The president s strategy, covid . What covid . You know why we have so many cases . All we do are test f we cut our testing down in half, they well, they wouldnt say that, but cases would go down. Now we have the best test. Were rounding the turn. We have the vaccines. We have everything. Thats despite more than 8 million cases and more than 226,000 american lives lost. And then the president going beyond that at another rally, suggesting that americas Front Line Health Care workers have been lying about covid deaths. If somebody is terminally ill with cancer and they have covid, we report them. Doctors and hospitals get more money. Think of this incentive. Some countries do it differently. If somebody is very sick with a bad heart they die of covid, they dont get reported as covid. Then you wonder, geez i wonder why the cases are so low. Mike pence refusing to altl the er his Campaign Schedule one bit after his chief of staff and other aides test positive for covid. This in comparison to the biden harris ticket response to the crisis. Over 8. 5 Million People have contracted this virus and will have unknown longterm health consequences. Doctors are talking about things like lung scarring. And here is the thing about it. It didnt have to be this way. It did not have to be this way. And, you know, then old boy has the nerve, even just recently in the last debate, to talk about how were rounding the corner. I dont see one either. The state of the race, joe biden continuing to lead in National Polling averages and a new poll showing biden leading in texas. Though its within the margin of error. Youre seeing that, a democrat leading in texas, just astounding. My stage manager shaking his head right now. He cant even believe it. Nine days until our election. First, Campaign Strategy in the final stretch. Two top officials from the last two democratic campaigns with us, to try to make sense of where we are, david plouffe, former Campaign Manager for president obama, and amanda renteria, for hillary clinton. Everyone has been on the edge of their seats to have you help us explain whats going on here. David, how good do you feel about that National Polling . 51. 2 to biden, 43. 5 to trump . Well, listen, having run president ial campaigns, i dont Pay Attention to any polls. The road from 48 to 50 is a long road. I like where joe biden is right now. In wisconsin, arizona, pennsylvania, and michigan, florida, you know, he has stable leads. Theyre significant. Hes at 49 to 52. So, you know, hes closing well and, listen, the big we always talk about october surprises and politics. Yeah. This october surprise is no surprise at all. Its the fact that covid cases are on the rise. Trump is denying it. Pence now has a breakout in an outbreak in his cluster of aides. So, the big issue in this race is who is going to lead us past the covid crisis . Who can we trust so that we can rebuild our economy, kids go back to school . So youve never seen a president ial campaign i think. I mean this seriously. Close this poorly, because trump is basically ignoring the big thing in the room. And these events hes doing, just the visuals, every event donald trump does, he was in wisconsin, which has cases surging. It sets back his cause. So hes behind. Yet every time he gives an interview, every time he does an event, it underscores why joe biden is in such a good place in the race. Its interesting as you bring up this idea of who we could trust moving forward, especially in dealing with the fallout from this pandemic, its not even like the president is saying you can trust me because here is what ive done. Instead hes saying nothing is happening, look behind me, despite fact that we have hit another peak, wave three in this country. Amanda, weigh in on what were seeing in texas. Thats an important conversation were hearing. Senator Kamala Harris is heading to texas as well. Joe biden with a threepoint lead there. How could texas i cant believe im saying this. How could texas actually shake up this race if, in fact, it were to turn blue . The numbers you are seeing here are remarkable. Now its early in the race, i understand. And i understand that we havent seen democrats really break through the final stages in texas. But when youre looking at the unusual lines that are happen i ing, when youre looking at what the latino vote is doing there, its remarkable. Not to mention you have 2018 where you have new candidates come in, bring an entirely new base of voters into what we are now seeing, who were fostered during this period of last two years and now youre seeing a lot of groups come in to texas, really move in the rio grande valley, really move in harris county, allowing people to vote. All of that combination sin credibly important as you start to put the numbers together. The one piece for me that ive been watching and really sticking to are what are those Younger Voters doing . Right. When you look at a 78 split with these Younger Voters going for biden, thats incredibly huge, especially because were seeing the momentum there. Theres a lot to be said that whats happening there, whether or not this could go all the way to the end and bring us a victory there, the trend looks good. The fact that were having this conversation is incredibly important as we think about the future of this country but also the future of what could happen in texas. Theres so much i want to get to. Every time you Say Something it brings up another thought in my mind i want to ask. I want to stick with you on the latino vote for one moment here. Joe biden leading in texas 69 to Donald Trumps 21. Thats not what were seeing in florida. Of course, were seeing the obama camp going to florida to stomp on behalf of biden because they know he has a pretty strong backing in the miami area. He was there yesterday as well. They respond well to him there. He doesnt have a hold on the latino vote in florida like he does in texas, joe biden. Whats the difference here . Very different demographics in florida than texas. In florida you have a puerto rican population, cuban population. Whats been growing is the noncuban, nonpuerto rican population, about 40 . Obama actually captured those younger cuban votes. And thats, again, a segment that, as we see these this data coming in, what are the young people doing . The second piece to it is bhar latinas doing . This cycle people have talked about what theyre seeing out of the latina families versus the latinos and how thats splitting out. Im hopeful to see the Younger Generation excited. And that makes a real difference as to what were going to see out of florida, but different demographic. Were beginning to learn about the Latina Community and how different the groups are. Coronavirus and how its hitting families today, everywhere. Im ready to break down the polls that weve seen, david. I want you to weigh in on the obama factor. As we see him stomping for joe biden. Joe biden waited for president obama to finish his speech before he even got start ed. I think he started an hour and 15 minutes late. They understand how important it is to have barack obama on the campaign trail. Right. Well, first of all, you can see, and i can speak from behind the scenes. President obama feels more passionately about this race and is making a more urgent case for joe biden than he ever made for himself. His Democratic Convention speech where its laid out the stakes so starkly, hes doing the same. Hes out there, laying it on the line. In philadelphia a couple of days ago, in miami yesterday, you get dominant local coverage. Miami dade is a place where joe biden probably needs to strengthen a little bit from where he is today. Its great. He speaks to people who arent sure theyre going to vote again, few remaining undecided voters and there still are some. Lets talk about texas. You mentioned texas. Yeah. Suburban voters in texas wont behave that much differently than suburban voters outside of minnesota or wisconsin, i4 corridor in florida. You see the suburban flight way from the republican party. Thats how you put a state like texas in play. Obama is out there making a case against trump but also on behalf of joe biden. In 12,000 people in florida do something different, maybe they ultimately vote, maybe they volunteer, maybe they were undecided but theyre going to vote for joe biden early. This race will be decided on the margins. So it does make a big difference. Okay. Ive got to get to the polls here. Lets talk about some battleground polls. Ill be comparing here now to 2016. Lets bring up pennsylvania first, amanda. Trump was at 44. 1 now. Biden at 50. 8 . Back in 2016, trump was at in wisconsin, a spread of 4350 now versus 4250 then. Michigan as well, and florida, 4549 with biden leading and in 2016, 4549 as well with clinton leading. So the spreads are very similar, right, amanda . You have a lot of folks that are spreading joe biden this time around, having a little ptsd from 2016, looking at these battleground state polls and they are worried. They remember what happened in 2016 and it doesnt seem like in these battleground states theres much of a different spread. What is different from your perspective this time around . I have to say when i look at those polls, all that energy and worry comes back, just like im sure many people who have seen those number. Youre not supposed to say that to the folks who are worried but go ahead. There is so much that is different this time around. Number one, we had 2018. I think its important to understand how big of a deal it was to see the womens march, to see leaders come out all across the country in your state and local races who won in 2018, who bring a whole new energy of voters, and that does mean the network is different. The infrastructure is different. Everything thats happened behind the scenes on making sure the laws and court cases and we have the logistics behind the scenes has made all the difference. Ill also say this. I dont think this election is trump versus biden. I think it is trump versus the people. You really saw that in this last debate where trump went after all kinds of different people and he was actually trying to fight with biden, but biden was talking to the people. And what were seeing right now in lines all across voting, doing what theyre doing, what is necessary to do, standing for hours, that kind of momentum is very, very different. Its really hard to see that in these percentage numbers youre seeing out there. If you walk out to the street, theres a difference. David, ive got to ask you one more question. Its about texas yet again. If texas were, in fact, to turn blue, could this be the beginning of the end of the Electoral College . Well, yeah, maybe the republicans will finally get religion if arizona, texas and georgia all flip. The Electoral College is not stacked. 1976, ford wins new england and the west, all deep blue states now, carter wins the south and the plains. Well see. Texas can become competitive every time. Georgia, arizona, virginia has become a blue state. Yeah, you might begin to see republicans right now who say well never get rid of the Electoral College any time start to revisit that. Theres motivation for people to keep working. Theyre kind of scary when you see them but trump is an incumbent this time, very different. He won by a huge margin, the people who viewed he and clinton unfavorably. Biden has a net favorable rating. He is not a change candidate. The thing that does concern me is if trump gets historically high turnout and we miss our marks. Thats how this stays very close. If you want joe biden to be president , look at those polls, let them scare you if you want, but trumps voters are coming out. We still have more of the early vote period, we have to sustain that momentum and grab a great election day to make sure that the support in those polls turn out a vote. I want to bring in shannon pettipiece. Im going to start with you on this one. One of the things i was speaking with david about was the president s response to the coronavirus and how hes dealing with it, right . How, in fact, hes not getting out there and saying you can have confidence in me in dealing with the coronavirus and moving forward after november 3rd. Instead hes saying theres nothing to look at. Nothing is going on. Nothing is happening here. Then hes attacking or going after first responders. What is the strategy behind this . I think for months now, since this summer, and you heard mark meadows articulate this rather bluntly today when he said were not going toet virus under control. The strategy of the white house has been were going to have to deal with this virus. Theres only so far were willing to go as far as shutdowns, which the president has clearly articulated. He is not for shutdowns. He is not for mask mandates. Theres only so far they can go at controlling this virus without taking measures that this white house feels are too restrictive. All the emphasis has been on the vaccine. Thats why we hear over and over and over again the president talking about vaccines and talking about therapeutics, since he was hospitalized with this. That is the strategy. The strategy is to hope for a vaccine and while there are some indications that there are vaccine vaccines and studies, that still is a longstretch strategy. They dont want to go toward further restrictions because theyre concerned about the economy and personal liberties and personal freedoms when it comes to things like mask mandates. One of the criticisms, tim, ive heard for the strategy of donald trump Going Forward is that hes running the same race he was running in 2016. He hasnt pivoted. He hasnt changed. Thats the reason hes lagging in so many polls. Hes calling joe biden a socialist, as if in a way hes running against brnz. He hasnt pivoted in that regard as well. Its kind of questionable as to why the Campaign Strategy hasnt changed. I actually think hes running a worse campaign than 2016. I think his strategy has changed a little bit for the worse. In 2016 he had about criticized by steve banon but understood the populous message. Hes still trump, saying crazy stuff but fighting for the forgotten man, going after the big banks, going after the globalists and the forever wars. This kind of populous message. Were in the middle of this once in a century pandemic, and theyre not passing a stimulus bill. Theyre not doing anything to help the forgotten man who is sick or lost their job during this pandemic. All hes doing is emoting and complaining about the media and complaining about his political enemies. Theres always been a little bit of that theres always been a lot of that in his rhetoric, but hes lost the message that worked for him in 2016. So, yeah, theres some similarities but the things that have changed, i think, are hurting him. Shannon, lets talk about health care for a moment. President obama was talking about the fact that republicans have never come up with a viable Health Care Plan, right . They want to replace the Affordable Care act but theyve never come up with a real replacement. And im not quoting him on this, but he essentially said ive talked to them. They dont have anything. Ive talked to all the republicans. They have nothing. Ive asked them over and over again, show me something. They dont have anything. The president himself has said over and over again, he has a plan to replace aca. He has presented nothing except saying that it will be cheaper. Report i reporting on the white house, as you do every single day, whats up with this . Why wont he come forward with a plan . This could be an easy layup for the president to spend time on coming up with a Health Care Plan that even optically he could put forward. I think back to 2017 when he said, you know, health care is really, really hard. Its not easy to come up with a plan to fundamentally overhaul the u. S. Health system. The Obama Administration really was a singular focus to come up with the obama plan. They had to work hard to get that through. It wasnt perfect. A lot of people would say no, there were things they wanted to go back and fix but it was as good as they could get. Coming up with a Health Care Plan is hard and this president has had many other priorities. When you think back to what his priorities were when he was running, he talked about getting rid of obamaweacare, but his bi priorities were build the wall, drain the swamp, jobs, trade, nafta. Thats where his focus was in 2016. Thats where the focus has been. Its not been on health care. People will always say health care is a big factor in the election. It was in 2018 but its not always. It often gets superseded by other issues and we could see that happening again here. Tim, let me read from you rip gop. Piece in the new york times. Its policy agenda is define d a cross between as defined by the Party Platform is whatever President Trump want s, which might not be so math pathetic if his interest went beyond, quote, build a wall. Do you agree with this . I dont have much to add there. I think theyre right on. You could see by the evidence of whats happening in this campaign. The downticket candidates are completely hamstrung and stuck on this hell ship with President Trump. I wrote about this in rolling stone. Theyve got nowhere else to go because thats what their voters want. Theres plenty of criticism to go around. None of them have shown courage. The voters who are loyal to trump, trump has no clear ideological agenda. Right now theyre showing i saw on the screen these rallies theyre hosting, death cult rallies. Its bizarre to see how theyre packing people in here as were having our worst days of the entire year with the coronavirus pandemic. But thats it. You know, there was this hostile takeover of the party by this president. All he cares about are his grievances, white grievance and owning the libs. Thats what the party has become. It sucks, but its reality. Shannon pettypiece, tim miller. Hell ship, im writing that one down. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Still to come, red, white and you. With nine days to go, whose message is resonating with voters and what are the top issues driving voters to the polls, as we count down to election day. A look at key races and what the president s surprising words are saying. Well be right back. Words are saying well be right back. And the veterans that never quit on their team. When being a fan gets tough, and stretching your budget gets even tougher. Our agents put in the time and legwork for you,. So saving on Auto Insurance is easy. Because saving a little extra goes a long way. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. How can i change things where io live . Like me in government . Change begins with a question. So Citi Foundation is supporting girl scouts as they empower Young Leaders through Civic Education to help create a better tomorrow. You can go your own way go your own way your wireless. Your rules. Only Xfinity Mobile lets you choose shared data, unlimited or a mix of each. And switch anytime so you only pay for the data you need. Switch and save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. With the carrier rated 1 in customer satisfaction. Call, click, or visit your local xfinity store today. Fine jewelry for occasions. We say forget occasions. snap fine jewelry for every day, minus the traditional markups. Welcome back, everybody. Were checking in with voters just nine days away from election day. My colleague ali velshi traveled to talk to voters and one major issue reigns supreme. Youre supporting a guy who, to this day, mocks mask wearing. I dont think so. I was at the trump rally and we wore everyone in my section, i wore a mask. My girlfriend that went with me wore a mask. Everyone i was around had them on. Hand sanitizer was readily available. And, i mean, to me thats fine. There should be a federal and state law to say that we to suggest that we should be Wearing Masks at all times. We wear seat belts every day when we drive because it saves lives when we drive if you get in an accident. Masks saves lives. Im glad we have a democratic governor. If we had a republican governor it would be a lot worse in north carolina. Look at florida, georgia, look at north dakota, okay . I mean, texas is another one, you know. The red states are starting to spike and so forth. You have to get serious about this. And nbcs Chris Jansing interviewed black voters who say the biden camp is taking black voters for granted. I would write your name in at this point. Usually by now i would have voted already, but im just not comfortable with either one of them right now. What are you looking for . What do you need to hear . Lets start with the crime bill and the fact that he has not not only not apologized. Joe biden . Joe biden. He has not only not rectified, every time he reverts back to, well, the black caucus members were with it too. Okay. You fooled them as well. Does the presence of Kamala Harris on the democratic ticket sway you at all . No. No. I dont know who says she had our vote. She does not. We were supposed to grab on to kamala with the black girl magic but that didnt happen because she didnt right our wrongs. Chris jansing for president. Coming up, the gloves are coming off as Jamie Harrison tries to pull off an historic upset by unseating longtime senator Lindsey Graham. Lindsey graham had a few rallies the other day and you could put all of the people in his rallies in phone booth. In his rallies in phone booth thousands of women with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. 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Common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. Be in your moment. Ask your doctor about ibrance. Be in your moment. Look limu someone out there needs help customizing their Car Insurance with liberty mutual, so they only pay for what they need. False alarm. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. With just nine days to go, President Trump is casting doubt on his partys ability to hold on to the senate. Questioned if the gop could keep control of the senate in the upcoming election, wondering if that was more of a threat. South carolina, senator Lindsey Graham fighting a really close race for the fourth term against challenger Jamie Harrison, who has record fundraising and excitement behind him. Just had a few rallies the other day and you could fit all the people at his rallies probably in a phone booth. I just had a rally yesterday and we filled a High School Parking lot with cars and so many folks energized because this is a new movement to close the book on the old south and write a brand new book called the new south. Iowa, tight race between theresa greenfield and joni ernst. Special election following johnny isaacsons resignation last year. Tight race where democratic challenger jon ossoff is tied with david perdue. With that, i want to bring in brianne for the des moines regions tar and charlie cook, editor and publisher of the cook political reporter and msnbc political contributor. Brianne, lets talk about theresa greenfield, matching up to joni ernst. Theyre within the margin of error, 1 or so difference. What are the chances that theresa greenfield could overtake joni ernst . Im talking to a lot of republicans in iowa right now who are not sounding super confident about this race. I think they all know it could go both ways if you look at fundraising in this final quarter, theresa greenfield has out fund raised joni ernst. As we look at this final week and as democrats are showing up in droves to early vote, i think republicans are nervous about their chances. Greg, talk to me about georgia here. 2 differentiation. John ossoff at 44, david perdue at 46. What are you expecting to see in the state of georgia ahead of the Vice President visiting that state . Yeah. Look, you can feel the tension down here in georgia. Races are so close. No democrat has won a statewide race in georgia in a dozeniers but democrats feel like they can flip a statewide race for senate but also a president ial contest for the First Time Since 1992. Weve got two senate races. Both need a majority vote to win. Right now were looking at possibly not one, but two runoffs in january, for both these races. David perdue is locked in a headtohead with jon ossoff. Poll shows statistically tied and the other race, Raphael Warnock is the clear frontrunner. And theres a tie for the second spot. No one knows how that will turn off. Charlie, before i move on to you, greg, brianne, what are the issues you feel are resonating with voters most . Greg, you go first. The economy and pandemic. Those issues show up in poll after poll after poll and voters tend to favor trump with the economy and for the pandemic, biden. Republican and democrats are split on their most important issues. Republican republicans, its the economy, democrats by and large its the pandemic and health care. Lets take a 30,000 look above all of this. Will democrats have the ability to flip the senate . Watching special election in arizona, colorado. We are watching north carolina. As i mentioned earlier, South Carolina as well. Watching texas. And then theres the issue of a state like michigan, for instance, where a democrat could actually lose a seat in michigan in the polls that were seeing in that state. So, talk us through this. What do you think at this point, from your advantage point, charlie, the probability of the democrats being able to flip the senate . I think i would flip it around and say what are the chances of Republicans Holding on . If republicans are really, really, really lucky, they could just hold their losses down to one or two and come out of this at 51 or 52 but the odds are high theyre not going to be able to do that. Right now i would say four seats for democrats, five. It would be likely it were over five and under three. Youve got five republican seats in danger and nine of those are even at best. This would be this looks more like 1980. Its like a Midterm Election wave except its in a president ial year. What i would cast differently is to me theres not any any issues. The issue is President Trump, and its a referendum up or down on him. If you think the economy is the biggest thing, then hes an up. And if youre look at the coronavir coronavirus, then hes a liability. Its really an up or down on him and increasingly this year, its been getting worse and worse and worse for republicans. It took a hard turn for him at the first debate. So let me ask you this shall charlie. As i came into you guys, i read from some reporting from the Washington Post that basically the president said he cant support some senators out there. Theres just some folks he cant get on board with. It seemed to me, when i heard that, and when i read Something Like that, i feel like thats a threat, that the president feels support for a particular senator is the golden ticket. Is that no longer the case here . First of all, worried about or thinking that republicans cant hold on to the senate, thats a clear nalszeyed analysis of the situation. They really are in a bad situation. My guess is that there are republican senators that would have a problem voting for him in the privacy of a voting booth. He does not have good relations with republicans on capitol hill. A lot of them are taking hits for not disassociating with him. Theyre in a tough place. If they distance themselves from the president , they get killed by the Republican Base and the trump base. And if they dont, they get killed in the suburbs. So, they really are in a nowin situation. Theres no love lost between some of the republicans on capitol hill and President Trump. Brianne, greg, charlie, thank you, guys. Kamala harris speaking in pontiac, michigan. Lets listen in. We need to decriminalize marijuana, expunge the record of those who have been convicted because of it. That is an Economic Justice issue as much as a criminal justice issue. [ horns honking ] and on the other hand you have donald trump. We are dealing with many crises. We are dealing with the crisis of a climate crisis. Now yall know i come from california. I was born in oakland, california. So i feel a sense of connection to oakland county. Were all from oakland. The west coast of our country is burning. Wildfires from california, oregon, washington, colorado. Whole communities of people being evacuated. Ive met firefighters who have been fighting those fires while their own homes are burning. My brotherinlaw is a firefighter. You look at whats happening in our gulf states. Entire communities being wiped d out because of those storms. In the midwest, floods that have caused farmers to lose a whole season of crops. Joe biden says crops. Joe biden says and a champion for my own health. I talked with my doctor. And switched to. Fewer medicines with. Dovato. Prescription dovato is for some adults who are starting hiv1 treatment or replacing their current hiv1 regimen. With. Just 2 medicines. In 1 pill, dovato is as effective as a 3drug regimen to help you reach and stay undetectable. 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Most common side effects are headache, nausea, diarrhea, trouble sleeping,. Tiredness, and anxiety. So much goes into who i am. Hiv medicine is one part of it. Ask your doctor about dovatoi did. Welcome back. So the other day i was at the playground with my kids. In covid times, especially, the playground is a life saver. They run, cliep, get all their energy out after being cooped up in the house. For this reason, most new yorkers with kids go to the playground and it gets pretty crowded. That the point i trust my 4yearold azur. He wont run too far or disappear into the abyss. Nor, my 2yearold, is a different story. He prides himself on running away. He thinks it is hilarious and purposefully does not answer me. The other day we actually lost him. I looked at my phone for a second. My eyes drifted away and he was gone. I frantically screamed his name, ran around the playground, looked to the street, the other street, the slide, under the benches, did two laps around the playground. I couldnt help but think bad thoughts until there he was, standing next to the swings, waiting his turn and laughing, thinking it was just a game. Took me a good 48 hours to recover, imagining what could have happened instead of what did happen. I think about this every time i learn more of the 545 kids that have been separated from their parents. In some cases, children who have spent more time in foster care or in u. S. Custody, or with stateside family members than their own mom and dad. I think about it from the parents perspective wondering where are my kids . Do they miss me . Will they remember me . When will i hug them again . When will i be able to put them to bed again . Hugging them tight before they safely go to bed, knowing their parents are just down the hallway. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to be a parent in that situation. Then theres the kids. Their parents being ripped away from them. Not knowing where they are and who theyre with, all the safety and security they know in their life, gone. A warm hug from their mom, a kiss from their dad, all of it, just completely gone. Then theres the lifelong ramifications of it and a government make nothing effort to reunite them. It is utterly heartbreaking. These parents made a decision to leave their country with their children not to be separated but because they were hopeless where they were. In many cases, jobs were few and far between, crops diminishing, leaving food hard to come by. Violence rampant in the streets. Parents fleeing their own country for hopes of a better life for their own children only to be torn apart. It is inhumane. Who does this . In many ways my 2yearold feels safe running to the swings because he knows im going to find him. He feels safe, and im happy that he does. These children arent so lucky and at no fault of their own. Its our responsibility as americans to make sure these kids are reunited with their parents, no matter what you feel about illegal immigration, we should not be a country who treats parents and children inhumaneely, taking away the only security in their lives to prove a point. Its not okay. Its time we say enough. If not for them but your own kids, so they have the same chance to feel safe as yours do. Well be right back. E as yours. Well be right back. My job is to help new homeowners who have turned into their parents. Im having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. So were using a speakerphone in the store. Is that a good idea . One of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. Youre looking for a grout brush, this is garth, did he ask for your help . No, no. No. We all see it. We all see it. He has blue hair. Okay. Blue. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Keep it coming. 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The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base so you can start hiring right away. Claim your seventyfivedollar credit when you post your first job at indeed. Com promo welcome back. More than 500 lgbtq candidates are set to appear on november ballots across the nation, shattering records some of those candidates include a lesbian air force veteran in texas, a transgender delicate in denver. Here to talk more about this campaign and the 2020 rainbow wave is john hodley. John, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Its great to be here. Lets talk about this rainbow wave, as its being called. We saw it back in 2016 a little bit. Jared polis to become the first only elected gay governor in the united states. What do you think makes this year different, john . Weve seen that equality is on the ballot. The Supreme Court appointment, we know that congress will have an incredible role in protecting lgbtq folks because of the decisions that will be coming down from that court. I think what were seeing is that across the country, what people are stepping up running because they want to be their authentic self. They know that when we diversify whos at the table that we get much better decisions for everybody. I think its so awesome. I want to bring up the numbers here. We have 1,006 lgbtq people running for office in 2020. Thats a 41 increase between 2018 and 2020, 574 or more lgbtq candidates will be on the ballot in november of 2020. The numbers are really astounding, jon. I know that you told nbc news that you are running to effect change. What changes do you really want to see . Well, you know, we always talk about im not running to make history, but i am running to make change. For me its going to always be about health care. My partner chris has multiple sclerosis. So i know first hand what it feels like to have to fight with Insurance Companies who often times have more say over your treatment than your own doctor does. Whether were talking about Drinking Water and protecting our great lakes, whether were talking about supporting our schools and turning us away from the betsy devos agenda or health care. These are the type of issues that are on the ballot, and this is why so many of us are stepping up to run across the country. So you might have a couple roadblocks in the way if in fact so many lgbtq candidates do win and are able to gain office in 2020. One of those road blocks could feasibly be the Supreme Court with the vote happening tomorrow of judge amy coney barrett. How concerned are you with her potential confirmation to the Supreme Court . Im incredibly concerned. We know that after a rushed process that she has told us that she is hostile to the Affordable Care act, meaning that coverage for preexisting conditions are on the line, just days after this election. And im running against someone who voted to take away coverage for preexisting conditions 12 times. We know that choice is on the ballot. She doesnt believe that roe is settled law. That means that our reproductive freedom is on the line. She has clearly used hostile language towards lgbtq folks which means that in a state like michigan where Marriage Equality is only legal because of a Supreme Court decision that thats on the line. And the other piece though that ill just note here is that getting across the finish line is going to be difficult because what were seeing is as more and more lgbt people step up to run that there is a whole new wave of homophobic attacks happening. Im actually in a race where the victory fund that supports lgbtq candidates has said im experiencing the most homophobic attacks in the nation. Wow. And were seeing it across the board. And theyre showing up in races up and down the ballot. And this feels like we know were in 2020, but if feels like were back in the 1990s or like 1986 when the guy im running against first got elected, the type of attack. Why do you feel like thats happening . Why do you feel like youre such a target . Because people know that stereotypes and discrimination run deep. When they cant win on the issues they try to run and have smears and lies. And so theyre appealing to a set of base voters, and theyre fanning qanonlike conspiracy theories. The thing that i keep thinking is that the only way that we are going to stop these types of attacks in the future is that weve got to beat the bullies at the ballot box, and that means that everybodys got to go out and vote, and lgbtq candidates and good candidates across the country need support. Jon hoadley, good luck, stay connected to us as this thing plays out. That wraps up this hour for me. Im yasmin vossoughian. Im going to be back next weekend at 3 00 p. M. Eastern. The rev and politicsnation is up next after the break. Wabba wabba all new, Plant Powered creative roots gives kids the hydration they need, with the fruit flavors they love, and 1 gram of sugar. Find new creative roots in the kids juice aisle. Wean air force veteran made of fdoing whats right,. Ts not whats easy. So when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. Thats how you do it right. Usaa insurance is made just the way martins family needs it with hasslefree claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. Because doing right by our members, thats whats right. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa and a yoga mat, to stay zen now, im gonna just buy a bike for him rakuten cash back on the stuff all in my home. I shop on rakuten. Rakuten good evening and welcome to politicsnation. Tonights lead, the nation holds its breath. Were about to see the final full week of election 2020 and the final campaign sprint for donald trump and joe biden. Youd be forgiven even in jaded political journalism for being consumed by this moment in american history,