judy. the pope in the past has talked before about the need for the catholic church to show greater love and understanding and outreach to lgbtq communities. he's even spoken before about supporting same-sex unions. but these latest comments are being seen by many as more explicit and categorical. in this documentary, the pope said quote "what we have to create is a civil union law. that way," he said, "they are legally covered. they are children of god and have a right to a family. nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable because of it." david gibson is a scholar, former journalist and documentary filmmaker who has lo covered the vatican. he is now the director of the center on religion and culture at fordham university. david gibson, great to have you on the "newshour." as i mentioned, this is part of an evolution in the pope's comments about same-sex couples. how significant to you is what

he has said? david: this is very significant really, in terms of tone and , content. look, he's calling for an actual civil union law. he's calling for the church to welcome these people, welcome gay people in the secular sphere. and that's something that goes against the policy of the catholichurch itself. in 2003, they said catholics cannot support civil unions. again, this is different. he is not calling for gay marriage in the church. but the church has said you can't support civil unions, so he is upending that and also undercutting cultural warriors in places like the united states, who have long thought against anything resembling gay marriage. it -- it is also change in

tone. he wants the church to be open and accepting. william: the pope is being criticized by some within the church, who point out, as you are, that this clearly contradicts official church policy. so, how much does tone eventually change doctrine, or does it? david: well, he's also asserted that he's not changing docine. this has nothing to do with gay marriage or even blessing same-sex couples. this is simply a way to welcome them civilly and in the secular world. and it's putting out the welcome mat to gay people. he says they should not be made miserable, there should be no sort of discrimination against them but he is upending that , church policy that said catholics have to be ainst civil unions. william: this is also clearly more in line with american public opinion, but much less so, i guess, within the broader catholic world. i wonder how much of an impact you think this might have on nations where there is much more overt intolerance for gay communities.

david: yes, william, we see everything so often through our own lens here in the united states and our culture war lens. but this is a question of life and death in many parts of the world in the southern hemisphere, especially where the christian and the catholic church is growing. there are laws that criminalize homosexuality and homosexual actions. for the pope to come out and put the church firmly against the criminalization, essentially, of homosexuality is really a powerful statement in the rest of the world, again, that's really a matter of life and death for gay and lesbian people. william: all right, david gibson ofordham university, thank you very, very much. ♪ judy: one of the most criticized policies of the trump administration is its decision

to separate families who were illegally crossing the southern border from mexico back in 2018. a federal judge put a stop to that policy and ordered the administration to reunify families. but hundreds of families are still separated with no likelihood of her unifying anytime soon. on the nevada has the details. amna: what many don't realize, before 2018 and the flurry of coverage as thousands were separated at the border, that he had had already run a secret pilot program in 2017 separating many hundreds more. a federal judge later order the government to provide a list of those names and any documentation that had to a group working to reunite families, but the information they gave sometimes flawed or incomplete and many parents had been deported without their kids. yesterday lawyers told the court that after searching far and wide, the group cannot find the parents of 545 separated

children and the searches only more challenging during the pandemic. an attorney with the american civil liberties uniohas been leading the litigation to reunite these families and joins meow. welcome back. you and groups you are partnering with had been working to reunite thousands of children separated. the news broke more kids were separated earlier. why has it been so much more difficult to reunite those kids with their families? lee: i think of few things happens. first, when we got the injunction in court stopping family separation practice, the government told us in the court there were 2800 family separated. only later because of a watchdog report did we find out about seven months later there had been potentially thousands more separated at the beginning of the trump administration under what you would call the secret pilot program.

we had to go back to court. the government said they would not give us those names. the judge said absolutely not, you're giving the aclu those names. the government asked for two years to give us the name because they had to contact the families and reconstruct everything. we finally got all the information in october of 2019. we did not g to start in full until the fall of 2019. second problem, the separations occurred so long ago that the contact information was largely stale. while we found some families phone numbers, our partners had to look on the ground for families literally town to town in central america. that was time-consuming, dangerous and expensive. we were making some progress, but then in march of this year, covid hit and that halted the progress and we are now only starting up again with cautions looking for the families.

all those factors combined to mean some children have been separated for three years. they may have been toddlers when they were separated and have now been separated nearly half of their lives. amna: how much help are you getting from the trump administration to reunite those families? lee: we are not getting help from the trump administration. originally in court the judge said to the government, you will find these families and the government said no, we don't think it is our problem because they have already been supported. the court said, the aclu will find them and get volunteers and organizations. everybody jumped in and now it has been a collective effort on behalf of law firms and ngo's to find these children, but it has not been that trump administration. when there are families finally reunited who have gone through this horrific situation, you think that trump administration would say we will let them stay, but in fact, the trump

administration is trying to [inaudible] we hope if there is a biden administration they will help us find these families, bring them to the u.s., give them status, for what they have been through. amna: i spoke with one of e lawyers representing one of the kids trying to be reunited. he was nine wn he was separated, his nine was reported. his uncle took him in, but then was caught up in an immigration raid. how unique is that situation in the cases you are seeing? lee: that children are ending up with strangers? these children are facing unbelievable battles. not just who they are living with, but the trauma they are living with every day, having been separated from their families, especially the young ones. when i talked to families and they told me what their children are going through, it is

unbelievable, but exactly what the medical community predicted, they would feel a sense of vulnerability the rest of their lives. are people going to come take me away again in the middle of the night? that is the reality of children being shuffled from home to home and the trump administration is still trying to deport them. amna: finding these parents and other countries is time intensive, harder as you mentioned during the pandemic. are you worried the longer this goes on, the longer it takes, some of these kids may never be reunited? lee: that is the right question. i am worried, but remaining optimistic. we have said we will not stop the search until we have found every last family. i am worried, but ultimately believe -- hopefully not naively, that we will find every one of these families. we cannot stop until we have

found every one. otherwise, it would be a tragedy on top of a tragedy. amna: thank you for your time. lee: thanks for having me. ♪ judy: when president trump and joe biden face-off in their last debate tomorrow night, one thing on the agenda right beyond china. see where the candidates stand on dealing with beijing, here is nick schifrin. nick: as candidate -- pres. trump: we cannot continue to allow china t rape our country -- no administration has been tougher on china. nick: president trump has made confronting china one of his signature policies. >> they are one of the central threats of our time. nick: today's china is more

assertive, military modernized and claims both of the south china sea, flaunting international law. beijing sells technology america says helps china spy and builds influence with other countries. in hong kong after more than a year of protest, beijing ended much of the city's british era rule of law and detained more than one million chinese uighurs. chinese diplomats make no apologies and criticize their critics. >> the world criticize us as things unravel in the u.s. they better get their house in order. nick: they exposed china's all disconsolate in the u.s. and charged chese hackers and military officers. the administration charged officials in uighur detention. while the administration confronts china, president trump has personal -- president xi

jinping. pres. trump: i call him king. your president for life and therefore king. nick: and products of phase one trade deal. pres. trump: we have a great relationship with china. nick: then he called out china as the source of covid. pres. trump: i call it the plague from china. nick: he said they hurt u.s. farmers and did not work with allies. biden long reflected mainstream consensus the u.s. and china benefit from economic cooperation. mr. biden: i believed in 1979, and said so, and believe it now, that a rising china is a positive development. nick: by the end of the obama administration, he added a but. mr. biden: but, there will be areas of competition. nick: as presidential candidate he criticizes beijing, but said

china's internal problems will keep the u.s. ahead. mr. biden: they are not bad folks, but guess what? they are competition for us. nick: china has remained the top campaign foreign policy issue and both released idiot -- videos accusing the other being weak on china. now we turn to a debate over china policy. michael perils very directs the center for china strategy. christopher hill had a 30 year career as a diplomat and served for east asia and pacific affairs during the george w. bush and obama administrations. he supports joe biden. we asked the biden campaign to participate, but they declined. welcome. michael pillsbury, has president trump's policy toward china advanced u.s. interest? michael: of course it has. he focused initially on a -- on economic security.

he said he would increase american jobs, he had a long agenda for china that came out of the campaign. i think he delivered on those promises. that was the main trump strategy. he has had a pragmatic policy, a lot of success. frankly, when i see joe biden doing now isaying, me too. he wishes he had been tougher years ago. one sad thing is when vice president biden in february this year used the word thug to talk about xi jinping. this is not the way a statesman should behave and president biden if he wins the election will have to back down and apologized to xi jinping for calling him a thug, if he wants to make any progress. nick: we will get to those criticisms, but i want you to answer the first question as well. has president trump's policy toward china advanced u.s. interests? christopher: i don't think it has. they are huge problems in the

china relationship, least of which, concerns about china are shared by a vast majority of american people right now. the question is, what are you going to do about them? i see a lot of dueling press conferences, but little effort to sit down and resolve problems. in foreign affairs you have to look at where you're going with this and what we are going to do next. i don't see a strategy. this is a typical thing with the trump administration. there is a lot of noise, sound and light, and no strategy. i want to know where this is going and is this a country, china, that we should be living in enmity with? we should be careful how we proceed and keep in mind our objectives. nick: michael, you heard the ambassadors say that trump administration has no strategy. let's go through what the trump administration has done. trade, the biden campaign accuse

the administration of pursuing trade policies that have hurt farmers and not improved chinese behavior. christopher: i saw an interview senator biden gave when he was a senator. he said he would keep all the tariffs but a few agrultural tariffs. this is what i mean about me too-ism from biden. he supports the framework of the phrase -- phase one deal, praised it. he has not yet think -- he has not yet endorsed what other ranking democrats have endorsed, a $350 billion strategic plan for dealing with china over the next 10 years. the plan is similar to what the strategy of the trump administration has been. everybody likes to say someone else does not have a strategy, but what president trump does have is a 95 page detailed trade

deal that is working. the chinese are making the purchases they promised, they have cut back on intellectual theft. it is a real success. it is quite sophisticated actually. michael: this is not the first time in human history where one country as the other to make more purchases and the other has made some more purchases. certainly we have a situation where secretary of state, when he is not calling the chinese names or implying what we need is an end to the chinese communist party, he is not meeting with chinese counterparts. this is not the type of relationship we should be having with a count, a relationship characterized by a lot of competition, but cooperation. we are not seeing rhythms of cooperation happening. not seeing the u.s. and china

find any common grounds. i have no problem going after china on issues. i support a lot of this tough trade policy. my concern however is, what are we going to do with this massive country that is not going away and will not be ignored. nick: i want to switch to human rights. they sanctioned chinese businesses related to the uighur crackdown as well as the hong kong crackdown. what is wrong with that? >> it is absolutely essential for the u.s. to stand up for international human rights. where i really feel there is scope for doing more is to work with other allies. but as it turns out, we do not have other allies or a willing to work with like-minded countries. in addition to not working with

other allies, we are not reinforcing a rules-based order. we are not reinforcing international trade, international trade organization or rules out there. we are saying we are as tough as you china, and we can compel you to do what we want. we want to shape the environment in which china makes its decision. we are not going to change china anymore than china will change us, but we have tremendous scope for making a world in which china has to perform d behave in a certain way and that is where we have been derelict in cent years. nick: michael pillsbury, respond to that criticism from christopher hill. european allies feel like the trump administration has gone it alone when it comes to china. michael: i think it is not true. the president has spent time with allies and partners.

in particular, japan, organizing a quad with australians and indians. there is a lot of progress with the european union and germany with investment review. it is a criticism, the president asked for allies to do more, but works with them more himself. i agree, shaping china's behavior is important, but the president has said that himself and so have members of his administration. i think what you have is a carrot and stick approach that is working with china. nick: ambassador christopher hill and michael pillsbury, thank you. ♪ judy: for years, baby boomers, those currently aged 56 to 74, have been the dominant voting block in the u.s..

that could soon change. john yang reports on how millennials, voters in their mid-20's to late 30's, could play a big role in this year's election and beyond. john: with the voting already underway across the country, political strategists are keeping an eye on voters like these. >> allie. >> melissa. john: millennials, born between the early 1980's and mid-1990's. there are more than 72 million of them in america. this year they became the nation's largest adult generation, surpassing baby boomers. stella at the university of maryland, is an author of the politics of millennials. >> given the size of that generation, we could see them displacing baby boomers, generation x, which is a small generation in comparison, and being at the forefront of influence in terms of political,

social and economic factors. john: research shows millennials tend to be liberal and are not becoming more conservative as they get older. political scientists say it is because most of their lives they have known economic insecurity. >> not only where they hit with the great recession on the side of entering the job market, but now they are dealing with the pandemic at the time when they should have their biggest earning potential. john: deanna was in her 20's during the 2008 collapse. she enter has been found only low-paying hourly wage jobs, should see decided to go to college but had to borrow to pay for it. >> now we have this huge, massive debt and we are not any further along than we were before. john: now 38, she enter has been struggle to make ends meet. >> i am in a huge amount of debt and my husband is and now i am supposed to put two teenagers through college?

john: millennials of also sing climate change inteifying natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes. and as the most diverse generation, they are more concerned about racial injustice and lgbtq rights. she lives in chicago with her husband and two daughters. >> whenever i see my black siblings, brown siblings, queer and disabled siblings, a lot of us have a sense of existential dread. john: like many millennials she says the status quo is unacceptable. >> the system does not seem to give a heck about anybody so why would we want to perpetuate a system we never benefited from? john: the demographic shift toward millennials could be troubling for republicans. they won the white house in 2016 on the strength of votes from white baby boomers.

before the pandemic, we spoke with consultant rory cooper, who was communication director for eric cantor. >> look at the rhoric from the president. it is the platform that says to older generations, we will keep things the way they used to be. that is effective if you are running a base election and think you can turn out older voters. john: recent polls show mr. trump losing support among older voters this time around and driving away younger conservatives. 29-year-old melissa from alabama has campaigned for republicans in the past. this year she plans to vote for both democratic presidential nominee joe biden and democratic incumbent senator doug jones. >> the republican party is just far right far faster than any o us want to keep up with. john: another common denominator for millennials? they tend to be skeptical of government and political

parties. president trump's outsider image appeals to this 25 your old. >> there are politicians that have made their whole career in politics, i just don't trust them. i feel like donald trump is different because he has never been in politics. >> it is a shared experience with so many people who are my age range that have lost favor and faith in government and the ability of government remedies to help. john: a political strategist, himself a millennial, worked for senate majority leader harry reid. >> there are so many failures of government i have lived through. 9/11, katrina in 2005, the wall street collapse of 2008, the coronavirus we are living through now. those experiences created doubts in the mind of bull -- of millennials about the power of government and governing. john: how do parties and

candidates in general overcome that? >> there are a number of ways. demonstrating every time you accomplish something what you have accomplished and what it means for people. john: in the past millennials have not been reliable voters. deanna lopez is still on the fence. >> [inaudible] if we keep voting for democrats when they are not giving us something to vote for, what is going to motivate them to change? john: francisco marquez lives in brooklyn. >> there is so much talk that happens with democrats that sounds good yet very little is done to accomplish it. >> we are not waiting for justice. john: distrustful of organizations, many turn to black roots -- many turn to grassroots protests. >> when you see people take to the streets for weeks on end it

is a demonstration of, hear me, a yell forelp. what policies and those hoping to win office have to do is understand that just because those folks are showing up, yes, they are engaged in the issues, but they are not engaged in the remedies you might be presenting to these folks. they need to see more. john: there are signs millennials may be taking activism from the streets to the ballot boxes. in 2018 their turnout was double what it was last midterm elections, helping democrats recapture the house. for the pbs newshour i am john yang in washington. ♪ judy: with just under two weeks left before voting ends on election day, we turn now to the view from three battleground states. i'm joined now by jeff tiberii

of north carolina public radio, karen kasler of ohio public radio and television, and mary lahammer of twin cities pbs in minnesota. hello to all three of you. great to have you with us again. before i come to you i want to remind everybody how high the stakes are in this election. tonight, as i'm talking to you, president obama is out making his first appearance on the campaign trail on behalf of joe biden. he's at drive-in event in philadelphia. and we want to let everybody hear just a part of what he had to say, some pretty tough words about president trump, just moments ago. former president barack obama: right now, as we speak, trump won't even extend relief to the millions of families who are having trouble paying the rent or putting food on the table because of this pandemic. but he's been doing all right by himself. as it turns out this was just reported in the last 48 hours

we know that he continues to do business with china, because he's got a secret chinese bank account. how is that possible? how is that possible? a secret chinese bank accoun listen, can you imagine if i had had a secret chinese bank accoun judy: so, that's former president obama just moments ago trying to gin out gin up voters for joe bidein philadelphia in the crucial battleground state of pennsylvania. but i want to talk to the three of you about the battleground states you represent, and start with you, karen kasler, in ohio. this is a state that donald trump won by, what, eight points in 2016. tell us, first of all, what it looks like in terms of early voting, absentee voting. and does either party have an advantage? karen: well, early voting has been huge in ohio. new numbers that came out yesterday showed 1.1 million ohioans have either sent in absentee ballots or have cast

votes in person. that's 119% more than didt this point in 2016; 440,000 people have voted in-person. that's a 266% increase, which we'reeeing in cities with long lines. and, also, when you ask about absentee ballot requests, there are about 2.7 million ohioans. one in three of all of the eight million registered voters in ohio have asked foabsentee ballots. and, right now, those most of those are unaffiliated. these are people who have not voted in a primary. but democrats have been returning those in big numbers. those people who are affiliated with the democratic party are returning those in huge numbers. and that potentially sets up an interesting scenario on election day, because you have republicans saying they're going to vote in-person on election day. judy: so interesting. and to north carolina, another really truly hard-fought battleground state. jeff tiberii, this is a state trump, donald trump, won by 3.5 points or so against hillary

clinton four years ago. what does it look like there with regard to the early vote with regard to democratic energy? jeff: so, it is much tighter right now than it was we forecast that it's going to be much tighter than it was four years ago. you mentioned that donald trump did win here four years ago. and every democrat has lost here going back to jimmy carter, with the exception of president obama in 2008. he carried the state by 14,000 votes. so, historically, as we think about the last four decades or so, this has been a state that has trended to the right, trended red. but in all of the polls across the last eight, 10 weeks, joe biden has either had a small lead, within the margin of error. some of the leads have been just outside of the margin of error. so, this is seen as a key battleground. and from the republican and democratic strategists who i have spoken to throughout the year, it is more central to a donald trump reelection than it is a joe biden path to the white house, which is to say, joe biden can probably get to the white house without carrying north carolina, but trump has to

carry carolina if he's going to get another four years. as for those early voting figures, we have seen just a huge outpouring of early voting and also mail-in ballots. about one-third of registered voters have voted as of this afternoon here in north carolina. judy: seeing a big surge in early voting there. and, in minnesota, mary lahammer, this is a state donald trump lost by, what, about a point-and-a-half. but he has since said he's since determined to win it this time. but give us a sense of what the state looks like right now. mary: yes, it seems as if president trump is almost on a personal mission to win minnesota. four years ago, he dn't visit very often. he didn't have a lot of troops on the ground, didn't spend lot of money. this year, four years later, very different, a lot of folks on the ground, a lot of money beg spent. and the polls are still averaging really well ahead for joe biden at this point, but that doesn't mean donald trump hasn't come here repeatedly.

we have seen several visits. in fact, we had a visit to duluth, minnesota, a day before he was diagnosed with the coronavirus. and not long before that, we actually had trump and biden here on the very same day, the first time that's ever happened in minnesota history, to have both major presidential candidates here. and perhaps that's being reflected in our early voting numbers. we expect to surpass one million early votes. and we only have about four million voters, so that's about a fourth of the votes already in. we are a state that is very proud of leading the nation in voter turnout. we had about 75% turnout last time around. the latest projections have minnesota going perhaps 80%, 82%, 83% voter turnout, something we haven't done here in half-a-century. we also haven't voted for a republican here in minnesota since nixon. so, it's very interesting, historic times in minnesota. judy: a lot of interest in the election across the country. karen kasler, in ohio, back to you.

what about the pandemic and the role it's playing? i know ohio is one of the states that is seeing the cases number of cases climb. how much is that driving voter decision about who to vote for? wh's on the mind of voters? karen: i think covid and the economy. those are the two things. the economy is always a big factor in ohio elections. but i think this year, when you pair it with covid, then you definitely get that mix that is driving people to vote. ohio is a state that trump, experts say, has to win, but biden doesn't have to win. but it's not a state that necessarily people thought that biden was going to be competitive in because of 2016. as you mentioned, trump won by eight points. and in 2018, there were some pockets of blue activity, but not nearly at the statewide level. but then this covid crisis has hit. and so you have more than almost two-thirds of ohio restaurants say that they're probably not going to reopen after the pandemic.

that's a big deal to a lot of people. and so i think it's driving part of what's happening here. and we are seeing these huge numbers, again, democrat-affiliated voters, democratic-affiliated voters driving them. but unaffiliated voters are still the majority of voters in ohio. and there's no guarantee that, just because somebody is affiliated with a particular party, that they are going to vote for that party's candidate. so, we are lucky in ohio that our state does cast and count its absentee ballots fairly quickly on election night. we can start processing those, though the results can't come out until election night. judy: to north carolina, to jeff tiberii. what about the pandemic there? what does it look like? what is driving voters' preferences? jeff: you know, it's a really good question. and we hear different narratives. we hear competing narratives from the republicans and the democrats. and it very much has been tethered to what we're hearing from the presidential candidates and in the u.s. senate race here, which is a very important one, could signal which power which party has power in the next congress, as well as state legislative races, but really on down the line.

when it comes to the republican side of things, we're hearing a lot about law and order, and we're hearing criminal public safety and the need for a continued investment in law enforcement. and democrats here, by and large, have said that's not the real issue, that's not the issue that's going to mobize north carolina voters. and they pretty regularly have pivoted to additional funding for education here in the state, response to the pandemic, and they say, most importantly, health care. they think that that is what's really going to indicate where the unaffiliated voters break here in the coming weeks. judy: and finally, to you, mary lahammer in minnesota, how is the pandemic affecting voters? mary: an enormous issue here. we are now trending with the rest of the midwest, and cases are spiking. we are reaching record or near record dth rates here. so, definitely, the coronavirus is a large issue. and health care is always a big issue ininnesota. we are home to the world-famous largest clinic in the world in

mayo clinic, number one hospital in america. so, that's a huge employer. one of our top employers is health care across the state. hmo's started here. we have lots of health care management employers and employees in our state, so health care is always incredibly dominant. but the other issue, of course, racial justice. george floyd was killed here in minnesota, so that issue started here, racial justice. and now also law and order, rural republicans are definitely saying that's the major issue they're hearing outside the metro. judy: such an important race in every single one of these states. and we thank each one of you for joining us tonight, mary lahammer, jeff tiberii, and, of course, karen kasler in ohio. thank you, all three. we will see you soon.

♪ judy: in the american looking to grow and arts community as a new economic driver. stephanie sy reports on how aho, arizona is trying to cast off the image of an ghost town and become an arts community. stephanie: in the middle of the 10,000 miles of the sonoran desert lies a dusty town of arizona border with mexico. a central plaza built in spanish colonial revival style emerges like an oasis. a vestige of an era when aj had a successful copper mine. today it i reinventing itself through art. on an atypically cloudy monday afternoon, a visiting artist christopher was busy putting up his let -- latest work in the center of the plaza. the dove is made of reclaimed

materials and has messages of peace from students across the border >> inviting everybody in and celebrating our common humanity was really important at this time. sthanie: artist tom moved to ajo from los angeles. his work focuses on everyday items confiscated from migrants trying to cross the border. >> that is when el sueno americano began, the american dream. those items were confiscated and thrown in the trash. it is my hope that i photograph them with reverence and deep regard and respect. stephanie: like a lot of old mining towns in the west, ajo could haveallen into obscurity were it not for an investment from the arts. >> went artist and creative's come in, interesting things start to happen. stephanie: aaron cooper is the executive director of the

sonoran desert alliance which 15 years ago converted classrooms from the old curly high school in the center of town into live-work units for artists. >> it did not matter if you lived in indian village or town center, everyone went to school at the curly school. stephanie: it was a symbol worth preserving he said. >> i really like it here. stephanie: he grew up an hour away. he is one of the artists that reside at the curly school. >> it is a big adjustment from the reservation aside from a little more diverse audience out here. stephanie: the project was a spark for an economic and artistic revival. public art abounds. this is artist alley, they hope attractions like this will make ajo much more than a pit stop on the way to mexico. there are stops it is growing. annual worth at the visor

center quadrupled between 2015 and 2018. 100% of the plaza's storefronts are occupied. >> a beautiful public square, murals, make people feel they own the space. stephanie: jason, who studied how to harness arts to spur economic growth, says it pays off in the years after the recession and sees the same opportunity with the covid pandemic. >> every community we have artists, culture bearers, we need to activate those people to help us find a way forward. stephanie: besides attracting entrepreneurs, artists have become business owners. >> i started selng a friend's coffee from tucson. stephanie: she uses coppers and textiles for paintings and started her own coffee roasting business five years ago. e hopes her cafe, which recently relocated, becomes a community hub.

what do you want your business to mean to ajo? >> i think it is a meeting ground during this pandemic and has continued to grow because the community enjoys what it is doing. >> when i first came here there was no local food system to talk about. stephanie: nina has created a local farmers market and cafe utilizing aggregate -- local agriculture. they have been focusing on distributing food to those in need. >> we are working with groups in ajo, offering 200 deliveries a week. stephanie: tom has witnessed the transformation of ajo. >> there is vibrancy, determination to lift yourself up by your own bootstraps and make this work. stephanie: keeping a rural town like ajo from fading into history is not easy or cheap. its redevelopment was subsidized

by government and foundation grants, but cooper says this is part of the nation's colorful tapestry. >> if everyone moves to the urban centers and leaves the rest of america and the world out to fall into disuse and disrepair, we lose a lot of stories, opportunities for resiliency, a lot of opportunities to have connections to land and landscape. stephanie: the hope is that ajo become self-sustaining and a model for the reinvention of small, rural towns across america. for the pbs newshour, i am stephanie sy in ajo, arizona. judy: a wonderful story and that is the newshour for tonight. i am judy woodruff. thank you and stay safe. we will see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years consumer cellular has contracts to help people do more what they like.

our u.s.-based customer service team can find a plan that fits you. visit consumercellular.tv. >> when the world gets complicated a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor recommendations to your life. >> johnson & johnson. financial services firm raymond james. bnsf railway. the ford foundation, working with visionaries for social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and the contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> this is pbs newshour west from weta studios in washington and from our bureau from the walter cronkite school of journalism from arizona state university. ♪ >> you are watching pbs. lidia: buon giorno. i'm lidia bastianich,

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