There are two weeks until Election day, and more than 7.5 million
Americans already cast their ballots. You're to break down. What
they are watching during these final days is our politics Monday
Team Amy Walter of the Cook Political report with Amy Walter and
Tamara Keith. NPR.
Hello to both of youse, or to be exact 14 days after tomorrow until
election day, But as we just heard, people are voting, So the two
of you are watching this full time, Tammy, You've been on the road.
Tell us what you are seeing
the thing that really stood out to me. I was just in North Carolina
in a swing district, the only swing congressional race in the entire
state of North Carolina, one of probably fewer than three dozen swing
races in the entire country.
And yet
In a swing district. I'm just not sure there are a lot of swing voters.
Even people who are registered as no party preference had very strong
feelings. Basically, that the party they weren't voting for was not
just wrong, but bad or evil or a danger to society or danger to America.
It was
It was it was. We talk a lot about polarization. It was shocking
to hear it repeated again and again and again. You know, I was in
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, that the weekend before last, and it
wasn't quite as vitriolic is that we're going door to door but it
was clear that people weren't voting for someone. They're voting
against someone. So I'm for this.
Candidate because fill in the blank is terrible on fill in the blank
issue. So is this something so we're not? This is not unique to what
Tam saw in North Carolina in the Raleigh area. That's right. I think
what we're seeing is again what, especially in a midterm election,
but
Unfortunately, with politics now, overall, the biggest motivator
to get people to show up and vote is anger and getting people engaged
and enraged is easier way to prod your supporters to the polls. But
it has significant consequences if year after year. The only way
you're getting people to show up is to say
Hmm. You're doing this because the other side is terrible. Well,
guess what. By the time we get to where we are now nobody trusts
anybody. And and and Tam. It's not just the other side is terrible.
It's that that they are. You need to be afraid of them. I mean, the
ads that I was watching. I was covering the Senate race and in Pennsylvania
this weekend. Our report tomorrow is going to air tomorrow night.
We hope but
Um, the act. You look at the edge and you think you need to crawl
under the covers because life is going to change drastically. If
this person gets elected
every cycle voters in in places with with competitive races, get
sick and tired of the ads and think the ads are terrible. Some of
the ads in the race that I am have a story airing tomorrow about
on NPR.
Are so toxic it is. It's almost comical. Just how like over the
top scorched earth they are. The other thing I will say is that we've
been wondering how the abortion issue would play out in the field
and and, you know, it has fallen in terms of polling as a top issue.
What surprised me in talking to voters Now I was in a suburban
Part of outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. So I'm in the suburban
area. Um, but was just how many voters said I'm concerned about the
economy, but I'm voting on abortion. That's interesting. Really interesting.
Yeah, and and Amy. I was going to ask you because I mean, we've heard
negative ads work, and that's why campaigns keep doing them. But
what else are you looking at? Right now? Two weeks out, we're getting
I mean, the that's right getting solidified. That's right. So what
we're really
Watching for is to see sort of. Where is the narrative? What are
voters talking about what some media talking about In these last
two weeks of the election, when it is true, many voters are still
making up their minds. Maybe not so much of who they're going to
vote for, but whether they show up at all. And if you think about
what we were talking about, over the summer, it was abortion. It
was Donald Trump. It was
January 6th. Now we're back to talking about the things that put
Democrats on the defensive. Inflation continues to be a top issue
for swing voters for independent voters. That is the issue that just
keeps coming back that we keep coming back to you know, earlier in
the year, the question was whether or not the abortion decision was
enough to turn what was a typical midterm election referendum on
the president and his party into one. That was more of a choice.
What we may end up getting is a little
Bit of both, depending on where you live. And so I think there's
some. There's some issues like abortion. Where if you're in a state
where the issue
Is going to be decided clearly decided by that state's legislature
and governor like Michigan or Pennsylvania. That may be more of a
ceiling issue than in a blue state. Although North Carolina is not,
But in a blue state where the the the the voters there aren't worried
that abortion access is going to be limited, and then you have the
tug of war and states Tam with a Republican Legislature in a democratic
governor, as you have in in in in North Carolina, but in these final
days, I mean, when I
I was finding was that
People did. I mean, they sounded like they're going to vote. They
certainly would raise the issue. They raise the economy. They also
raised the issue of crime. I mean, we had several people say to us.
I live in a rural area, but I know people in the cities are facing.
You know, a frightening time of this, and we need to have somebody
in power or somebody in office. Who's gonna
Do something about that which, if you are looking for issues that
put Democrats on their back feet and where Republicans want voters
to be focused crime is one of those issues. That's why they have
spent millions and millions and millions of dollars on ads accusing
Democrats and in key braces of being soft on crime and tying them
to the idea of defunding the police. What about Who's campaigning
for whom? Amy at this point?
President Biden is doing some of that. There are certainly Democrats,
members of the Senate who are out there campaigning for their friends
and whoever they want, how much of that is making a difference? Well,
I learned a lot by who campaigns choose to ask to be the surrogate
for them right because the people they don't ask, for example, the
president isn't getting invited to a lot of Democratic states. He's
pretty much underwater popularity wise in most of these battleground
states and districts, But you know who else isn't getting invited
is Donald Trump.
Who did a lot to make sure that many of the Republicans who are on
the ballot this year made it through their primaries. So I think
for both parties, they would like it to be less about. You know the
person on their side whose polarizing much more about the person
on the other side is polarizing. President Obama will be on the trail
in some of these states working to turn out Democratic voters in
Georgia. I think Pennsylvania probably as well so
That that one and you know has been really very popular is Pete Buddha
judge for good reason. He's the secretary of transportation. Remember,
we have an infrastructure bill. Lot of money going to a lot of states.
Here's an opportunity for a member of Congress to say, See here's
our money at work that Treasury secretary is coming and here's the
new road we're gonna build doesn't love infrastructure. We love it.
That's right. Any Walter Tamara Keith