. ring ring! progresso! i can't believe i'm eating bacon and rich creamy cheese before my sister's wedding well it's only 100 calories, so you'll be ready for that dress uh-huh... you don't love the dress? i love my sister... 40 flavors. 100 calories or less. this morning my question. can democrats translate an improved economy into election day wins? plus, shaming as campaign strategy? ohio's nina turner comes to nerdland. but first, all politics is local and for me, that means north carolina come on and raise up. good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. the polls close in two short days in the midterm elections.

the mid terms have been hard for us in national media. it's difficult to wrap our heads around the mid terms unless you're a steve kornacki because the fact is all politics are always local. in years like this, all elections are also local. no one could expect any one person to keep up with all the personalities and issues and commercials in 435 house races and 36 senate races and 36 governor's races, not to mention the campaigns for more than 6,000 state legislative seats and nearly 150,000 initiatives. in other words, midterm politics are complex and their diverse and just a whole lot of them. some of the stories of the mid terms are juicier than others. some are uniquely consequential on our national stage. north carolina senate race is among those stories. it's where i live and where i'm casting my vote. first, some north carolina context. the shifts in north carolina

politics over the past few years have been epic. want evidence? look at the moral monday's movement. at the height of the movement last year, thousands of people gathered every monday week after week at the state legislative building in raleigh in peaceful protest. altogether, more than 900 people were arrested including the leader reverend william barber of the north carolina naacp. it was and is an inspiring faith-based progressive movement. it's also a reaction to a political shift with the famously moderate and conservative republican state where republicans took control of its government for the first time in 100 years. in 2010, national republican groups poured money into races for the state legislature to get a majority to control redistricting for u.s. house

seats which would then put more republicans in congress. they were joined by local conservative donors, most notably multimillionaire art pope who spent more than $2 million getting 18 republicans into the statehouse. and it worked. republicans took over both houses of the north carolina general assembly. national republicans called it among their greatest successes. in a year where they took over 19 statehouses around the country. in 2012, republican pat mccory took the governor's mansion giving them a rubber stamp for bill after bill after bill. this is, if nothing else, a reminder that elections matter. the 2013 of the north carolina legislature was devastating. the republican assembly passed the worst voter suppression law in the country targeting voters who tend to vote democrat, like african-americans and young people. thousands of people could be effectively disenfranchised by these policies. the assembly also eliminated

public financing for judicial elections. as of today, the candidates for state supreme court and outside groups have spent more than $5 million on those races. the republican general assembly refused to give teachers a raise for years and has mercilessly slashed funding for public education. governor mckror i signed new abortion restrictions -- even though he said he would not sign a law restricting access to reproductive rights. they refused to expand medicaid leaving 300,000 without access to medical care. the assembly cut taxes and released corporations from government oversights allowing for example duke energy to continue dumping toxic coal ash into unlined ponds. one of which breached this year, pouring 39,000 tons of coal ash into a major river. the assembly even repealed the state racial justice act. the thought to address it

african-american men are disproportionately sentenced to death in the state. the legislature did all that in one session. this brings us back to the race for the u.s. senate for north carolina. because the man who led the state legislature when it was working to suppress the vote and repeal the original justice act and refusing to provide health care for the poor is the republican nominee for senate. he's running in a dead heat with incumbent senator kay hagan. the real clear politics polling average has taken up by two points. it's anyone's race. senator hagan is, of course, hammering tillis on his record in the statehouse. >> he's gutted education. killed an equal pay bill, made college more expensive and said no to health care for 500,000 north carolinians. folks, he is campaigning on a promise to take that destructive agenda to washington.

>> tillis' response is to run not against hagan but against president obama. >> hagan has voted with president obama 96% of the time. she's served as a rubber stamp for president obama's failed policies. if you want the same failed policies of president obama, you you would vote for kay hagan. >> this is one of the races that could determine the control of the u.s. senate, control of the senate will in turn determine the fate of major presidential nominations. including attorney general eric holder's replacement and a new leader for the justice department civil rights division, potentially a supreme court justice should there be a vacancy. this is a race that could determine all of that and is neck and neck. it's not just tillis versus hagan. it's the conservative republican agenda versus president obama. joining me now is katon dawson and assistant professor at fordham university and sam long

professor at the princeton neuroscience institute. so nice to have you here. let me start with you, sam. it is neck and neck. do you have indications based on the work you've been doing about how you expect this race to turn out? >> right. melissa, if you look over at my princeton election site, i would say the clear politics average. north carolina is one of half a dozen races. one of five races within one point right now. north carolina is one of them. i think tillis has lagged in most surveys. but in fact, the third party candidate, the pizza delivery guy has faded a bit. that could be good for tillis. i o would say currently hagan is favored but it's not certain. polls can be off in either direction. i will say if the north carolina race is won by the democrat, kay hagan, then the democrats have a 50/50 shot of retaining the senate. if she loses, the odds are very much against the democrats. >> so this, to me, as i have

been subjected to all of the campaigning that has occurred as a result of living in north carolina and seeing how close this race is, suggests to me that if it is that close, turnout and enthusiasm will be an enormous part of it. if i take all of my baggage out of it, tillis looks like a better candidate in the pure connection with the voters who he needs to turn out to vote. would you agree with that assessment? >> 100%. i think one of the things that the pundits miss is these are going to be low turnout elections. president is not on the ballot. if he was, everything would be different. completely different. >> right. as we learned in 2010. >> there's going to be a low turnout election and tillis has been speaking to the base the entire time. hagan is spending on outside stuff, two to one for a while. took up after him after he caught steam. tillis to his credit and his team's credit focused on the

base. what we learned in the last election, when millions of people didn't show up to vote in the last one was a base election. this is no -- it might be a wave of republicans but they're not waving unless you worked them. the campaigns will be very successful this cycle are going to have taken a note out of the barack obama, george bush playbook where it matters talking to the voters. that's what tillis is doing. >> part of what has been surprising for me as i've watched kay hagan, there are people talking to hagan voters but it's not hagan. part of it is -- sam is saying if the democrats win, this is at least a 50/50 sign for control in the senate. i think if hagan wins, somebody needs to write a thank you to the monday movement. it has to do with that social movement -- >> they're serving as a prox i for her. they're putting president obama on the ballot and bringing

president obama back into the conversation. she's wanted to distance herself as much as possible. we have to really respect the grassroots movements that are still investment in effect across the country, especially in the south. we know this for a fact. i agree with katon, it will be a low turnout. unfortunately call them off election years. they're nonpresidential years, nothing sexy about the race. especially for republicans, that's where the action is. >> sam, part of the real action, if we go back to 2010, does have to do with reapportionment with the fact that the statehouse by republicans was a capacity to redraw deference for the u.s. house. this is a senate race. the borders -- >> there's a few things going on here. first off, in 2010, it was a great year for republicans. so people talk about the pendulum swinging back or some kind of wave from 2008 at the senate level. the level of governors races there was a big wave for those

guys and they've made the most of it by redrawing districts in north carolina, ohio, pennsylvania and so on. in regard to voter energy, voter opinion seems to be different in states where there was that strong partisan sweeping of power. legislatures like in -- went too far. >> resisting medicaid. aggressively redistricting. those things seemed to have worked in. scott walker is struggling in michigan. -- in wisconsin. people like rick scott. luckily for kay hagan, there's somebody who represents the state of north carolina in the form of thom tillis. he is a state government. that is a different factor from many races around the country. >> i want to ask you a brain question, sam. really, 2009 is actually where i see that beginning in that wake county school board election. there was enormous outside money that comes in, they take over the wake county school board, you start seeing resegregation activities because they do away with the policy of economic

desegregation. those early teeny tiny races in a teeny tiny county ended up meaning a beginning of a process. but who in the world has time to pay attention to every race? i wonder about like our capacity, literally our capacity to pay attention to all of those races. >> sure. it's well-known our social circles can only be a few hundred people at a time. there are findings that we can remember seven things in our memory at a time. it's hard to keep track of lots of shiny objects. with 6,000 legislative races around the country, it's hard to keep in mind that the local races matter a lot. so when we're paying attention to local races, these things matter much more than i think people realize when they're watching the presidential race. >> when we come back, that's where we're going to go. races that matter a lot. races like the court when we come back. [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality

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all these conservative laws that north carolina has passed are extreme. but they're not an anomaly. the north carolina general assembly was one of 19 state legislatures that flipped o control by 2010. the republican state leadership committee, hslc. it was part of a strategy to put republicans in charge of redistricting. by doing that, get more republicans in congress. it's thanks to those who made the -- that they're still in the majority? the u.s. house even though one million more votes were cast in 2012 than for republicans. listen closely. this is why i want you to pay attention to your local entirely unsexy state and local races. the republican state leadership committee, that same group has a new goal.

to pat conservatives on to state courts. the group is publicly pushing more states to elect judges rather than appoint them. it doesn't want the states to publicly finance those elections either. they want a campaign spending free for all. in fact, that's what the north carolina legislature did in 2013. it eliminated public funding of judicial elections and this year more than $5 million have been spent in campaigns for the state supreme court. $1.4 million has been spent by outside groups, most of it from, you guessed, it. rslc. republican state leadership committee. are you guys -- do you have meetings about it katon? do you plan it in an evil genius kind of way or is this just a recognition of what structures provide spaces for republicans to open into? >> we learned if from the democrats. years ago -- >> probably true. >> years ago, especially in the south, you learn when redistricting comes and for

years and years, we had no control over it. people who were in the business and people even volunteers have always paid attention. when i became chairman of the political party, i was shocked how much the base knew about judges much more than i did as a businessman. then there's an outrage over it. that was a shocking part. that has been a part of the dna that we learned from the democratic party in the south of controlling the process. it's legal. >> right. >> has to check off on them. >> we have one jim clyburn, a democratic congressman. we learned it from them. you plan it. it's important. >> interesting part of it, you said one lesson that we can take is elections matter. but the other piece of what i've sort of been thinking through here is the help of local parties matters. part of what happened in north carolina is that the state democratic party was not in good health. i mean, they probably did

deserve it it's just that they lost in a way that led them to a set of policies that were even worse than what i think many voters were initially hoping. they were wanting to throw the rascals out. they didn't have a good alternative to the rascals from their own ideological perspective. >> i think there are a few things. one, the democrats have fallen prey to not keeping it current. they're celebrating 2008. that was a long time ago. the republicans have a triangle offense. they've got congress focusing on and statehouses and judges that they're focusing on. democrats are so excited about hillary in 2016, they're waiting for here. the republicans are slowly but surely making sure that all of their local parties are in very solid health. i think out of all -- am presidential nominee, they're pulling out people from the ford era and reagan era. >> we're pulling people from the clinton era. anybody got somebody from the 21st century. >> please. >> as democrats, we're focused

on 2016 as far as the presidency. the republicans are really focusing on 2016, 2018, to 20 for all the other races. when obama was elected in 2008, the republicans were celebrating because they took over governor races that could control the statehouse as well. >> you have to have the redistricting. one poll is that the supreme court has not laid down a clear standard for gerrymandering. it's a strategic move where somebody can go into a place where there's not an existing standard for saying you can't draw the districts that way. that is pretty strategic thinking this judicial thing seems to be more of that. >> talk to me about the judicial thinking. is there evidence that you get different outcomes from elected judges versus appointed judges? >> oh, i don't know about that.

the argument is, you want to elect judges because you need more information in the system and you want everybody held accountable. i want to play one little commercial from a judge, a judge's race in north carolina because this argument that well, you need more information so that voters can hold their judges accountable seems like a good argument until you see some of the actual ads. let's take a look. >> supreme court justice robin hudson, sided with the predators. she took the side of the convicted molesters. justice robin hudson, not tough on child molesters. >> you know, it starts feeling like, wait a minute, but we want judicial decisions to be careful and case by case and so as soon as i see something like that, you just realize oh, all this is going to be harsher sentencing is the only way to come --

>> it would be a step away from an independent judiciary. >> that's how it feels to me. >> the founding fathers initially just wanted the court system to be immune to the whims of public opinion. >> they wanted the u.s. senate and the president to be immune to it. the founding fathers were not so sure about these people, right? >> only 20 people that they were concerned about at the time. so i don't know. i think -- i'm really curious to see after this particular wave in 2014 how we'll actually as a party, especially democrats have to start to hopefully wake up and think about the judicial levels on -- >> it could work better for democrats. anything that's a statewide election can't be broken down by district. the advantages drawn in for redistricting. any state level election becomes a state level vote. which is why the tillis/hagan race is the closest we'll see the will of the voters in north carolina.

and judge elections at a state level, that would be at least a reflection of north carolina i think. up next, there is a brand new poll out this morning. we're going to let you know how candidates are faring in three key races. n group is growing. n group is growing. getting in a groove. growth is gratifying. goal is to grow. gotta get greater growth. i just talked to ups. they got expert advise, special discounts, new technologies. like smart pick ups. they'll only show up when you print a label and it's automatic. we save time and money. time? money? time and money. awesome. awesome! awesome! awesome! awesome! (all) awesome! i love logistics. you know your dentures can unlike natural teeth. try new fixodent plus truefeel. this smooth formula helps keep dentures in place. it's free of flavors and colorants for a closer feeling to natural teeth. fixodent. and forget it.

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to carry on traditions to come together, even when we're apart in stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and more, swanson® makes holiday dishes delicious! according to a new nbc marist poll released this morning, republicans do now have a clear path to a majority of in the u.s. senate. that victory could take months due to potential runoff races. you see, according to the poll, current senate minority leader mitch mcconnell leads allison grimes by nine points in kentucky. 50 to 41% among likely voters. in georgia, david perdue a republican has a four-point lead over nunn for that senate seat and there will be a runoff if neither candidate gets 50% of the vote. they have perdue still coming out on top. you might any that louisiana

offers hope for democrats with incumbent senator mary landrieu up on bill cassidy and rob ma necessary. but in a hypothetical runoff in that state, landrieu loses to cassidy by five points among likely voters. not necessarily good news for democrats. if republicans do take all three of these states with several others also in play, the march to gaining the six seats needed for control of the senate would be well under way. there's a lot of information and data to digest. for help, we bring in the expert. fred yang, a democratic pollster from hart research, the team that conducts the nbc news maris polls. nice to have you. >> good morning, melissa. >> what do you make of the new polls, especially this idea that we may be looking at multiple runoffs come tuesday night? >> i think number one, these three states, georgia, louisiana, georgia -- louisiana, kentucky are the equivalent of road games for the democratic

party. these are three states that president obama lost in 2012 and 2008. it was always going to be a hard task for democrats to hold these seats. all three candidates have done really good jobs campaigning. but it's a really tough challenge for democrats. i think the other states on the map that are more purple, the colorado, iowa, new hampshire, even north carolina, those are very much in play. if we can win a couple of those seats, we can still maintain the senate and look, i think a lot of the national polling coming out, including our poll later on today will show there's been an increase in democratic enthusiasm and interest over the last couple of days. there's one important and sort of obvious and important fact of politics. it really does come down on tuesday to turnout. there does seem to be from the national polling a little bit of wind and momentum for democrats. >> fred, i have a riddle that i don't quite understand.

i'm hoping you can help me with it. it is generally taken to be a truism of american politics that when economic indicators are up, that incumbent or at least the party of the president ought to benefit from it. we are looking here at falling gas prices so the gas prices are going down below $3 a gallon this weekend. we're looking at an unemployment rate that is pretty substantially down from 2004. and we're looking at consumer confidence, which is up, right? so if i'm looking at all of these kind of economic indicators saying things are going great and there's a democrat as president, why aren't democratic incumbent at the state level being able to benefit from that? >> well, i think the short answer and the long answer is that for a lot of american voters, they are not personally feeling the benefits of the improved economic situation.

i think politically speaking, the sixth year of a presidency is always tough regardless of which party the president belongs to and the economic situation. you know, there's this thing in politics called a six-year itch. i think people always want to change. so i think for democratic incumbent and democratic candidates, the puzzle has been, the challenge has been this six-year itch. but as you say, juxtaposed with the economic indicators looking better, i think there are other issues out there that voters are caring about or thinking about as a vote. some of them have to be with the economy, a lot are perceived as dysfunction in washington. >> let me bring you in on this. in part, i want to go back to this question of the poll that happens -- whether or not we're not actually operating as appropriate mechanisms for us understanding what the

preferences are. so if you have a three-tier and then you get to two, but then the winner of the two tifrn than it would be in the three, is that a reasonable way to understand what people want? >> runoffs are strange animals. the idea that in georgia if there's a runoff in the senate race or the governor's race, they happen on different dates from each other. the senate race won't happen until january after the new senate comes in. i also want to say that you're saying that things are looking distinctly unfavorable for the democrats. there are numbers that are not appreciated. for instance, obama's approval numbers are negative, but they're not going down. since summer, his disapproval numbers have come back three points from summer. it looks like house republicans may only gain a handful of seats. it is certainly the case that the six-year itch is in effect. but it's actually not as itchy as one would suspect based on the numbers. the georgia race will be within a percentage point. i think it's going to a runoff. this still leads me to this

question about the way that we do the will of the people in this country is through elections. then when you see artifacts of how we do the elections, right, what year or what day, the notion that if there's momentum towards or away from the president, i still am left with this big question of so how do we know that the people, however we define them, got what they wanted in the context of an election? >> i think that's the really complicated question. i'm sure we'll talk about it in a little bit when it comes to the secretary of state who sets a lot of the rules. i think sam alluded to this a few minutes ago. where sometimes when a party, especially the republican party takes it a little too far. we saw this in 2012 when people were so nervous that obama might not be re-elected. when voters feel like they're being assaulted either with voter i.d. laws or missing ballots, registration ballots or draconian laws on their franchise. we might see this mobilization that sam is talking about that will decrease this gap.

>> exactly. >> we saw that in 2012, too. there are people who came out because they really felt like there was a supremacist society working against them. >> thanks to fred yang this morning. i appreciate your work and also thank you to sam wong this morning. still to come this morning, why russian politicians are mad at apple ceo tim cook. first riddle me this. if you have been called one of america's craziest governors and one of america's worst governors and most unpopular governors, what's the key to getting re-elected? stay with us. from fashion retailers to healthcare providers, jewelers to sporting good stores, we provide financing solutions for all sorts of businesses. banking. loyalty. analytics. synchrony financial. engage with us. ring ring!... progresso! it's ok that your soup tastes like my homemade. it's our slow simmered vegetables and tender white meat chicken.

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tuesday's gubernatorial races are anything but certain. recent polls show wisconsin is a toss-up between scott walker and mary burke. charlie crist has an edge on incumbent rick scott and rick schneider is vulnerable. most polls show tom corbett on the -- >> they're trying to correct mistakes. now i go to maine, maine. the state that sends centrist, pragmatic politicians like susan collins and angus king to the u.s. senate. maine, after 15 years of either an independent or a democratic governor, in 20 10, maine picked paul lepage in january of this year, politico called paul lepage "america's craziest governor." the material for that title began mounting soon after lepage

took office when he declined an invite to the naacp to attend the martin luther king day breakfast. this was his response to criticism? >> tell them to kiss my butt. >> what were -- >> then there was paul lepage's response to the affordable care act. >> we the people have been told there is no choice. you must buy health insurance or pay the new gestapo the irs. >> okay. so insulting the naacp, america's oldest and largest civil rights organization, comparing a part of the u.s. government to nazis. governor lepage was just getting started. he tried to roll back the state's environmental laws, including among other things allowing bpa in bottles saying the worst that could happen is "some women may have little beards." on education, governor lepage advocated a proposal saying "if you want a good education, go to private schools.

if you can't afford it, tough luck. you can go to the public school." he's said that president obama can go to hell and according to reports that the president "hates white people." he later apologized for that remark and denying that he ever even made it. he tried to end same-day voter registration but was overturned. he wants to lower the legal age for children to work to 12 from 16. he has issued a record breaking 179 vetoes including five that killed bills for medicaid expansion. the citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington ranks lepage in the top tier of the worst governors in america. he is one of the most unpopular governors in the country, 43% of voters have a favorable opinion of him while 53% have a negative one and all of that is why this recent story from the portland press herald is so fascinating. republican governor paul lepage opened a lead over democratic

u.s. rep mike mi chaud in the gubernatorial campaign. according to a poll. the findings mark a significant shift showing both candidates running in a virtual dead heat. lepage leads. wondering about the other 20% in that poll? well, 4% are undecided and 16% are for the independent candidate elliott cutler. you see, elliott cutler also ran in 2010 when a split vote let lepage win with 38% of the vote and now with cutler still in the race, siphoning off some of the anti-lepage, we take it all back, we're so very sorry for what we did in 2010, paul lepage labeled by various outlets as either america's craziest governors or worst or up popular governors. take your pick. paul lepage may be re-elected governor of maine. that could happen.

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prior to the 2010 midterm elections, 27 state legislatures were controlled by democrats. 8 were split. by the close of november it 2nd, 2010, the balance shifted with 26 state legislatures run by republicans, 17 under democratic control and only five split. as much as the national media tends to focus on control of congress, it is controlled the statehouses it often has a more direct impact on people's daily lives. this tuesday one of the states to watch will be kentucky. republicans hope to flip the current democratic chamber by fw gaining five seats. just five seats. it could be led by republicans for the first time since before the great depression. among those hotly contested is an open seat. check out the nasty politics that was uncovered in that local

race. >> it's been 14 years since the kentucky state legislature has had a black woman as a member. ashley miller, a 30-year-old nurse practitioners and democrat running for state representative in louisville is trying to change that. it hasn't been easy. but then ashley is used to a challenge. >> appearing in the west end. sometimes we didn't have look at this or sometimes we didn't have food. there were times my dad would like get food from a dumpster or steal it from the local thornton's at the corner so that we could eat. >> this is where i lived probably -- well, most of my childhood. we were here, my parents were on drugs still. they were both addicted to crack cocaine, they were both in alcohol pretty heavily. i think that intoxicated state led to a lot of fighting and abuse. my grandmother actually lived

within walking distance. >> that's me. i was small then, wasn't i? >> hey miss thing. >> i really credit her and my grandfather for showing me another side of life, especially for brown people. that's all i saw around me was poverty. all i saw was drug abuse. >> ashley miller. >> she paid for college and graduate school by winning beauty pageants, including ms. kentucky 2013 and by modeling. she was a star basketball player too. these days she's working on her doctorate while seeing patients at planned parenthood. >> in nursing, we always talked about research-based practice. that's what we want evidence-based practice. is it possible that we could have evidence-based legislation? that blew my mind. i got really excited. so excited about that possibility. >> with the help of emerge kentucky, a group that trains

women to run for office, ashley decided that there was no time like the present. but her race against a tea party businessman was a quick education in how ugly politics can get. >> okay. so what are we looking at here? >> we're looking at a website. it's no longer up. but it changed my name to trashily miller. they basically highlight that there are over 3 million abortions provided at planned parenthood. not noting the ones in kentucky provide the services. they label me as a rap model because of my affiliation with my appearance on the cover of one of their mix tapes. i'm not sure why they refer to it as a gangster rap group. they couldn't be further from that. >> her republican opponent has denied involvement in the

website. moffitt did call her an inappropriate dressed model of rap artists. >> i don't think that they really expected much from my candidacy or from my campaign. i think they just said, oh, she's young, she's brown, she's never run for office before, she works for planned parenthood. you don't have to worry about her. you know, after the primary, four months after the primary, they get polling numbers that's not what they expected. so now it's like, oh, my gosh, we have to figure out a way to stop this girl. but you can't negate an entire year of work by saying one nasty thing or sending out nasty messages. >> msnbc national reporter joins me now. this wasn't just about one website. there were attacks that went beyond that. tell me about the rebel calls. >> there were reports that they received calls saying are you planning to vote for ashley

miller, they ask would you still vote for her if you knew she was involved with planned parenthood which kills babies. did you know in a former version of her modeling website she would go to men's houses and model lingerie, strongly implying she's a sex worker. phil moffitt has denied involvement in the robo calls. i think it's clear what they were trying to get across. >> so i guess part of -- as i look at her and i know that she was in part recruited by an organization that recruits women to run. if there are -- if this is the sort of thing that makes it difficult to recruit, particularly women, although to recruit any kind much new folks to run for office. >> she has gotten a lot of support both from this group that wants to get women in office and from the democratic party which, as you mentioned, really needs her seat, was previously hld by a republican but kind of a swing district. i think obviously there needs to

be a lot of support. if younger people in particular who may not have as buttoned up of a life history. all of us are taking selfies and going to parties. if only people have remotely embarrassing photos of themselves are going to run, it's going to be a thin pool. >> young people in the '60s and '70 s is routine for candidates to have. the realities of self-is will be routine in ten years. but these kinds much candidates, someone like miller who has a strong kind of connection to community, might nonetheless have difficulties in a moment like this with these kinds of narratives. but then i wonder, going back into what we talked about yesterday and even some today christina's point earlier, if her opponents are seen as attacking her not on her perspective, her policies, her achievements, but instead on her person, isn't that precisely the kind of thing that could

backfire saying he can't say that. >> that could backfire and will backfire. when you have a male against a female, especially in the south, there's some lines you can't cross. if you do, you will be punished. you will be punished by the female vote. even a female republican will only take so much of attacking a woman. i see these campaigns, i will guarantee the kentucky republican party is cued in on this one, not because of her, but because of the balance of power. so then you've got the bigger race out there running, you've got the senate race out there running where you've got the finest political machine in the country, mitch mcconnell, good at what he does. her fate will be tied into more than just local politics. but if you cross that line, the robo calls don't move unless it gets nationalized that they've done that. when you get caught lying, you can do it on a man, you get caught lying on a woman in the

south, a female voter in the south now is the larger percentage of voters in republican primaries, larger voters. they will punish you en masse. i think it's going to be a tight race. i think that the fundamentals are probably in her favor. >> real quick, a sense of whether or not, when you talk to young women of color, if it's nervousness about these kind of attacks that keep them from stepping up, raising their hands? >> these are women, groups like higher heights are having conversations about. we know for a fact you'll be labeled as a loose woman if you're not married, right? if you had kids, did you have them too young, too old? are they too young right now? >> are you took educated. are you elitist. these are the dog whistles as your report said that discourage people from running. i think the real important thing to realize an remember is that not just female voters but

african-american voters are savvy voters. they will punish people who sort of take not only their vote for granted but their intelligence as well. >> and their integrity. my panel will be back in the next hour. i want to thank msnbc's john groet, the producer that aranda worked with on her report. nina turner is back in nerdland. more nerdland at the top of the hour. they're coming. what do i do? you need to catch the 4:10 huh? the equipment tracking system will get you to the loading dock. ♪ there should be a truck leaving now. i got it. now jump off the bridge. what? in 3...2...1... are you kidding me? go. right on time. right now, over 20,000 trains are running reliably. we call that predictable. thrillingly predictable. alriwe need to do somethinguble widifferent. ranch.

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could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement? i don't think so. well if you start putting that towards your retirement every week and let it grow over time, for twenty to thirty years, that retirement challenge might not seem so big after all. ♪ welcome back. i'm melissa harris-perry. with election day just two days away, more than 15 million voters have already cast ballots in the 33 states and the district of columbia where early voting is allowed. but many of those millions have also found themselves voting according to new rules in states where changes to voting laws restricted the opportunities available to vote in advance of election day. and in few states have those new rules had more of a profound

impact than in ohio. republican-backed cuts to early voting in the state first passed in february have spent the year winding their way through courts. in late september, the u.s. supreme court issued a ruling upholding the law, then during the first week of october, a final appeals court ruling settled the issue at least for this election year. the court's ruling allowed ohio's new restrictions on early voting to be in effect for the state's voters first went to the polls on october 7th. which means in the current election, ohioans have had a week shaved off of the early voting period. it also means the elimination during the early voting window of all but one single sunday to vote. and that day is today. the cutback in early voting has been especially acute for african-americans who have traditionally used sundays for souls to the polls drive to get congregates out to vote after church. in 2008, they took full

advantage of early voting casting nearly twice the ballot of white ohioans. that gap between african-americans and white early voters grew wider in 2012. today ohio religious leaders will be making the most of their one single sunday by urging and assisting congregations to get out and vote. national republican consult tan katon dawson, christina greer and msnbc national reporter erin kra moan. somebody that's not only a vocal opponent to voting cuts and also someone's name near the top of ohio's ballot. state senator and democratic candidate for ohio secretary of state, anyonina turner. we did invite john houston to be on the show and he declined. can you tell me what you're seeing and hearing today on the only sunday of early voting. what seems to matter most getting voters out?

>> good to be with you, professor. souls to the polls is very important in the state of ohio as you noted the stats in terms of the african-american vote. about 56% using my county, cuyahoga county, in 2008, 56% of african-americans in our county utilized that opportunity, although they only make up about 28% of the population. souls to the polls is a big communal effort across the state. we would not have this sunday but for judge peter that mandated again through the courts mandated that the republicans give the voters of this great state back those three days. thank god for judge peter economist. a lot of souls will be going to the polls across the state of ohio and they will be able to vote from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. today. >> nina, i want to talk to you about your own race. your own race and your own race seem to have gotten connected this week. let me play a little bit of

these two versions of a john houston attack ad and then ask you a bit about this. >> sure. >> worst of all, nina turner voted against a ban of our kids texting and driving. worst of all, nina turner voted against a ban of our kids texting and driving. >> if you're in another room and you heard the same ad twice. if you're looking at our television set what you saw was the same language and you but first in front of a group of primarily white state legislatures and the then time in front of black students. you've had something to say about this, this week. >> i did, professor. it is the dog whistle it what you were talking about the earlier segment. there are subliminal messages that the republicans understand if they use against candidates of color, particularly african-american candidates and you overlay my gender, they're trying to tap into stereotypes that people respond to.

they know exactly what they're doing. it is racism, it is sexism. the previous guest is enduring. a lot of women of color, african-american and also african-american males, i mean, in 2010 when my colleague representative boyce was running, his opponent used, called him a muslim. he didn't do that by accident. it shouldn't matter. representative boyce is a ris t christian, but this is about religious freedom in the nation. his opponent used that against him strategically to amp up april certain group of people to paint him as the other. all americans should be concerned when stereotypes are used to paint somebody as the other to stoke those fears. it is wrong. it was wrong when it happened in this country decades and decade ago and it is especially wrong now. because we are a nation of progress. professor, i have been the type of public servant where i stand up for all people regardless of

their social economic status, their swren der, sexual orientation, their ethnicity that we the people deserve to have elected officials running for office that will lift people and not take them down. but see, my opponent is a discouraged candidate running for office and he will do anything to try to win this office. >> you want to tell us why you voted against the ban on texting and driving? >> professor, at the time i was in that committee and i had some concerns about racial profiling. oh, my, imagine that. we debated that issue and it was not corrected. i do not agree that anybody should be texting while driving. but in that particular billy thought we had an opportunity to do something to make sure that we decrease racial profiling through that bill. because that bill did not accomplish that, among other things, i voted against the bill. >> hold on for one second. christina, i want to come to you for a second. we're looking at ohio, a place

where we've seen massive packages, not unlike the ones we saw coming out of north carolina. part of what i wonder is, how long is it going to take us to know whether or not voter suppression is actually suppressive? in other words, as you said in 2012, there was a lot of shenanigans, for the most part, the courts turned aback. will we know at the end of tuesday night or will we not know until the end of 2016? at what point can say we we have evidence that the tactics are suppressive? >> we need to continue to have social scientists such as yourself and the institute continue to study these issues. the thing about it is that people continue to try to push to exercise that right to vote. they'll continue to try to jump over those hurdles. but just because somebody has jumped over the hurdle doesn't mean that the hurdle has not been made higher. that is the thing that we have to look at. in ohio, the voters of this state have less voting

opportunities than they did and the republican party in ohio and all across this country has strategically used tactics that have a disproportionately negative impact on communities of color, on poor voters, on homeless voters. this is by design, professor. nobody should want to go back to those days where only certain groups of people could vote. our democracy is stronger the more people who vote. so just because you don't see water hoses or barking dogs does not mean that the impact of cutting golden week, the impact of shaving off hours here and days there, those shavings have a global impact on working classmen and women. those shavings have a i am act on african-american voters, latino voters, homeless voters. at what point do we say as a nation that this democracy is stronger the more people who vote and that we are a country

of progress and not regression and stop elected officials that run for office from stopping people from voting. it is un-american. >> thank you to nina turner in cleveland, ohio on the one and only souls to the polls sunday. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, professor. >> when we come back, we'll talk about more of those shenanigans and what difference they're making. for most people, earning cash back ends here, at the purchase. but there's a new card in town. introducing the citi® double cash card. it lets you earn cash back when you buy and again as you pay. that's cash back twice. it's cash back with a side of cash back. the citi double cash card. the only card that lets you earn cash back twice on every purchase with 1% when you buy and 1% as you pay . with two ways to earn, it makes a lot of other cards seem one-sided. ur slow simmered veing!... progresso! it's ok that your soup tastes like my homemade.

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as voters in kentucky prepare to go to the polls on election day, they're finding their candidates for the u.s. senate on not only opposite sides of the ballot but also opposites sides of a lawsuit. at issue is a mailer with a disclosure showing it was paid for by the state republican party. it was sent to voters. it bears this ominous title.

election violation notice. the fine print warns about "possible fraud being perpetuated on citizens across kentucky" with an admonition that you are at risk of acting on fraudulent information. the mailer goes on to allege that fraudulent information comes from democratic candidate allison lunder gren grimes. on friday, her campaign fought back citing illegal voter intimidation tactics. the lawsuits keep on flying. east in georgia whose most closely watched races are a neck and neck -- and a u.s. senate race. they could be decisive in determining fate of the democratic majority. the dispute is over more than 40,000 voter registrations. many of them from young people and people of color that were submitted by the new georgia project, a voter registration organization whose lawsuit claims all of those newly registered voters were nowhere to be found on the rolls.

georgia secretary of state kemp denied the allegations calling the claims absolutely false. on tuesday, he scored a victory when a state judge declined to act in the dispute saying the plaintiffs failed to prove the state violated the law. joining me from atlanta is msnbc political correspondent kasie hunt who has been following everything on the ground. what is turnout like and what is polling telling us right now about early voting in georgia? >> reporter: sure. hey melissa. you're right in that minority voters are really the whole ball game here for democrats. the state as a whole is the place where they can prove that they can expand the electorate. the state is changing demographically much the way the country is. it's becoming more urban. more african-american voters and more hispanic voters. at this point, early voter turnout is a little over 33%. if it were to stay there, michelle nunn could potentially win the race outright with 50%

of the vote. both sides acknowledge that's not likely to be the case. that turnout is going to come down from there. we just did a poll, nbc news, that came out this morning that shows that david perdue is leading michelle nunn. that assumes that about 29% of the electorate is going to be african-american. the question for democrats is whether they can drive that number up. they feel good about it. but both sides are preparing for a runoff. that will happen if neither candidate gets 50%. >> thank you to kasie hunt in atlanta, georgia. stay warm out there. katon, so what people are getting mailers that say voter fraud and you might -- i mean, that is an intimidation tactic, isn't it? >> we call it a negative campaign alert. you put it out. it's politics. i can't tell you whether that -- i read it, i looked at it. it will work. >> it will work to do what? >> this is interesting to me. it will work to convince people that grimes is saying things

that are untrue and therefore change or it will work to scare people away from the polls? >> i don't know the universe it was mailed after, but i suspect a lot of that was a republican soft loader. that's what i suspect to get out the vote to. it is you need to go vote. negative stuff going on. >> so what if, and i don't know the universe. the mailers are minority targeted. >> i suspect, i know the universe -- >> if it goes to soft gom voters, what if you found out it was going to primarily democratic households. that would suggest that it's a different goal behind it, right? >> when i saw it, i said that's heading to the republican soft voter saying, look, this thing is wrong. we need you now. >> currently in the state of new york, we have a voter going out from the -- mailer from the democratic party saying that you need to vote. we can't tell you who to vote for. but we will find out if you don't vote and if you don't

vote, we're going to ask you why not. >> the democrats? >> the democrats are doing that. this is also in their defense trying to drum up as they've explained it, trying to drum up more people to go to the polls. we're seeing this not just in highly contested states but seeing this when a governor wants to get re-elected and possibly think about 2016. >> it's a particular context operating in kentucky. yes we do not noah part from those in kentucky who received it, who is getting those. kentucky has an extremely amount of felon disenfranchisement. i believe it's one in four kentucky black voters cannot vote due you to the laws being extremely strict. it's triple the national rate. if an african-american receives this and it's in the known universe of the world, the people can lose their voting rights. it is possible. it's not an unheard of thing. i can see that creating a misleading impression and intimidating people because they may not know if they have the

right to vote. >> so part of the challenge, i think, on the question of whether or not tactics like this are suppressive, goes in part to what i was talking about before. in atlanta, in georgia, the atlanta journal and constitution is saying that the african-american share of early ballots is up 13% over 2010, right? you see this increase over the last midterm. although certainly not at the rate of the 2008 or 2012. the times picayune is saying that early voting is you been substantially up over 2010. although certainly again not where it was in the presidential election years of '08 and 2012. on the one hand, we have what feel like efforts to be suppressive, but then we have what appear to be behaviors that are doing exactly the opposite. that are responding by showing up in higher numbers. what are we to do with information like that? >> i think a lot of strategists are of two mind. on the one hand we know that the work of the georgia project, the

work of organizations like project south in georgia and atlanta specifically in moving outward, actually really are mobilizing people. they're feeling the weight of forces especially the secretary of state working against them. that will motivate them to come out. that's on the positive side. on the negative side, we do know that some people feel so disenfranchised and beaten down because it feels like the entire state is trying to make sure they don't participate in any way, shape or form. hopefully, the latter is not true. but i do think that we can't discount the number of grassroots organizations that are in georgia that are saying, if they're going to throw out 40,000 ballots, we need to make sure that we get 80,000 to make sure it's not a conversation. we saw that in 2012. >> katon, i wonder, when i hear you say that looks like good politics. i wonder is it all fair in love and war in the mid terms? one thing can be sitting here in a television studio and talking about democracy and what is good

and bad for voters. but there are actually people who professionally get paid to get other people elected and their job is to do what you have to do within the constraints of law, ethics be damned right. the whole question of democracy is for academics and pundits. you have to get your people elected. >> you do. what you're looking at right now is a midterm election. we've talked about the importance of the african-american vote. every democrat has their hat hung on it. you've got the president who has been elected twice. i lived it in 2006 with george bush. the six-year itch is right. the president is the key to moving the african-american vote. they got his back. but he's not on the ballot. there's a dicey mix here. when you're in the room with guys like me to get people elected to office and we like to win. but there's some more ethical and more integrity, but you got to do what it takes when you're rpg a candidate. you need to stay within the laws. obviously, we had a supreme court that checked off in ohio,

an appellate court, a judge that check off. i don't know who spent all the money, but when it comes to fish or cut bait time, my side, your side, we were paying attention when a barack obama beat our brains out twice. we were paying attention in north carolina last section about how to move the vote. you're watching us now as republicans doing our job quietly, doing what we need to do to elect our people. >> thank you to katon dawson and erin. we can't let katon go without offering him a bit of congratulations on the birth of his new granddaughter. sidney. hey sidney. >> there we go. >> katon, we're thrilled for you and your family. i hope that's the last gift you get. not a win on tuesday. a nice grand baby there. how apple's ceo had everyone talking with so much as a new product. tlive your money?

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southern states enshrined in their constitutions optical toss equality that remain in place to this day, ten years later. mississippi became one of 11 states to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. 86% of mississippi voters supported amendment 1 which declared that marriage may take place and may be valid under the laws of this state only between a man and a woman. now, historically mississippi has polled the lowest in -- two same sex couples filed the first federal challenge to mississippi' ban on gay marriage. but the scenario may not be so hopeful in alabama. on this same day back in 2004, voters rejected an amendment to erase language from the state constitution that harkened back to alabama's explicitly racist past. amendment 2 sought the removal

of language that said alabama did not guarantee a right to public education. and the removal of the section of the alabama constitution that reads "separate schools shall be provided for white and colored children and no child of either race shall be permitted to attend a school of the other race." leaving opponents of the amendment insist tent they had no problem with removing the passage about separate schools. the real problem was guaranteeing the right to a public education. because that could open the door for new taxes. no matter the reason, amendment 2 went down in defeat and the state where governor george wallace stood in the schoolhouse door to stop black students from enrolling at a university of alabama where wallace once famously declared, segregation, now, segregation forever, made sure at least on paper that his words rang true. to this day, alabama's

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apple's ceo, tim cook, is gay. in an essay he penned for bloomberg business week, cook writes, for years i've been open with many people about my sexual orientation, plenty of colleagues at apple know i'm gay. it doesn't seem to make a difference how they treat me. while i have never denied my sexuality, i haven't publicly acknowledged it either until now. i'm proud to be gay and i consider being gay among the greatest gifts god has given me. his sexuality has been a topic of speculation for quite some time. he was named the most influential gay person in the world in the annual power list

not once, not twice but three times. the announcement gives cook the distinction of being the only openly gay ceo of a corporation. former president bill clinton tweeted from one son of the south and sports fanatic to another, my hat is off to you. mark zuckerberg said congratulations from facebook. thank you, tim, for showing what it means to be a real courageous and authentic leader. but of course, you can't please everyone. there are those who prefer he keep quiet and they let everyone know about it. brian fisher from the american family association tweeted apple's ceo comes out as gay. what it means, most protected celebrated person, you can be in today's america is a homosexual. another one, russian lawmaker and known for anti-gay laws also chimed in. he wants to ban cook from

entering the country. he is quoted as saying, what could he bring us, the ebola virus, aids, gonorrhea? ban him for life. joining me now to discuss cook's big announcement are author and duke university professor dore i clark. she's written about cook's coming out for the harvard business review. also on the panel is fordham university professor christina greer and co-founder of you belong and co-managing editor of the feminist wire, darnell moore. darnell, i want to start with you. on the one hand, yea, tim cook is gay. right? but on the other hand, like when he says oh, no one treats me any differently, i'm thinking you're the ceo of apple. you know, like where you're structurally positioned is so different than the vast approximate majority of people, gay or not. >> sure. i think it's important to acknowledge how courageous it might have been for him to this. >> legitimately, yea.

yes. >> cook is of a particular demographic. he's a white gender conforming gay male. >> who runs apple. >> who is wealthy. >> more than wealthy. >> yeah. so like here is a demographic that is most likely to be employed, most likely to lead economically viable lives, most likely to be alive. not killed like transgender women are. what happens when we focus on a singular narrative like this. it obscures the realities of so many folk, the poor, the lgbt poor, young people, women, transgender individuals. so in so many ways it's harmful to uplift this singular narrative without recognizing that so many folk outside of that demographic are impacted in different ways. >> sure. door i, this was my push/pull. on the one hand, i think there is something legitimately valuable because it can get a whole conversation started in ways that only because he is the

apple ceo, because he controls that space, he can then get us talking. on the other hand, there are 29 states in this country where it is at least presumably possible, although not always acted on. at least possible, legal to fire someone who did what tim cook did, which was to come out at work. how do we reconcile that? >> well, it is a huge irony, melissa. we have more states where gay marriage is allowed than states where it's safe to be out at work. you literally have places where you can go and tell your co-workers you've gotten married and they say congratulations you're fired. >> tim cook is clearly in a privileged position. he runs apple with a long-standing history of being a progressi progressive, pro-equality company. it is a significant move, nonetheless, of course, because he's the first -- heretofore only out fortune 500 ceo. it starts the dialog in quarters of power where it really is not being talked about. >> christina, i always feel like

a challenge when i talk often with african-american groups about the need tore allied coalitional work is some anxiety about the deployment of civil rights discourse in the context of talking about civil rights. now, it's misplaced anxiety often. but it is one that exists. we saw tim cook in this letter say, to use the language of martin luther king and to say in a beautifully written sentence but one that's what you have to do is help other people. he said the urgent question, what are you doing for others? i often challenge myself. my desire for personal privacy has been holding me back from doing something more important and he led me to today. and yet, so i feel that on one hand he's trying to make that connection but i know that's going to push back from african-americans like man, your blues ain't like mine.

>> as someone considers yourself an ally and invoking martin luther king when necessary or convenient, then there are many ways to be an ally. i think everyone is good for something. so if you want to evoke martin luther king, if you recognize that your privileged space allows you to come out, which is huge, right, then donate to organizations like fierce. donate to organizations like color of change. donate to organizations across the country that are helping as darnell says, lgbt youth of color. poor lgbtq individuals across the country. you have the resources. >> i don't actually know what his donations look like. i simply don't know. but he didn't -- he didn't highlight in that moment, right, that these are -- >> but moving forward, right? and so you can do it privately or you can say, if you really want to start a larger discourse, say i am committed to making sure that youth, maybe he's from a great family, maybe not, to make sure you have the

best young life as a guy lesbian, transgender person. >> the excitement of bill clinton. sort of the rich irony of don't ask don't tell, president being hats off. i'm like excuse me. public policy. so part of what i want to do here is it's not just tim cook making a set of choices but how the response is to tim cook tell us about year bodies are appropriate. in terms of workplace, for brick and steel. -- in the business world. as pointed out, 1% of the fortune 500 are black, a percentage are women. if we're not looking at it alongside gender and racial supremacy within institutional ways, we're not going with the

forward -- that are the most morning nallized. what happens is, we center, those closest to the power like the tim cook, obscure the fact that so many other bodies are put to the edges of the margin. that's what policy needs to go. this doesn't allow us to get there. >> it could potentially. the closet is not a privilege. simply is not. to frame it as such is troubling. on the other hand, your point about people of color and women, there is a moment when you come out as black, you don't come out as black. there are moments when you come out at work. he gets to a level and reveal identity. although the closet is not a privilege, it may provide a masking opportunity that allows his other privileges of whiteness and maleness to operate and tell you -- until he's in a place and say now this. >> i think that's true. one of the things that the research actually points to is

the fact that being closeted or what's known as covering, which is basically downplaying aspects much your identity, so if you're a gay person, that would mean maybe you're sort of out but not bringing your partner to work. there's great research done by deloitte university and the center for inclusion. it shows that actually what happens when people are covering and the center for talent innovation studies backs this up as well. you are less effective at work. it particulars a psychological toll on you. now i think that tim cook is in a position to be a better ceo because he can concentrate on doing his job and not managing his identity. >> i love that. maybe he can fix the quirks in the iphone. >> that's right. >> come out of the closet, fix my iphone. thank you to all of you. i appreciate you all being here. you can also read darnell's new kl column on cook's coming out.

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if you have not cast your vote, you have two more days. two more days to gather information. weighing the relevant facts to make informed decisions. to make the decisions, we as voters depend on candidates to explain their positions and choices. but in this midterm election, there's one candidate trying to hide information and trying to distract with irrelevant bits of information. and that less than forthcoming incumbent is getting my letter this week. dear ohio governor john kasich, it's me, melissa. i couldn't help but notice last month when the negotiations for a public debate between you and challenger ed fitzgerald fell apart. marking the first time in nearly three decades that ohio voters did not get a chance to hear a debate between the candidates for the state's highest office.

your campaign spokeswoman said you would be seeking other additional avenues to discuss your accomplishments and answer whatever direct tough questions people may have. well, you were asked one of those direct tough questions last week. in an endorsement interview with the cleveland plain dealer by your opponent mr. fitzgerald. >> why was it important to have a piece of legislation that literally imposed a gag rule on rape crisis counselors? >> okay. governor, there's your direct question. what's you got? >> would you like to answer that fwof? >> do you have a question? >> just to be clear, governor, that was you not answering. but ignoring the question. of someone sitting next to you. actually pretending the question did not happen. it's not a trivial question either. it's one i believe many ohio voters would like to hear your answer to. that legislation, mr. fitzgerald

referenced is the budget bill you signed into law last june, a budget bill that included some of the country's most stringent and regressive restrictions on women's ability to exercise their pro productive rights and some of the worse of the restrictions are about information. like the new provision that says funding for services for pregnant women can only go to an entity that is not involved in or associated with abortion activities, including providing abortion counseling or referrals to abortion clinics, performing abortion-related medical procedures or engaging in pro-abortion advertising. that provision is likely to strip public funding from planned parenthood in the state. even though no public funds are ever used for abortion, this law means that there may soon be no public funding for critical services like cancer screenings either. just because planned parenthood provides information about

abortion. it also means that rape crisis centers are legally barred from providing women with information about abortion or they also are liable to lose all state funding. that's just the beginning, isn't it, governor? the bill also has a provision requiring a doctor search for the presence of a fetal heartbeat and then "inform the pregnant woman in writing that the unborn human individual the pregnant woman is carrying has a fetal heartbeat." and inform the pregnant woman of the statistical probability of bringing the unborn human individual possessing a detectible fetal heartbeat to term. governor, you signed into law provisions that restrict the information women need to make decisions while requiring that they receive medically unnecessary information after they have already made a decision. for all your meddling in the kind of information that women can get or must get, you don't

seem to think your constituents need any information from you about why you made the choice to support that bill. before the bill came to your desk last year, you responded to a question about the provision saying "i'll examine the language, keeping in mind that i'm pro-life." after you signed the bill, you made no mention of those provisions and didn't take questions from reporters. then last week you were asked in person to justify your signature on that bill to explain why it's good public policy to deny women information about their reproductive choices and you didn't. >> i think everybody here knows that i'm pro-life. what we focus on and i've always focused on is the ishe you of life, prenatal, postnatal, early childhood, sleep for babies, trying to drive down infant mortality. let's focus on the life issue. at the end of the day, i'll do what i think is a pro life,

looking -- being in the position of being pro-life. >> well, governor, that's not an answer and that's not acceptable. perhaps you should spend less time worrying about the medical information, the people of ohio receive from their doctors and more time focused on providing them the political information they need to make an informed decision about your bid for reelection. sincerely, melissa. so guys -- it's just you and your honey. the setting is perfect. you know what? plenty of guys have this issue, not just getting an erection, but keeping it. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. and you only take it when you need it. good to know, right? if ed is stopping what you started... ask you doctor about viagra. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex.

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i admit it. i try to indoctrinate my students. i do try to convince them that civic participation is critically important. i've been reminding them during the election that it is important to vote. and yet voting the brushing your teeth of democracy. i appreciate you do it, but i'm not impressed. if you want to make a change, you might have to roll up your sleeves and get involved in

local activism. you might have to pressure the powers that be to implement the will of the people through collective action and community organizing. and maybe you should think about running for office. that's the lesson one stanford graduate learned when he returned to his home city ofstockton, california. a city plagued by poverty and violent crime. >> my name's michael tubbs. i'm running for city council. >> we basically already exhausted all of the likely voters. this election will be won or lost if we turn people out who don't vote. >> have you voted? >> another voter needs a ride. >> where? >> 227. >> the polls are only open for two more hours. >> his grass roots campaign are the subject of a new documentary, true son which premiered at the film festival this year, and currently playing in select new york and l.a. theaters. and he joins me now.

all right. why run? >> that's an excellent question. actually, in 2010, my cousin was murdered on halloween in stockton and 1 of 55 homicides that year. and i got done working at google, at the white house as an intern. and felt a sense of survivors guilt. and i had a very good trajectory going for me. but people back home i knew about were dieing literally. so i thought one day i will run for office. and then my senior year, problems intensified. going through bankruptcy, back to back years of record homicides, and then in the moment of inspiration, our craziness or a mixture of both, i decided, what's the worst that could happen? we could start the narrative and conversation as to what do you want our community to look like in 10 years, 20 years from now. >> what's the worst that could happen? something not so fun did, in fact, happen. and you were pulled over for a dui. so talk to me about how in that moment having made that decision to become a public person, to hold the public trust.

how do you account for and manage that? >> again, that was a horrible mistake. most embarrassing thing ever. and i've apologized profusely several times. i think over the past week, it's been a great lesson. just being really transparent, especially with the young people i work with. the importance of making the right choices 100% of the time. one mistake. it could undermine and get rid of all of the stuff. all the good you've done. it's been tough for myself and my family. i think i'm growing as a leader from it. >> let me play. you're talking about this idea of sort of the decisions and how tough the circumstances are and therefore the decisions people have to make within them. let's take another piece of the documentary and take a look. >> there's been 23 homicides in stockton this year so far. >> people are dying in broad daylight. people are being shot in parks. >> stockton is being ranked as the worst city in the united states of america. >> i watched on the news and i really thought it was a joke and it wasn't. when they came and foreclosed on

city hall. >> okay. so you're facing those kinds of challenges. you're 22, you're still making -- you were at the time, 22 years old, still making mistakes of your own. what do you see as the role you can play in addressing those kinds of questions. >> i think part of it, age is actually a blessing, the average age is 26 years old. 92% of all the homicides in the past 28 years in the city have been young men of color, young men that look like me, young men i went to school with or played basketball with. i feel blessed i went to stanford, but to bridge that with lived experience, coming from poverty, representing the rough neighborhoods and bringing those things to the table. we've done a lot of work and police chief and i worked together establishing. we have our boys and men of color alliance. getting the community focused on how to reach the full potential. a huge amount of work. we started the coalition.

the nonprofits and players and leaders around the common goal. i think i don't know everything for sure. and i have a lot to learn, but i do think being in city council is giving me an opportunity to use what i've been blessed with and energizing my community. >> well, i appreciate you offering the model that, again, voting is fantastic. but sometimes you've got to go ahead and make the decision to run for office. and, look, you ran and you actually won. thank you stockton, california, city councilman mr. tubbs. and that is our show today. thank you at home for watching. i'll see you next saturday. hi, alex. >> that was an impressive interview. i liked that. everyone, we have the final push, as you know it. new poll numbers may tell us where the election is headed on tuesday. we're going to show them to you, plus get reports from three critical battleground states. new details about the final moment about the virgin spaceship crash. why it could take a year to find

out what went wrong. the final hours before the latest stunt. this one over the chicago river. and who was that on alpha house? yep, the show's executive producer joins me to talk about what's next on the show and what will happen tuesday in the midterms. don't go anywhere, i'll be right back. ♪ a 2.7 gigahertz turbo processor. kevlar fiber durability. turbo charge for up to 8 hours of battery in just 15 minutes. introducing droid turbo by motorola.

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for over 19 million people. [ susan ] my promotion allowed me to start investing for my retirement. transamerica made it easy. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. transform tomorrow. vote 2014, down to the wire. and the bluegrass state, the heartland, the rockies. candidates making their final pitches. and today, new polls on the critical races. >> when you stepped into that voting booth, you are making a choice not just about candidates or parties, you're making a choice about two different visions of what america's about. >> the president with his last-minute pitch to get out the vote. ahead, a look at how this election could shape his presidency. a number of states could vote to legalize marijuana today, so what would need to happen for this to be a national trend? the right to te