Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20140521 :

world, from an animal reservoir, the path can be mixed. we saw with sars a meat animal being sold seemed to be the original source, that was getting into human beings that way. other infections we have seen bats be an original source but not the direct source necessarily. we have seen bats transmit the infection to pigs or horses, not mers but other viruses. animals in between the original source and humans can be part of the pathway. so difficult to pin do you. >> how is it spread? >> what we know so far is based on early and limited information, but what we can say for sure is it doesn't seem to spread from person-to-person very efficiently. doesn't spread across a group of people like chickenpox in a summer camp. instead it seems to be related to really close contact with somebody who is actively sick. so people who have taken care of a sick family member, peek worming in health care -- people working in the health care settings. >> what are the symptoms? >> mers causes a very generic looking respiratory infection for most part. so, cough and fever are at the top of the list. some people have a bit of a runny nose. some belly complaints, headaches, but nothing that would distinguish it just based on symptoms alone. >> if you get it, is it fatal? >> guest: no. a few people have died -- well, more than a fewer, actually. the people who died tend to be older with other diseases, whether it's diabetes or heart disease. these are people who, for any infection, are at somewhat greater risk of having a bad outcome. majority of people have a milled or moderate respiratory infection and get over it. but we're concerned about the fact that some people have died and those people are certainly at risk. >> this is a headline in "usa today." mysterious mers, third case brings more question. where has it been found in the united states and why? >> there are two cases imported directly from the middle east, and those individuals arrived home in florida, and indiana. the third case is actually somebody who had face-to-face contact. a business deal, actually, with the indiana patient right after they arrived back in the country. that person just had a mild cold, but because we have been very, very careful about tracing everyone who might have been exposed, this is behind the scenes that no one ever really gets to hear about, but when something like this happens, cdc mobilizes a tremendous amount of personnel resources and communications resources to make sure that every laperson who is sharing a flight or in the case of the indiana patient, bus, gets identified and tracked down and alerted so that they know that if they start to feel ill they need to take it very seriously. then if i they will allow us we also do some testing. in the case of the business colleague, we did an early test and it was negative. then a followup test was positive. so looks like he was exposed to the indiana patient, became mildly ill and is now doing fine. tracing him was another piece of the work. >> for the illinois man that had just a cold, is he a carrier now? does he have it in his system and could other people contract it from him? >> so, that's why we're so careful about tracking everybody down. what we don't want is multiple people to start new chains of transmission. while you're sick it's possible to spread the infection to other people, just like a lot of other respiratory virus, but like other respiratory virus, once you're better, you're not a carrier anymore. >> talk about the cdc mobilizing your resources. have you been able to track down everybody on the flying or on the bus? -- on the flight or the bus and what reaction do you get from people when they hear from you? >> the impressive thing is not only that we track down everyone -- we work in partnership with airlines, other health authorities in other countries. there's a lot of cross-communication that takes place. but it happens amazingly quickly. this is the investment we make in our major airports, our system for tracking travelers and so on, when it comes to outbreaks. these are things we maintain because between push comes to shove you need them quickly. so over the course of a day or two the vast majority of people received some outreach. the reaction is mixed. some people are ho-hum. other ares quite concerned. and part of the value of speaking to them directly we can guide them to information, answer their questions, and connect them with if the state and local public health resources, an important part of the response. >> you have seen the headlines about mers, the outbreak and the cases in this country. if you have questions or comments, dr. michael bell is our question. the associate director for infection control at the centers for disease control and prevention. he'll take your questions and comments. dr. bell, is this preventible? >> so, that is a broad and mixed question. yes, in a way it is. we're investing heavily in several ways to make sure that we can control this. and part of that control is preventing its -- preventing the probably abroad before it gets imported. cdc has been working night and day since this began to device tests so we now have a very effective way of testing for this particular infection. i you can't test for something, can't detect it, there's no way to control it or track where it's going. so having the test and then being able to distribute it through all of our state health departments and to international partners, that's one of the major activities that take place. again, behind the scenes you never think about it but there's no of the shelf commercial test for a newly emerging virus and that's something that cdc is able to do very quickly because we have that base of capableity so we make sure everyone can detect it. you can imagine if a health department in a state is able to quickly identify a case, we can surround that case and make sure that it doesn't spread to other people very, very effectively. if it takes weeks and weeks to get a result there's more possibility of spread in the middle east, by working with the partners there, we're able to improve infection control practices, where the disease is originating, and make it less and less likely that individuals who are infected will carry that disease out of the country. >> what about vaccinations? >> right now there isn't a vaccine. i'm aware that nih is thinking about and working on the potential vaccines that might work for this but right now we don't have one to rely on. it would be wonderful if we had one. the most impactful public health intervention you can imagine. >> dr. bell, is this a serious issue for the world, the united states? >> well, if you think about what happened with sars, a similar virus, respiratory pathogen, that caused severe illness and killed a good number of people, spread very effectively through air travel, and in several instances, for example in canada, it caused tremendous chaos in a major hospital. if you think about what that does to the business world in terms of travel, in terms of international locations, the ability to do business is significantly compromised when there's a risk of that kind of severe illness. whether it means that you can't have meetings, whether it means your in-country staff are incapacitated, or if there's simply logistical chaos because of the attempts to control the infection, all of this impacts the bottom line and makes it very difficult for the american interests to continue to do business. >> bonnie, you're on the air. >> caller: i have a question about the test, what you do to identify mers. is it like a nasal swab? and during the course of the illness, is it during the -- this is identified? i know you mentioned one person that was negative and then it was positive, because i know with the pertusis they were doing slides and some were negative but the person was actually in the illness. >> are you in the health field? >> caller: i worked at the halve department here years ago when we had pertusis outbreak and i've been in the medical field for 40 years. >> guest: those are quiet questions. this is the early phase. so we are clothing specimens from the nose and throat, blood speaks fins and stool specimens because we want to know how the virus is likely so spread. so with sars we found that it was actually being released in the stool, and that changes how we try to control the spread, whereas in this case so far it seems to be mostly respiratory and is found in the blood stream. all of these things allow us to refine the testing, and better under transmission. as you point out, during different parts of the infection, the virus may not be detectable, so immediately after an infection the virus needs to build up in your body before we can detect it, either directly or detect the normal antibody response that your immune system makes. both are targets of tests, and it usually takes a few days for those things to become positive. generally speaking, these respiratory viruses tend to have detectible virus during the fever stage and that tends to go away slowly, but it's different from virus to virus, and so with each new challenge we see, we spend a good bit of time describing really that new pattern so we can understand the period of risk and the best time to test. >> kimberly, independent caller from sterling, new jersey. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. a few weeks ago i was in new york city and i came home that night and i started coughing, and i didn't stop coughing for days and days, and then it turned into a fever, and then mucus, and my respiratory system, i never had anything like this in my life. i'm 58 years old. and i -- it turned into this thing where i couldn't get out of bed, and i finally took a zpac and then i went to florida to try to feel better, and then i ended up going to a doctor down here, and he never mentioned anything about mers. and i was wondering, because this has been going on, shouldn't these doctors have the -- a notice go out to them by checking them? and i'm not able to be checked now because i am feeling better, but seems to me rearing its ugly head again today, and i'm feeling a little achy and stuff. so -- >> host: okay, i'll have dr. bell give a response. >> you have a couple of great questions mixed in there. i'm glad your feeling more or less better. first, i wouldn't blame new york but i will say this. it's a great reminder that when you're traveling or when you're in crowded places, you need to take some precautions to keep yourself healthier. there are any number of viruses that can give you a respiratory syndrome exactly like you described, and those things are transmitted either by close contact with other people -- face-to-face contact -- or by touching your eyes, nose or mouth with hands that might have touched a hand rail or something like that. i can tell you i am personally neurotic about not touching things. i can make through airports without ever touching anything and that's probably overkill, but it is a reflection of how i think when it comes to transmission of infection. the most common thing that will deliver anything to your eyes, nose, or mid-michigan, are your own finger and if you have to touch your face, wash your hand first. i'm constantly hand washing. and then finally, i do keep a fairly large social distance. i am neurotic, but i don't get in someone's face very often because i like to keep my space clear. that all said, you can't avoid some contact with crowds and that's why we promote cough etiquette, if you have a cough, we recommend not only that you cover your cough whennor coughing, but even think about wearing a disposable mask. just to make sure you're that spreading things to other people. if everyone does that then our personal risk goes down as well. now, the question about should doctors be testing for mers routinely, the answer is no. you're extremely, extremely unlikely to have been expose to mers traveling through new york. there is clear recommendation right now for somebody who has been in the middle east, especially somebody who has had contact with somebody with mers or something like mers in the middle east, where it's likely. those people need to be tested. if somebody had contact with a known or suspected mers case, again like the man who had face-to-face contact with the indiana person, those people need to be tested. there's absolutely no need to test everybody with a respiratory syndrome. >> host: batey aagrees with you. people touch their faces on average 1500 times daily. stop touching your face. dr. bell, is that something that you guys look into, research, how many times people touch their faces and how that contributes to the spread of viruses? >> guest: well, what we know is that people do it, and i don't think there's a need for more specificity in the data. what we need is better and better ways to keep our hands clean. again, not touching your face is great. touching them with clean hands is necessary. >> a tweet from the leaves review -- las vegas review, the biggest risk that mers may become a worldwide enrick is glob trotting healthcare workers. >> guest: that's a great point. both the people who came to the united states with infection had contact in the health care system. they were healthcare professionals in this country and maybe parts of the world we use strategies to protect healthcare personnel. we have infectious diseases in our hospitals every day, and back in the day of the 150 years ago we actually built separate infectious disease hospitals because we knew we needed to contain these but didn't think we could prevent the spread to other patients. what we know now is by sticking to some pretty straightforward practices, we cannot only prevent the spread from one patient to the next but we can protect our healthcare personnel. we don't want doctors, nurses and students, volunteers, becoming ill just because they take care of patients. so these practices are used uniformly for all care. that is something that is built into our medical system. and i think we see the benefit of that in the fact that we don't have healthcare personnel getting sick left and right in places where we see this kind of spread, through healthcare personnel, many times what we see when we look is that those infection prevention practices are either not well established or if they're established, the adherence to them is spotty, and that's certainly what we seem to be seeing in many parts of the world. >> your colleague tweeted that mers risk to public remains very low. ongoing investigation to help us learn more about how the virus is transmitted and how to reduce the spread. how is the cdc working with the world health organization on this? >> guest: we have many partners and one of the major one is the world health organization. the w.h.o. sends teams around the world skis able to bring together multinational groups that help us bridge communications challenges, and bring multiple perspectives to the ground. there are also regional offices supported by the world health organization, and the combination of cdcs global platforms and w.h.o.'s sites allow to us have a sustainable response heart than just one or people. we're able to maintain a presence, able to support our staff in the field with those shared resources and have a bigger impact. it's a dual benefit of this kind of partnership. >> host: georgia, donis watching us there, democrat go ahead, donny. >> caller: yes, good morning, greta, and good morning, dr. bell. i have two quick questions. my first question is, how save are we? could this possibly become an epidemic here in america? my sect questions is unrelated. i want to know how close are we to finding a cure for the a.i.d.s. virus. thank you. >> guest: so, let's start with the mers. i think that as you just read from dr. freedman's tweet, the risk to this country right now for mers is extremely low. we're taking it very, very seriously, though, because as i said, a proportion of people who get infected don't just have a mild illness but become very sick. so we don't want that to spread. that's the same reason cdc pushes for people to get a flu shot. most people have other mild illness, might keep you in bed for a few days but you get better, but a good portion of people with influenza end up in the hospital and die every year. we don't want a new challenge coming into our country for which we don't have a vaccine or treatment yet. so we're being very agrees sniff tracking people down and making sure we control it. but in general, the risk to most people in this country is extremely low. in terms of the cure for h.i.v., that's something that is an ongoing discussion there are many researchers working very hard and i won't go into it because frankly it ill would take -- it would take us in another direction but it's an important aspect of public health as well. >> the hill had this story: well bug cuts help spread deadly mers virus in the united states. county official says more than 50,000 local and state health jobs have been cut since 2008 as local governments reduce budgets us a of falling tax revenue during the recession. what impact does this have on preventing the spread of a disease like mers? >> guest: so, local and state health departments are a hugely important safety net that exists in this country. without it we wouldn't have the ability to reach out quickly and contain diseases. and when that safe net becomes weak, our entire public health system is at risk. the challenge we have, frankly, it's invisible until it fails. like so many of those things we don't think about. a bridge is kind of ignored as long as it's working, but if there's a loss of structural integrity, there's a catastrophe. the public health safety net is like that. so it's certainly concerning when state and local health departments are weakened. i can also say that's one of the reasons that cdc is working to make investments to strengthen the safety net. investments and state and local health departments, laboratories, and better technology. i mentioned we distributed the mers test to state health departments around the country. that's part of the way we use that safety net to make sure that we have a rapid and effective response to this problem. similarly, we're investing in advanced molecular diagnostics so rapid tests and very precise testing can be updated and spread throughout our health system. >> host: we're talking about mers, and the virus in the united states. take a look at the map. the world map of the mers virus. this is from the mers map. it shows that there have been 636 infected, 194 have died -- this is updated about 11 hours ago -- and there's a 30.5% fatility rate. paul in florida, independent caller. hi, paul. >> caller: hi. >> good morning go ahead. >> caller: yeah, in the middle '90s i had my gallbladder out, and right after that i started getting these little -- and i went to the doctor and they gave me antibiotics. the next day after the looked like a pumple, a golf-ball-size, and this happened three times and started happening on my face. so i told the doctor, can't deal with this on my face. and finally went to a special doctor, an infectious disease control doctor, and it was called mrsa, with an a on the end. it was wondering what the difference that was. he said -- gave me this stuff and i put it on the end of a cotton stick and put it up as far as i could -- >> host: so, -- dr., michael people. people have heard of mrsa. what's the difference? >> guest: they are about as different as could possibly be. what our last caller was describing was a staff infection. staff infections happen when hands aren't clean, or when surfaces are contaminated and can be associated with health care, then we're seeing a lot of it in the community in general. mrsa is a kind of staph stat doesn't respond to a common antibiotics and that's an interesting comparison, because while we're making a big deal p.m. about mers the virus from the mideast, even though it's affecting a very tiny number of people in this country, the antibiotic resistance, of which mrsa is an important part, huge. we see two million cases a year and as many as 30,000 deaths. that's the size of a small college campus being killed every year but resist stand infections and if it happened all in one place it would make huge headlines, but because it's spread in our communities we don't see it. it's a huge problem for this country. >> host: are they both super bugs and what is a super. >> super bug is a generic term. the mers virus is the opposite of a super bug. it doesn't spread like wildfire, and while it does have some people getting very ill, it is not a super high fatility type infection. right now the only thing that makes it super is it's new and there account a clear treatment or vaccine yet. but other than that it's really not a lot different from something like influenza. a respiratory virus that spread if you're in close contact and to which we have ways of preventing that spread. the word "super bug" has been idea a lot related to a type of resistant bacteria. so, as opposed to a virus, which uses the human being as its way of reproducing, bacteria divide on their own. they multireply by themselves and can live in the environment and mull reply. that's the big testifies in the super bug is cie. what that means is this is the family of bacteria that includes e.coli and a lot of common gut bacteria. we all carry them and have to carry them 2009. have them we get very sick. these bacteria are gaining the ability to resist treatment with a lot of different antibiotics, and we're getting to the point where some of these are completely untreatable. in other words, we're getting to the point where, if you go back 150 years, somebody with a bad infection, all you could do if give them aspirin and put a cold towel on their for haven't when we developed antibiotics in the early part of the last century, that was a game-changer. allowed us to treat infections that used to kill people left and right. in the civil war more people died of infected cuts than bullets. when you think about farm injuries back in the day, a lot of amputations not because the hand was mangled but there was such a bad infection you couldn't treat and it the only think left is to cut it off. so we have grown up, at least some of us have grown up, in an era of tremendous health capables, health capacity, thanks to antibiotics. one other think i'd like to share, it's like our public health system, this invisible safety net. antibiotics provide a safety net that let us do things we otherwise couldn't do. if i were to get hit by a truck and my guts were spilled all over the road, there are talented surgeons who can put me become death but all the bacteria inside me will cause an infection, and if we can't treat the infection, the best surgeon in the world can't save my life. if someone is being treated for cancer we have amazing technology now, the able to transplant stem cells to give come therapy but all of those things require turning off the patient's immune system for a while, and if during that time we don't have antibiotics to treat an infection the person will die. so, whether it's intensive care medicine, whether it's cancer care, burn care, or surgery, all of those things rely on the ability to treat infections, and if we lose that ability, we're in a very different era. we end up going back to the dark ages. >> bob is next, indian rock beach, florida, republican caller. >> caller: dr. bell, i have a -- two questions actually. the first is, has patient zero been identified? and the second is, is this a possibility that this is a weaponized biological weapon? >> guest: thankgreat questions. there's an interesting pattern we see. almost every time there's a new virus introduced into human beings, and that it that patient zero is almost never found. i'll use a different virus as an example. with ebow -- ebow lie it's taken us decades to find the original source and we're still trying to confirm it's bats at fault. i blame bats a lot because they tend to carry a lot of nasty thing. but we didn't know that for a long period of time because the first person who had contact with a dead bat or whatever, maybe walks into the wrong cave, that person tends to spread it to a few other people, and then die, and then two or three other generations of spread occur before there's an alert. these things happen in remote, rural places and months have gone by. you're on your fifth or sixth generation of infection, often in a more urban setting, and then finally there's an alert there's an outbreak. by that time no one remembers the first case because that chain has really been largely removed because the virus is so deadly. so, similarry, with mers, it's very difficult to go back in time and figure out who that first person was who got ill. remember, at the beginning of this there was no test to detect mers, and so it's likely that somebody developed a fever and died of a respiratory infection. might have been told the family member died of pneumonia or what have you, but i doubt very much that there was any specific diagnosis. so that patient zero is likely to remain a mystery when it comes to mers. about weaponization, this is something we're always concern about. one of the reasons we have such a lab capacity. our labs are tremendous and an international asset. one reason we do that is to understand new pathogens when they appear. in this case what we're seeing so far, with the limited number of samples we have had available, is that the viruses that we're seeing are very, very closely related to the natural viruses that we're finding in the camels. so there's no evidence that anybody is weapon iowaing this at this point, and it still looks very much as though the camel reservoir is the source. >> host: dr. bell, why is finding patient zero important, or is it? >> guest: in this case it's not. in other cases, when the actual source of the reservoir, the place where the virus hides, between outbreaks is an issue, then finding that original patient is very important because that's the person who can tell you what they touched, what they it's, where they went. but when we already see pretty clear connection with a source, that's quite a bit less important. the other value in finding a source patient is to understand transmission dynamics. with sars we had patient zero in the hotel in hong kong. was he truly the only patient zero? no. surely there were cases of sars being transmitted related to the marketplace in china but in that particular global web of transmission, we were able to trace it back to this one individual. and that helped us understand the efficiency, or lack of efficiency, with which that virus spread. >> host: ray is next. >> caller: very informative program. doctors, i would like to know your opinion about shaking hands between a patient and a doctor? i don't think it's necessary. it should be avoided because of the obvious public health aspects. what is your opinion about that? >> guest: in a perfect world i would hope that everyone's hand are so clean that shaking hand wouldn't be an issue. i think that there's a tradeoff to be had. we live in a culture that values a handshake, and if you are somebody who wants to make a strong connection with your doctor, sometimes that handshake is valuable. so, the main message here is to make shower that hands are clean everytime. and i'll digress and say that before the handshake, i am the first to say, you need to ask your doctor, your nurse, or your visitor, to wash their hand where you can see them do it, and sometimes it comes off as obnoxious but okay to be at obnoxious when you're defending your house or your family members. you can ask in a nice way. i'm sure your hands are spotless but i'm neurotic about this and i'd appreciate if you would use the hand sanitizer and wash your hands for me, but saying that handshakes should never happen might beatle extreme. >> host: twitter: do airlines have any equipment to stop germs spreading on planes? >> guest: this is a very interesting topic. i've learned much more about airplanes than ever thought i would. being a physician, you would think that's an engineer's job. it turns out that a couple of things work. first and foremost, routine hygiene is important. so making sure that surfaces are wiped down-especially in the bathrooms, between trips, is one way that airlines help us stay safe. but the air handling system on airplanes is very interesting. the reason the air is warm is that it gets heated through heat generated by the engine, and that heated air is essentially very, very clean. so, from a safety perspective, from hygiene perspective, the mere air handling system of an airplane is beneficial. on a large passenger plane the air doesn't go up and down the aisleway. it travels in little disks like life savers in a package, and that's another way that the airplane actually reduces the chance of spread. so, the combination of that engineering approach and the ability of individual passengers to either cover their own coughs and make sure their hand are clean, those are things that we can all do to keep from catching diseases in planes. >> dr. bell as your talking, cnn n is doing a segment on how super bugs can survive on planes for days. >> guest: those super bugs they're talking about i imagine are probably the back tiera, like the antibiotic resistant ones we talk about, and many those of bacteria do survive, not only on planes. they survive on household furniture, they survive in any number of public places, anything that is touched by human beings is likely to have some organisms on it, quite a bit, actually -- and every now and then somebody will do a study and do cultures ---such as sponges or cutting boards, grocery cart happens. those have a lot of nasty things but to does your steering wheel. everything you touch has a ton of bacteria. so on a healthier person you should keep it out of your eyes, nose and mid-michigan. the hands we clean keep us safe. the other think that can happen if you have a wound, cut on your skin and board germs get in, that's rightite way to introduce these superbugs and create a bad infection. so keeping wounds covered, taking care of them promptly, those are things we can do as well. >> host: we'll move on to amy in texas. independent caller. >> caller: hello. i'm calling to ask -- i saw an episode of "frontline," inside of 3790, hunting the nightmare bacteria had this not been on "transcriptline" i would have thing it was bizarre ore ignored it. they were talking about bacteria that is resistant to everything, but the weird thing that they -- it's a wonderful episode, nearly shut dunn ih, but this -- down nim but a this bacteria exchanges, they call it little packets of genetic material of bacteria. doesn't have to be the same back tiera, they found four different bacteria in a mud puddle that had just one head -- one had given this packet of joan jen fret tick materials to the other bacteria and now all these different bacteria were resistant. >> host: are you fame with that? >> guest: absolutely. i'm so glad you watched that and it its aired. it's a great example of how we need be thinking about these things in a routine way. so, these are the same bacteria, the e that i mentioned earlier --cre. these organisms cause real infections. we call carry the e.coli and related bacteria in our gut and that's an important part of a healthy intestinal system. but at the same time those bacteria, if they've get into the bloodstream or you have an invasive device, for example in the intensive care unit on a breathing man, those can get into your lungs and cause pneumonia, those infections can be treated but if we lose the ability to treat those, as i said before, the baseics of intensive care medicine become very difficult to maintain. the fact that those bacteria swap genetic elements, the jumping genes, is an additional issue. so, not only can the organism sifts resist -- itself resist the antibiotics but they can spread that resistance to other bacteria and with seen that happen. these cause severe infections, and when we think about what the implications are, because we carry these germs and need to, we can't get rid of them the way we can get rid of staph. so if i'm having a heart operation, for example, it's very likely my doctor would test me for carriage of staph, mrssa, staph in general. you test my nostrils and if i was carrying it you would put ointment in my news before the operation and ask me to shower with a special soap. that's a great way to reduce the am of carriage, maybe get rid of it together, and make sure i don't give myself a bad staph infection in my wound after the separation. you can't do that with these cre, nightmare back tiera, because if you do, you make the person even sicker than before. there's another germ -- >> you can watch this anytime a c-span2.org. we leave it now go live to louisville, kentucky, where senate minority leader republican mitch mcconnell, is about to speak after winning the kentucky g.o.p. primary election. live coverage. ♪ [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much. something must have happened today. i'm not sure what it is. my friend, tonight we begin the process of putting kentucky first again. [applause] for five and a half years the powers that be in was have treated the people of this state with contempt, and tonight i have a simple message for all of them. those days are numbered. a little while ago i spoke with matt bevin and congratulated him on a hard-fought campaign. matt brought a lot of passion and tenacity to this race, and he made me a stronger candidate. a tough race is behind us. it's time to unite. to my opponent's supporters i hope you'llson me in months ahead and know your fight is my fight. let's have a big hand for matt bevin. applause. >> the reason we need to be together, of course, is because this race has always been much bigger than one candidate. it's about the kind of state we want. it's about the kind of country we want. it's about restoring america. and it starts tonight. [applause] i'm so happy to be joined tonight by my wife. [applause] many of you mow the story but bears repeating. elaine came to this country in the hull of a cargo ship when she was eight years old. when she entered a public grade school shortly after that she didn't speak a word of english. yet less than 40 years later elaine was sitting at the cabinet table advising the president of the united states. the only kentucky woman in history to be a member of a president's cabinet. [applause] my wife is not just an american success story elm she is an inspiration. and i'm so luck canny -- lucky to have elaine in my life and at my side every day. on a night like tonight i can't help but think of another woman who helped get me here, and that was my mother. my mom and dad were wonderful people. they were wonderful parents. when i was two years old i contracted polio. it was a frightening diagnosis in those days. but my mom responded with uncommon determination. through her patience and tenacity, she gave me what every child wants. a normal childhood. and she gave me an example i would never forget. i've tried to bring that same determination and tenacity to every cause i've taken up on behalf of the people of this state. whether it was fighting for folks who had been exposed to radiation at the uranium inpritchment plant for doing batful with left wing extremists who want to destroy our coal industry. i learned this from my mom. the only way to fail in this how do we change that? how do we get america back on track? we can take the reins of power away from harry reid and make this president accountable. [applause] make me the majority leader and kentucky will lead america. [applause] put this son of the commonwealth in charge of the senate and put the crowd to task. [applause] i will do everything i can to repeal and replace obamacare is. [applause] i will keep the liberal judges who are rewriting our laws from filling up our courts. [applause] i will hold the bureaucrats who are waging war on our people and our way of life to account. [applause] and kentucky my friends will lead. [applause] i will put the concerns of working and middle-class americans ahead of the liberal interest groups. [applause] i will make the people of this state proud. [applause] and kentucky will lead america. [applause] for five and a half years we have a president and the party in control of the senate. that does not care what you think. but tonight we begin the work of changing that. i have stood up to this president and if you make a the majority leader i will make sure that in the last two years of his presidency he is forced to think about the people of kentucky what he has been doing to them every single day. [applause] so look i don't care what party you are in. it doesn't make any difference. i'm asking you to join me in this effort and when the pundits and historians look back on the last two years of barack obama's presidency and they try to explain how an administration that started out so extreme was finally made to listen and to do the people's will they will say it started right here in kentucky. [applause] they will say this very night the people of kentucky began to fight back. [applause] together my friends we will renew this country. and his starts this evening. thank you all for being here. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ .. joining us live on the phone, sam young man, who has been following this story in lexington, kentucky for the world "herald". thank you very much for being with us. >> caller: thank you for having me. >> host: this is at tweet we got from job and martin of the new york times saying its mcdonald's speech so far certainly no accident, he challenges a republican -- a democratic candidate who is not well known but certainly is woman of the age of 35. it will be a different challenge for mitch mcconnell. >> caller: no question. women make up 53% of the electorate here in kentucky. we have seen from the onset of her campaign just an unrelenting focus on making sure when voters in occur in november. what you are seeing from senator mcconnell right now, he starts -- he kicks off the fall campaign a very determined and focused effort to try and cut into whatever margin the secretary might help to get. as jonathan said, senator mcconnell talked about his wife, elaine chao. i noticed over the weekend he was doing more and more about to but more and more of that. he talked about his mother. then, of course, these three examples discussing the president's health care lot of women from around the state. it is fairly obvious direction he is trying to go right now. >> host: give us a sense of what might have been talked about tonight. some reports that mad devon was going to support allison grimes. he made it very clear tonight that is not going to happen. >> caller: you know, matt believe right up until the last minute, i think, that he was going to shock the world and win this race. it was an interesting concession speech he gave, have hard magnanimous take the high road and have part better, a man who said, you know, we will not soon forget the attack. i cannot imagine what that conversation was like. i cannot imagine that he will be in a desperate to get to the unity rally, but, i mean, i do think we heard from him tonight as far as endorsements bill, that was about as lukewarm as they get. but we heard him say he would never endorse a democratic platform. i think tonight that is probably the best mitch mcconnell and hope for. >> host: let's talk about the upcoming fall campaign which essentially began this evening, the speech we just heard from senator mitch mcconnell who has reportedly about $20 million, and we expect to see some fund-raising numbers from allison grimes, plus the onslaught of outside money in the commonwealth of kentucky. what can we expect? >> caller: it will be an expensive race. i think the contours of this race severally already taken shape because he never materialized as a serious threat . it has said the general election feel for the last couple of months. what you heard tonight, i think it will be the main rally from its mcconnell going forward. both for ellison grimes and barack obama. it -- of vote for mitch mcconnell is a vote to reject the senate. putting a lot of weight on his seniority. as you heard his speech l.i. he is open to rally kentucky as around the idea of one of their own becoming senate majority leader. and the remarks, all those references to alan bartlett, majority leader for the democrats. so this is a 2-prong strategy. one, a vote against obama and, too, of the jamaican senate majority leader. i am eager to see what secretary grimes, when she takes the stage, i expect her to continue to run with an unyielding focus on mitch mcconnell of 30 years in washington. trying to betray herself as this new voice for a new generation and hopefully, as you would bring but it cannot bring kentucky into the new millennium >> host: we are live in lexington kentucky, and will have her speech momentarily. really the dichotomy, we were talking earlier, a 35-year-old democratic candidate, young, relatively new to politics and a veteran of the senate, 71- year-old mitch mcconnell, five terms in the senate seeking a sixth. how will that play out in the state that has a democratic governor and republican senators ? >> guest: it is fascinating. in so many ways beginning with registration and going on down, we are an anomaly when it comes to politics. you know, i don't know how much aid will play a factor one way or the other. i do think what we will see is mitch mcconnell, a veteran of the senate, will try to make this race a referendum on barack obama. grimes, who does not have a link to record, will try to make this a referendum on mitch mcconnell. whoever is more successful will be the next senator from kentucky. >> host: into the sewer just turning in and own a lot about the kentucky secretary of state, who is she and what is your own political background in kentucky her father's background in connection to the clintons? >> guest: we heard mitch mcconnell mention her father, a former party chairman, chairman of the democratic party here in the state who was an ally of bill clinton in the 90's and continues to be allies as far as we know to this day. the only female secretary of state -- excuse me, the youngest female secretary of state in the country, definitely has the backing of the democrats nationally and here in the state. you know, we will find out just tell unify the democratic party is. for white -- for right now it appears they have been able to get governor steve-year and jerry of london on the same page. it looks like for the most part they have put the bad blood behind them to be able to focus on beating mitch mcconnell. >> host: so, what is the headline tonight and the story tomorrow? >> guest: on to the main event. it looks like mitch mcconnell as not only survived the primary challenge, but has done so with any lasting or critical wounds. 36 percent is what it looks like right now. that is a manageable number for him to bring back into the bowl. better than what rand paul was dealing with four years ago. i think what we will see from alison lundergan grimes is an excited and unified democratic party now that everyone has the primaries behind them. that will focus like lasers, and it will get ugly really fast. >> host: couple saying already it is a dead heat with alison lundergan grimes up one percentage one within the margin of error. >> guest: it is a tossup right now. pretty consistent with what we are seeing. one thing will be curious about, to some of those voters who are supporting matt devon start to return to the republican field? the poll that you just mentioned, the bluegrass pull -- poll showed that 70 percent said they would vote for grimes. i have a hard time seeing that right now. if some of those people stuck to return to the republican fold, maybe that race becomes a little more fluid. >> host: assam young men joining us from kentucky with the results tonight in the senate primary. thanks, as always, for being with us. >> guest: thank you, steve. >> host: and our bowlines are open. but now speaking at the event. we want to listen in for a moment. we do expect alison lundergan grimes to follow. c-span coverage to continue from kentucky on this primary night. >> mr. mcconnell said one thing tonight that was accurate. he said, this fall kentucky as will not be deceived. [applause] and he is absolutely right. because in spite of millions and millions of dollars that he has already spent bashing alison lundergan grimes and millions and millions of dollars he is going to spend between now and november putting out the same fall since the law in november the folks are not going to be deceived. [applause] democrats and republicans alike know that after 30 years of dysfunction it is time to bring mitch mcconnell home. and he is going to know -- and they're going to lead to more things. they are going to know that the fellow will probably be unemployed, but we will not cry too much for him. we have all seen his financial disclosure statement, and he has done quite well over the last 30 years of being kentucky's united states senator. but number two, they are ready to it send to the united states senate a young, vibrant, energetic person who knows how to reach across the aisle and get things done. ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome tonight kentucky's next united states senator, alison lundergan grimes. [applause] [applause] [cheering and applause] ♪ [cheering and applause] [cheering and applause] ♪ [cheering and applause] ♪ [applause] [cheering and applause] [cheering and applause] [cheering and applause] >> thank you. good evening, kentucky and. [applause] my fellow kentuckians, it is an honor to stand before you as your nominee. [cheering and applause] thank you for the overwhelming confidence that you have in their campaign we, together, are running and the race we will win in november. [cheering and applause] together we will take this fight to mitch mcconnell and hold him accountable for his 30 years of failed leadership. [cheering and applause] and together we will make history, and kentucky will finally get a senator who puts people above partisanship, one that will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to improve the lives of kentuckians, to help them find jobs and make the commonwealth a better place to live. [cheering and applause] tonight we celebrate the support , the overwhelming support that we have received all across the commonwealth of kentucky. you know, senator mcconnell thinks he is above all of us here tonight and across the commonwealth, literally flying around the state the night before the elections while we have been and will continue to be on the ground in every corner of the commonwealth of kentucky. [cheering and applause] most recently in a 10-day, 60 county bus tour where their energy and enthusiasm was contagious. democrats, republicans, independents coming together and embracing our vision, our campaign, which is about ending the gridlock, the obstruction, and the extreme partisanship in washington d.c. that mitch mcconnell champions and finally putting a united states senator on behalf of the commonwealth of kentucky that will work to grow the middle class, create jobs, and help to create a better commonwealth of kentucky. [cheering and applause] [applause] as we stand here tonight, i have to thank each of my family members. my husband, andrew, my parents, charlotte and jerry, my sisters, alyssa, abby, ashley, who celebrates a birthday tonight. [cheering and applause] and amy. dr. and mrs. grimes, my grandmother, who could not be here with us tonight, but is one of the fiercest kentucky women i know. [cheering and applause] who taught me anything you set your mind to you can accomplish. each and every one of you, my aunts and uncles, cousins throughout the commonwealth, you have been with me as i have sought to be the change that i believe we need in the commonwealth of kentucky, and i am forever grateful. i wanted thank also the governor , governor basheer and former governors brown and collins and carol anne paton and jones who have been a part of this campaign. governor collins has traveled everywhere on that bus tour with me. [cheering and applause] to my fellow constitutional officers, members of the house and senate who have been with us every step of the way, to my hard-working, talented staff who have fled under the direction of campaign manager jonathan hurst. [applause] you have an unwavering commitment to giving of your time and talents to help us move this state and nation for word, but most importantly to each and every one of you that are here tonight and that are joining us across the television screen, it is because of you, your prayers, your persistence, and, yes, your getting out to work each and every day that we stand here tonight and the possibility of a brighter future awaits us in november. [cheering and applause] i wanted thank my three opponents in today's primary election. to matt bevin, who led a very spirited campaign against senator gridlock. [laughter] i thank you for stepping forward. i know it is not easy being a candidate. trust me, no, but i believe our great democracy is at its best when people step forward and make sacrifices to have an exchange of ideas. i want to invite kentuckians all across the commonwealth, democrats, republicans, independents to join us tonight in our common cause to have a fresh, independent voice in washington d.c. that finally put kentucky, not washington partisanship first. [cheering and applause] united we will make a change. now, we celebrate here tonight to, but make no mistake, our work continues tomorrow. let us have no collusion about what is ahead of us and what lies ahead, which is millions of d.c. lobbyists, insider dollars, and out of state political action committees. mitch mcconnell is going to try to buy his way back to washington d.c. with deceitful, untruthful, negative, nasty ads that will try to distort and distract from his failed record. he once this campaign to be about anything but his record. what does it say? a man who has been in washington d.c. now 30 years in the senate, but he has no record to run on. it can only be on a tax and misleading information that he runs a campaign. [cheering and applause] indeed, mitch mcconnell would have you believe that president obama is on kentucky's 2014 election ballot. [laughter] we all know that senator mcconnell has been in washington of a bit too long. [cheering and applause] so out of touch that he cannot tell the difference between a stooped jersey and the university of kentucky. [cheering and applause] well, let me set the record straight tonight for our senior senator who is out of touch with the commonwealth of kentucky. president obama is not on kentucky's 2014 election ballot. nothing about this election will change who is in the white house, but we can change who is in washington d.c. finally get someone from the commonwealth of kentucky. [cheering and applause] senator mcconnell, this race is between you and me. that is the name that appears on the ballot. [cheering and applause] and as you said so many years ago, it is my number one priority to make sure mitch mcconnell does not seek another term. [cheering and applause] now, mitch mcconnell, he wants to tell you who i am, and he has said -- he claims that kentucky will be lost if we trade in his seat for a kentucky woman, who he believes will sit on the back bench. [laughter] well, i am here to tell you tonight my fellow kentuckians, i am not an empty dress. i am not a rubber stamp, and i am not a cheerleader. i am a strong kentucky woman who is an independent thinker, the decisions that i make will be what is best for the people of the commonwealth of kentucky, not interests. [applause] as kentucky's next united states senator, i will answer to the people of the state. i won't answer to the president, no matter who he or she might be. [applause] as a proud kentucky woman, i will speak for myself, and no kentucky woman, mitch mcconnell, will sit on the back bench. [cheering and applause] we all know washington is broken it is not working for kentucky, and after 30 years it is mitch mcconnell at the center of the gridlock of obstruction and extreme partisanship that we see kentucky is tired of a senator who proudly calls himself the doctor of know, the guardian of gridlock. i am running because kentucky deserves better. we deserve a center for the people of this state. it. [cheering and applause] this election, it is not about party control. it is about two very different visions for the commonwealth of kentucky, one that wants to take us forward where we should end deserve to be and another that wants to continue to hold us back, as he has for the last three decades. mitch mcconnell, he stands on the wrong side of every issue that is out there for kentucky in this -- kentuckians. when it comes to increasing the minimum wage, he has voted against it 15 times, never gone without a pay raise for himself, could cripple his net worth on the backs of hard-working kentuckians that cannot afford. he said it is the last thing he will put his name to. and i am in the united states senate, my fellow kentuckians, it will be the first thing we put our name to. it is not a minimum wage. it is a living wage. each and every kentuckians deserves the opportunity to live the american dream and be a part of a shared prosperity. when it comes to the women of the commonwealth of kentucky, well, mitch mcconnell is on the wrong side of every issue, voting against the violence against women's act, the page on fairness act and the lee ledbetter act. senator mcconnell, if you cannot stand up for folks to protect kentucky's women against violence you don't deserve to be a united states senator. [cheering and applause] this is not acceptable. [applause] and let's get the record straight, it is on mitch mcconnell watch, not mine, that we have lost thousands of cold jobs. it is on his watch, not mine, that we have gone without the necessary funding to implement clean coal technology. overburdens of epa regulations have been imposed upon the commonwealth of kentucky. this election will be about holding you, senator mcconnell, accountable for all that has happened on your watch. [cheering and applause] the three words that scare senator mcconnell the most unwelcome of besides seeing alison lundergan grimes on the ballot, it is perot pulled kentucky -- kentuckians. i do not agree with the president's war on coal. i think it is wrong for kentucky . we cannot afford to have six more years of mitch mcconnell in washington d.c. either. as kentucky's next united states senator i will fight to make sure that coal has a long-term place in our national energy policy, that we actually have the funding to employment clean coal technology and restore coal to its rightful place as a prime american exports. anything that you hear to the contrary from mitch mcconnell, it is a lie, kentuckians. [cheering and applause] when it comes to the veterans of this state, 350,000 veterans that we have in the commonwealth, the fourth largest in the nation, mitch mcconnell votes against them, as the votes against making permanent the without the higher heroes act. i will continue to champion and advocate on behalf of our kentucky heroes and worked to make that act permanent. [cheering and applause] and for our american working men and women, mitch mcconnell, he does not want you to have a voice. i believe that collective bargaining is a fundamental right for our american workers. [cheering and applause] i will have none of the right to work legislation. it is just another name for union busting. together it is labor that has lifted as out of poverty. together we will grow the middle class. [cheering and applause] and when it comes to the jobs, as you know we so desperately need here in the commonwealth of kentucky, well, we know where senator mcconnell has been carried his votes have been on the wrong side of every issue. we finally got the admission as he went to the eastern part of the state just a month ago, told eastern kentucky and whose unemployment is nearly twice the national average, in response to what will you do to help bring jobs back to this date, he said, and i quote, it is not his job to bring jobs to the commonwealth of kentucky . we cannot afford to have a senator who does not believe, as i do, it is a number one priority to help hard-working kentuckians get back to work. [cheering and applause] this race -- [cheering and applause] this race is about someone who for 30 years has never put forth the job plan, does not believe it is his responsibility, and won't fight for the people of the commonwealth of kentucky and someone who is the only candidate in this race that has a job plan that we developed together. [cheering and applause] unlike mitch mcconnell, i will rise every morning and go to bed every night with the burden on my back of helping to put kentuckians back to work. that is the job of a united states senator. [cheering and applause] it is making sure the boilermaker in eastern kentucky you cannot put their suitcase and a yard sale because they might needed to go find work as a way forward. it is the mother of a 6-month old, who does not know how she is going to be able to provide for young daughter because of a 16-day government shut down that mitch mcconnell caused at the forefront of this election. make no mistake, there is no silver bullet that will solve all of our economic woes, but it is about two things. one, having a center that believes it is their job to help grow the middle class and put kentuckians back to work. two, a center that has a plan to get out there. it is about doing the right things over a sufficient amount of time with the proper investment. kentuckians, together we will get there. now, let me tell you, this election comes down to one thing. if you think that washington is working for you, that they are in touch with you and your families, the last six years, you would like to have been duplicated, you keep that senior senator in washington until 2020, but if you are like the majority of kentuckians and think that washington is not working for this state, that mitch mcconnell is out of touch and we wanted to have a better six years, then i invite kentuckians all across this commonwealth, join our campaign. together we will win kentucky -- red kentucky of a man who will not work for us in washington and replace them with a fighter who will. [cheering and applause] kentucky must do better. [cheering and applause] we can do better, and together we will do better. thank you. god bless each of you and the commonwealth of kentucky. [cheering and applause] [applause] ♪ [applause] at. ♪ [applause] ♪ [applause] ♪ ♪ [cheering and applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> and with that, the general election matchup is now set. you heard from alison grimes and before that senator mitch mcconnell in one of the most closely watched senate races in this midterm campaign and what will clearly be one of the most, if not the most expensive race. alison grimes easily getting the democratic nomination with 76 percent of the vote, and mitch mcconnell an easy winner over his tea party challenger, matt bevin. our phone lines are open, 202-585-3880 power line for democrats, 202-585-3881 for republicans. we are also keeping an eye on a couple of other key races around the country, including in arkansas and georgia, the georgia republican primary. essentially neck and neck, which means that the two will face each other in a likely runoff on july 22nd. also, a gubernatorial primary in pennsylvania, a couple of key house races in idaho, oregon, and pennsylvania. surely has been patient on the phone. tallahassee, florida. good evening. >> caller: yes, good evening. this is florida blue butterfly year. i am so delighted with alison grimes. i think that she is going to be an excellent candidate representing the innovative, inclusive agenda to move us forward. we are, as she stated, a united states, not a red or blue state, as the president stated. she is not going to be running as president obama on the ticket . mitch mcconnell represents the old and the past, and it was evident from just the contrast of the speeches. and also here in florida we, too , are going to move to a florida blue leadership. the country has already decided on the president. they have elected him twice. so this notion that we are going to somehow -- the people are somehow living in a fog and are unaware what their issues are, there needs of a life that's a private -- provides health security, social security and retirement security along with a valid future for their children to look and live for is what we have always had in this country. we are a forward country. >> host: thank you very much for the call. sean sullivan of the "washington post" has this tweet on some potential comebacks that are falling short, not a good night for baba bar in georgia. marjorie down big early. trying to win back the seat that she held previously in pennsylvania's 13th congressional district, down at the moment by more than 25 percentage points. on the republican line, tom from illinois. good evening. >> caller: good evening. good to be with you. there are many, many races taking place in the u.s. senate across the country. the republicans look like they have a tsunami that is developing verses the democrats when it comes to the senate races. the iowa senate race, the race in west virginia, montana, several other races. i think the kentucky race, ms. alison grimes can run, but she cannot hide. i think senator mcconnell will expose the national record of the obama administration, the coal issue, the lack of economic growth, and it will be a difficult run for her. i think of the georgia race is looking well for the republicans anywhere from conservatively five to six see a difference. there will very likely be a new majority in the senate, november >> host: thank you very much for the call. looking at the matchup in kentucky with mitch mcconnell, the republican candidate, and alison grimes, the democratic nominee, both winning easily in their state. keeping an eye on that senate primary. the democratic nominee, and putting her in her speech where her father jointer on the stage tonight, we send a signal to washington that we want something different. another state-wide race in pennsylvania. expected to face a tough reelection challenge. he will be facing the businessmen who easily defeated his democratic challenges, including alice and shorts who gave up her seat in the 13th congressional district. about 37% reporting a 19%. democrats line from louisville, kentucky. good evening. >> caller: good evening. i want to mention something about kentucky politics i don't think people understand. when you think of kentucky you think of a conservative state, but at the state level the democratic party in kentucky is twice as powerful as the republican party. the difference is that these republicans, like mcconnell, get money from outside the state. this lady has got the support of the democratic party in this state, and she is going to get a heck of a lot of money from outside the state to match it. that is why i think she will win, but it will be a close race. the democratic party is twice as powerful as the republican party in the state of kentucky. >> host: before you hang up by now you are calling on the democratic line. any surprise and the results of the republican side, matt bevin falling far short committing less than 40 percent of the vote compared to mitch mcconnell? >> caller: no, mitch mcconnell is not a conservative republican mitch mcconnell likes the government, but he has written this wave of anti-government stuff that started in 1980 because ronald reagan convinced the people of kentucky, just like the people of america, that the federal government does more harm than good. he has written this wave. only one-third of the people in the republican party did not vote for him today. he is vulnerable. this could be a big election. >> host: thank you for the call. if you are just tuning in or joining us on c-span radio, we want to hear from you. our phone lines are open, 202-585-3880, 202-585-3881. the first line for democrats, the second for republicans. if you are an independent, the number to call is 202-585-3882. keeping track of the results sending out this tweet. alison grimes ones of upcoming attacks against her, saying mcconnell is geared to run on his record. this race has not even started yet. next is new york, democrats line good evening. >> caller: good evening. thank you for taking my call. i would just like to make just a few comments. first of all, i would like to congratulate alison grimes on her victory. i still would like to see mr. mcconnell understand that he is not just a representative of kentucky -- kentuckians, but a representative of the people. when he gets there he needs to understand that you cannot spend six years just saying no to every proposal that comes from the president, every proposal that comes from the congress. you just can't say no to everything. it is my hope that alison grimes will go there and beat him. i know the race will be close, but i believe that she will beat him, and she will beat him in fine style. you will have a congresswoman that will go in there and actually get the job done. that is why we elect these people. we want them to get the job done. they are the people's -- elected by the people, for the people so that people will have a better life. and all of the money coming into politics and coming into the states from outside, that is going to continue because of the supreme court decision. we cannot quite know. we have to do is focus on local elections. mr. obama will leave office in 2016 anyway. we are not focused on him. we are focused on what is happening in our neighborhoods and what is happening in our local economies. then we will look at the national. i want to congratulate her on a fine job tonight and i hope she will continue to win. >> host: thank you very much for the call. again, primary night in six states. we have been focusing on kentucky, but also in georgia, pennsylvania, arkansas, idaho, and oregon. joining us live on the phone, following all of this for politico. thank you very much for being with us. >> caller: thank you for having me. >> host: these other races. first, in georgia, the expected runoff between congressman kingston and david perdue. >> caller: it is looking like there will be a runoff in july. those two are the more centrist moderate establishment type candid it's. the chamber has been backing kingston, and so it is expected that he will be leading the pack in this crowded republican primary. both of them will be, it looks like, making it to the runoff, which is something that establishment republicans have been hoping for. >> host: and that runoff is scheduled for july 22nd. on the democratic side of the aisle a familiar name back on that ballot, the daughter of the former senator from georgia. >> caller: exactly. the democratic nominee. it will be a close race. democrats are hoping they can pick up that seat. they might need it because it will be hard for them to defend some of their seats in some of the red states. >> host: let's turn to kentucky where alison grimes easily winning that democratic nomination and senator mitch mcconnell. we heard from the starting gate where this campaign is going from both candid it's. >> caller: definitely. you know, the race is just getting started. you know, both sides have raised a lot of money. you know, mitch mcconnell even spent about 11 million in his primary alone. this race will be close. it will be a big one to watch. >> host: the other race in pennsylvania, of attention on the democratic primary for governor. tom wolfe, relatively unknown six months ago easily winning against -- at the time governor of candidate, including governor schwartz. >> caller: the results came in pretty early. largely self funded. being a congressman, she went into it with more name recognition, considered to be the front-runner, but tom wolfe easily defeated her. you know, schwartz was seen as a candidate to could, you know, pose a better challenge to tom gordon. we will have to see if tom wolfe has enough money and is able to fund raise enough to take on the republican. >> host: let's talk about pennsylvania's 13th district. a lot of attention, the potential comeback. the mother-in-law of chelsea clinton, a lot of efforts by the clinton family. lost to brand in boyle. ap has called the race, and this was not even close. >> caller: it was not at all. she gets some help from the clintons, but she got a lot of attention because she is a clinton-in-law and has held that position before. in the end she could not get enough support. >> host: why? >> caller: it was a very crowded democratic primary. it is unclear -- the clintons could have done more, but in the and she was not able to win enough support. >> host: polls are still open out in west idaho and oregon. other races we are keeping an eye on, but they're is a primary challenge with congressman mike simpson facing a tea party challenge. what can you tell us about that race? >> caller: a lot of people will be watching. again, those same narratives. again, a proxy war between the republican establishment and the endorsed candidate in bryan smith. this is a race that the club had said was sort of their best shot at prairie or congressman, but, you know, in recent weeks the club has gone off the air and directed a lot of their money toward the nebraska senate race. you know, since and is expected to win, but there was not any public polling in this race. it is still unclear if smith could pull this off. >> host: and finally, tarini parti, let's talk about arkansas. it was an uncontested primary. the republican candidate and democratic candidates seeking reelection. this, like kentucky, will be one of the most closely watched races in the country this year. >> caller: it is. it is one of those red states. so, you know, a lot of polls have shown him in the lead, but this race, again, just getting started. a lot of money will come in on both sides. >> host: tarini parti following all of these races, and her work is available on-line at political. thank you for being with us bees. >> caller: thank you for having me. >> host: mitch mcconnell crushing a tea party challenger. the other prayer results, including the expected runoff in the georgia senate race. we have a few more minutes, and then we will let you listen and to what matt bevin had to say earlier this evening as he conceded take mitch mcconnell. first, larry on the phone from hampered, california. good evening. >> caller: good evening. i am independent, but i am so glad mitch mcconnell win because , you know, obama been lying to the whole country. if you like your doctor, you can keep her doctor. if you like your health care, you get to keep your health care finally for the last two years of his presidency he finally going to have to learn how to tell the truth to the american people. he won't be able to deceive american people if republican hold both house and senate. >> host: thank you for the call. let's go back to pennsylvania's 13th congressional district, brendan boyle who easily defeated a multi candidate race including the one getting so much attention. 55 percent to 24%. the defeat in pennsylvania 13 counts as a genuine shocker no matter how you slice it. the dams and that clinton establishment turned back. next, the democrats line. good evening. >> caller: good evening. my name is maria. i am just so happy to see alison grimes. i was listening to her speech. just there for everybody. does not matter if you are democrats, independents, or republican. we want someone to go to speak for every woman. i am ready to go to kentucky with my other friends to go knock on doors for her alison grimes. we will get her to the senate. you will see. mitch mcconnell is on -- gone. the person who said obama lies, we had more than 8 billion people who signed up for obamacare. but that's not right now. i'm just talking about alison grimes. we are going to put her up there. thank you very much, alison grimes, for speaking for every woman. >> host: thank you for the call. in his opening remarks senator mcconnell made reference to his wife as well as his own mother, his battle with polio, and a reference of three kentucky women who do not like the affordable care act. of course, that will be the key narrative in the kentucky election. in pennsylvania national journal is writing about john wills win once in a high-stakes contest against republican governor tom gordon. next from north carolina, republican line. good evening to use. >> caller: hello. my comment is about alison grimes, you know. we, the people, of the united states have been fooled by obama. this makes twice. he has promised us all kind of promises. he spends most of his time vacationing. they fly around the country. on our dime, you know. he never has a job -- my boss and i were talking about, if you put -- we were in the construction business, and we would never take a laborer and macon had of the corporation because the corporation will fail. that is what obama has done to our country. alison grimes, if she gets up there, she will help them for the next two years. the independents and republicans have had it with the democrats. we are kicking them out this time. we will be a repeat of what happened in the house race. >> host: okay. thank you very much for the call tonight c-span and c-span2, the only networks where you can see the speeches in their entirety. as we proceed in that general election, the one network that will show you all of the debates in the key house, senate, and governor races. of course, you can follow along any time at our website at c-span.org. the huffington opposed writing about the kentucky senate primary and matt bevin, the tea party challenger saying, the tea party groups promised to support mitch mcconnell after the loss by matt bevin. in just a moment you will see what matt bevin had to say in lexington, kentucky earlier this evening, the first of the three candidates to speak in this in a primary race today, the first, our final call, john from longview, texas, democrats line. good evening. >> caller: yes. thank you. i just wanted to say, why do we have and invested capital system and not use the money properly? declare emergency right now on any amount of money, or 15%, no write offs and take care of social security and anything that is urgent and america. we will be a different place. that was my main key. >> host: okay. all these pieces available on our website. the headline tonight says it all from political as mitch mcconnell crushes a tea party challenger. now the race in kentucky with alison grimes. and in pennsylvania this date white race getting a lot of attention. it -- lost her race to recapture the sec held 13 years ago. up next, matt bevin, his concession speech earlier this evening from lexington, kentucky . ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [cheering and applause] >> thank you. thank you. you need to stop now, or i am going to start crying and you. thank you for being here. clearly you have been seeing some of the numbers, and the numbers are shaping up as they are. let's talk about that among but i cannot tell you how grateful i am to see you here tonight. the energy here, the enthusiasm here, the fact that you are here is speaking to something that is so much bigger than any one race and so much bigger than any one person and so much bigger than any one of you individually. give yourselves a round of applause for all that you have done here. really. [cheering and applause] [applause] you know, i tell you what, nine months ago people thought we were crazy. some thought we were crazy a whole time. but i tell you what, here is the reality. we know why we are here. we know the significance of it. we know the fact that this is not unprecedented. we know that when our founding fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor, their midnight runs the plant signs all over god's green earth -- [cheering and applause] when they pledged at least the first three of those things, they meant it. and every one of them gave some or all of the above, and every one of you has given some or all of the above. and i am humbled by that. i am just a guy who, frankly, nine months ago most of you would not have known for mulholland the ground. yet here i stand as the votes are coming in. much closer than many people anticipated it would have any chance to beat. while even now about 50 percent of the votes are yet end, we are not going to win this race, and that is all right. i have spoken to mitch mcconnell, and we have conceded the fact that he is going to have the votes to win this race. that is certainly not the conversation we wanted to have when we were here. this is not what drew us to this race. i wanted to start first of all i acknowledge that -- acknowledging my family and introduce, for those of you who have never met them in person, this is my beautiful wife, glenda [cheering and applause] [applause] [applause] i should not have turned around and looked at her. [laughter] that was a big mistake. i was doing great, actually. i was doing really well until i turned around and looked at her. i am so blessed. i am so blessed by an extraordinary life, an extraordinary mother, someone who has poured herself into this in ways that have truly been above and beyond, and i am blessed by nine beautiful children, awesome children, attentive, well-behaved, able to act as if i am still interesting when they have heard the same thing 400 times. extraordinary. [cheering and applause] [cheering and applause] this is -- this is joanna over here. when i say your name, just raise your hand. olivia, sophia, grace, madison, mackenzie, libya, isaac on the and. stan the man. [applause] [cheering and applause] you know, this is not -- this is not a path that any of us sought out. it is not a path that we sought out. it is amazing how things unfold and turn out to be ways that you never would have anticipated. and we have truly been, as best we have been able, obedient to what it is we were supposed to be doing. and so we find ourselves standing here before you nine months after starting an adventure that we could not have even imagined. and the places we have gone in the people we have seen -- it is almost starting to sound like a dr. seuss book. [laughter] really and truly, the places we have been, oh, the places you will go. we have driven over 48,000 miles in the last months. we have seen every corner of kentucky, and i will tell you what, we are blessed to live in an extraordinary state. we really are. the people of kentucky -- [applause] the commonwealth of kentucky, the beauty of kentucky, the people of kentucky are exceptional, and we have been blessed to interact with them to the degree that we have in recent months, we really have. i will tell you this, this was never about winning a single seat. it really wasn't. it was never about winning a single seat. this was never about becoming some new version of the same old thing. that was never what this race was about. this was about the very heart beat of america, and we know that. we have heard a lot of discussion about somehow this is a schism of sorts, some highly battle for the heart and soul of the republican party, but every single one of us knows, and some of you heard me discuss how this is so much bigger than that. this is a battle for the heart and soul of the entire political process. this is a function of who is in charge. that is what is at stake here. whether it will continue to be of and by and for the people. i will tell you why, we, the people, have exercised a pretty extraordinary voice year, we really have. we have come out. look at the energy in this room. i will tell you, i don't know if you -- some of you have been involved in the political process. you don't typically have this much fun, this bigger crowd, and this much excitement when you are on the wrong side of the equation and a political campaign, you really don't. [cheering and applause] okay. okay. it is not that's fine. it is not that fund. come on, now. in all seriousness i am looking out here and seeing the same people wearing the exact same path that they were wearing at fancy farm many months ago. i will tell you, these are the things that give me -- i will tell you, the faces i am seeing in this room, the people i have met, the friendships i have developed i am grateful for. i will tell you, this whole race has largely been about exercising a right to vote, exercising our right to have our voices heard. this is about choice. it's about competition. i am asking each of you here -- and i no their is a lot of disappointments. nobody more than myself -- i have poured my entire life into this for the last mike -- last nine months, given everything i had with then me and been blessed by the fact that so many of you, including those behind me on the stage to have done the exact same thing, but i am asking you tonight, take the high road. take the high road as we be here. be the bigger person. return discord and the enmity of others with dignity. [cheering and applause] [applause] if we, as voters -- if we, as a party, if we, as citizens of this great nation, if we returned fire for fire then we will burn our great nation. to the ground . and we deserve better than that. so don't return fire for fire. don't burn this great nation to the ground. thomas jefferson once noted that there is nothing that gives one man such advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under every circumstance. ..

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