mikie sherrill has been -- >> new jersey congressional candidate paul degroot, thank you for being onsnuck back in and i appreciate your time this afternoon and the patience of our viewers as well. appreciate it. >>> and to pennsylvania where senate candidate mehmet oz is throwing off an endorsement snub as oprah threw her support behind fetterman. the oz campaign says he respects the fact that they have different politics. >> washington senator patty murray facing some surprisingly tough opposition this year. five times she served. ahead in the polls. that has dwindled a little bit recently against the republican challenger tiffany smiler. >>> and in north carolina, ted budd is on the campaign trail as we speak this hour, getting some help from republican senators. nbc's steve patterson is joining us now from washington state and antonia himmen in north carolina. we'll start with you. a bit of a sleeper race a bit of a sleeper surprise given how usually blue washington is. >> it is still rebliely ocean blue, just as blue as you remember, but i think it is a different shade of blue at

. >>> we should note that her republican opponent paul degroot will be on as well and it looks like het some point before the election. >>> we have talked about important senate races and house races on the show today but it goes beyond just who voters are picking at the ballot box and what they're voting for. we're talking about ballot initiatives, more than 130 of them, with voters all across the country, big ones on the topic we were just talking about with the congresswoman, the future of abortion rights, legalizing marijuana, and sports betting and ranked choice voting and we have mark murray running on all no sleep and continuing to subsist on no sleep. break it down for us. we know john fetterman. we know mehmet oz. these ballot measures could have a lot of impact on people's lives as well. >> here are some of the ballot measures that we're going to be watching all across the country, as you see in these states, and number one is going to be five states are actually holding big ballot measures when it comes to abortion. and maybe the biggest one, of course, is the state of michi