blake masters, who is now pretty close in the polls, within a point, according to the most recent poll, and all of the caveats about polling and we think we know, we just don t know until election day, but after having two voters, who were seen as unelectable and fringe, just a few months ago, at the beginning of this race, this cycle, how do they become almost winnable, almost winning in these two races? what changed in arizona? or did nothing change and this energy was always there? it just i guess, wasn t being tapped into or polled correctly? i m not sure much changed. certainly things did change for blake masters, the negative opinions of him were incredibly high for a candidate, he was looking almost unelectable if you remember that a few weeks ago. he started getting more money, and then started campaigning more with kari lake. kari lake is a known quantity to many voters from her days in tv.
close races. with me is vaughn hillyard and bram resnick. obama is going back to arizona, the first time since he left office. what kind of sway does he still have in that state? in the first time that he s held a rally here in 2008 when he was a presidential candidate, i know bram would be out there in downtown phoenix at the coliseum, let s face it, arizona was not a state the democrats ever thought of as a place that we they would have success. you remember in 2016 when hillary clinton came here in the days just before the election, it turned a lot of heads because democrats were indicating that they thought they had an actual thought. barack obama lost here in 2012 by 9 percentage points yet that is why it is so telling. you have see katie hobbs and mark kelly very much running independent of one another, around this idea of being arizona independents. so to bring a democratic slate of candidates on stage just days
this is what it s like to have a comprehensive wealth plan with tax-smart investing strategies designed to help you keep more of what you earn. and set aside more for things like healthcare, or whatever comes down the road. this is the planning effect from fidelity. this this era of party line votes, it is pretty unusual to see a split ticket where a voter favors the candidates more than a voter favors the party. but that could be what we re going to see in pennsylvania on tuesday. where one person on the ballot might just be too much for a lot of voters. joining me from pittston, pennsylvania, nbc s dasha burns. so who is that candidate? reporter: well, katy, here in pennsylvania, and by the way, we might see it in other races as
bright blue, bright red but some people in the middle and for them the most important thing is the candidate quality. they re putting the person on the ballot over the party. might see them in pennsylvania. and we might see it in ohio. and we could see it in georgia. we will wait to see what happens on tuesday. and by the way, the days that follow, because it could take some time to count the votes. so everybody, be patient. yes. which i knew you would add that. thank you very much for joining us. and that is going to do it for me today. hallie jackson picks up our coverage next. it s nice to unwind after a long week of telling people how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. showtime. whoo! i m on fire tonight. (limu squawks) yes! limu, you re a natural. we re not counting that. only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.
she is a very polished presence on the campaign trail. very polished presence. of course, the other side that vaughn just mentioned, being with steve pan bannon. so very polished presence. she has campaigned more with blake masters and what happens is voters start to make up their minds and the question is why isn t that election denial piece the trump connection, the threat to democracy, making an impact, and i ll say above that, hold on, wait a minute, because let s see what voters actually say, and one more thing voters may not know, republicans have a built-in 8 point advantage, turnout advantage in midterm elections. it could be higher this time given the energy on the republican side. that s a very good point. let s wait and see how it has an effect. but let s also talk about another arizona candidate, brahm, mark finchim running for secretary of state, which is a powerful position in arizona, over elections, he is an election denier, but his