59 minutes, 38 seconds and counting until the first polls close on Election Night. Thank you so much for joining us for this election count down and here is what is going to be happening, every friday night from now until election day we are going to be right here, at this hour at this board, bringing you the latest in polling, the latest data, the latest on the Ground Reporting and expert analysis as we draw near one of the most anticipated Midterm Elections in modern memory. Thats going to be november the 8th. Already, voting started in more than a dozen states. That includes some of the most critical battlegrounds on the board, pennsylvania, florida, wisconsin, just over the last couple of days, ohio, arizona, and a Georgia Early Voting set to begin this coming monday. It is the peach state where we start tonight with our breaking news. A head to head televised showdown this evening between democratic senator Raphael Warnock, and his republican challenger, Herschel Walker. All year, the Georgia Senate race has been one of the most closely watched in the country, but that has been even more true that ever over the last ten days. It began with that reporting first from the daily beast by the New York Times, that walker had pushed for and paid for his then girlfriend to have an abortion in 2009, a charge that walker has denied. Since that reporting, this has become the question when it comes to the battle for control of the senate. Will it cost walker the voters . If it does, will it cost republicans a seat they may need to win if theyre going to gain control of the senate . We knew that topic was going to come up tonight, it did, heres how it played out. Your former girlfriend made public accusations, saying you paid for an abortion, and that even courage her to have another. In abc news interview this week, you said that the accusations are, quote, all allies. For the voters watching tonight, can you explain the circumstances surrounding these claims . You have 60 seconds. As i said, thats a lie. You know, most thing, i put it in the book, one thing about my life, ive been very transparent. That was only a small part of what proved to be a contentious hourlong debate. Abortion, inflation, health care, Donald Trumps claims about the 2020 election, all topics producing potentially significant moments. Here is a look. Did President Biden defeat former President Donald Trump in 2020 . President biden won and senator warnock lawn, thats the reason i decided to run. The patients role is to narrow, cramped, small a space for a woman, her doctor, and the United States government. We are witnessing, right now, what happens when politicians, most of them men, pile into patients rooms. You get what you are seeing, right now, and if the Women Of Georgia, the Women Of Georgia deserves a senator who will stand with them. I trust women more than i trust politicians. Maam, may i respond . Very quickly, mister walker. You know, it is, and i heard about, it and i heard he was a talker but did he not mention that there was a baby in that room as well . Also, did he not mention raise your hand if you support a federal minimum wage. Mister walker, you did not raise your hand, so id like to ask you, first of all, why not, and what would you do to help struggling georgians . Well, you said a federal i think, right now, and he said it, i want a federal government, no, he wants a federal government to run. Right now, you have the word of different corporations, to see just where they could [inaudible] people need a livable wage. And some of that is being addressed right now, in the strongly for marquette. You could support Police Officers as i have done through the cops program, through the invest to protect program, while, at the same time, holding Police Officers like all professions accountable. One thing i have not done, ive never pretended to be a police officer. I have never threatened a shootout with the police. You know what is so funny . I am one of many Police Officers. At the same time mr. Walker, mr. Walker, mr. Walker, excuse me, mister walker, please, out of respect, i need to let you know, mr. Walker, you are very well aware of the rules tonight, and you have a prop. That is not allowed, sir. I ask you to put that prop away. Its not a prop, this is real. He said it is considered a prop, mister walker, excuse me, sir, youre very well aware of the rules, arent you . Well arent you aware of the rules . Lets talk about the truth. Thank you for putting that prop owe a. What i want you to do is get off the Government Health care, and get on the health care hes got. Georgia needs to expand medicare. It costs us more not to expand. What were doing right now is subsidizing health care in other states. Would you support President Biden running for a second term in 2024 . I have not spent a minute thinking about what politicians should run for what in 2024. Would you support a trump 2024 run . I would. Let me tell, you president trumps my friend. Lets go now to reporters who are in georgia for tonights debate, nbc news correspondent, alison barber, and New York Times political reporter, maya king. Thank you for joining us. Alison, let me start with you. Basically, what was each campaign hoping to achieve through tonights debate, and what are they saying afterwards about whether they achieved it . Going into the debate night, we were expecting to hear Herschel Walker make an aggressive push to try and tie senator warnock to president joe biden. Joe biden does not have a very high Approval Rating in the state, in a poll, by the agency, back in september, among lightly georgia voters. The president s Approval Rating overall was 37 . Weve seen walker do that throughout the campaign, when i was speaking to sources close to the Walker Campaign. They were adamant that he was going to aggressively make that point tonight. We saw him try to bring that up a number of times. Warnocks rebuttal to that was he said something along the lines of, it is clear to me that my candidate would like to be running against anyone, except for me. On warnocks side, we expected to see him come in and highlight a lot of the work he has already done in washington, d. C. , work he says is directly helping voters here in georgia. Also highlight some of the Bipartisan Legislation that he has worked on. We saw him do that tonight. It was a very interesting, quick, back and forth debate, both sides are already declaring victory. I have my phone out because ive been texting the sources from both campaigns. Warnocks side, they feel like he did a very good job tonight. His Campaign Manager, already released a statement saying, in part, there is no Question Reverend warnock won tonights debate, and showed georgians the reason they elected him in the first place well Herschel Walker offered no solutions, light, and proved, once again, he isnt ready to represent georgians. Walkers Campaign Manager tweeted he dominated the debate tonight, he had Campaign Surrogates in the spin room after singing his praises. I got a text from another Walker Campaign source, thats the word they used again, dominated on warnock side, a source close to his campaign, when i asked how he thought warnock did tonight, the first text he sent was, well, for starters, the reverend did not flush a fake police badge. That was an interesting odd moment where you have the moderator telling walker, you know the rules, you cant have any sort of. Probably held up what appeared to be some sort of police like badge, even though he, himself, is not a police officer. Steve . Yeah, interesting moment there, indeed, alison. Maya, youve done reporting, and i know youve written about republicans rallying around Herschel Walker, in the wake of these allegations about paying for an abortion. This is the kind of race, though, when you look at the polling in it, where even if most republicans stick with walker, if there is a small amount of slippage there for, him with that republican base, that could make the difference between winning and losing this case. In your reporting, have you detected, picked up on any cracks in that republican support for walker, even if it is small . Ive talked to a number of conservative voters who have expressed some concerns, yes, who have said that they are all in behind Governor Kemp, but not yet made up their mind about whether or not they want to support Herschel Walker. Tonight was a chance for walker to make an appeal to those voters. You hear, at the end, in his closing statements, he said, for those voters who are nervous about voting for me, calling himself a nonpolitician, he, essentially, made a pitch to them, saying i will be ready on day one to represent you in the senate. The difference, though, those are the voters Raphael Warnock has spoken to, repeatedly, not only on the debate stage, talking extensively about his, work with republican senators, but also on the airwaves, hes cut advertisements with a similar message. Its clear theres a slice of the electorate in georgia both candidates are absolutely and cooling for, in the next few weeks. All right, yes, definitely are some swing voters here, entire balance of the senate could come down to how those swing voters but here. Thank you very much for joining us, after a lively debate tonight. Lets take a look, your head back over to the board. Speaking of where this race stands, lets take a look here, A Closer Look at georgia in the polling, how this fits into that question of control. What you are seeing here is the current Polling Average in those georgia races. Warnock is leading walker here. We have had a couple of polls that came out since those allegations ten days ago were launched against Herschel Walker. You could see here its a bit more than three points to lead that warnock enjoys over a walker. The xfactor to remember, when you think about georgia, i dont need to remind you of this if you remember the 2020 election, georgia is a runoff state. There is a third candidate in this case, a libertarian, whos going to get 2 to 3 points of the vote, in georgia. In 2020, those senate races won two runoffs, if neither one of these candidates can crack 50 on Election Night. Guess, what georgia goes to a runoff. The runoff would be held on december six, when you look at the broader senate map, its not impossible at all that this control of the senate could, again, come down to a runoff from georgia. We would have a month after the election to overtime these two candidates having the runoff to determine control. That is not impossible. Two other things to note here, when you look inside the numbers, one of the polls that came out this week, emerson poll, there is a bit of a difference, there may be to beat those allegations against walker, the favorable, unfavorable score, for warnock, his favorable is just a tick over 50, for walker, he is a tick upside down there. There is a slight potentially significant difference, theyre just in terms of how these candidates argued personally. Again, you heard maya talking about this, there is also a gap here between the senate race, and the governors race. The governors race in georgia, the republican camp in the voting average, a Comfortable Lead over stacey abrams, at least right now, there appears to be something we thought might be extinct in politics in georgia, split to get voters. Folks voting for brian kemp, but theyre not voting for Herschel Walker, at least not at this moment, in the senate race, but instead going for Raphael Warnock. Is that a dynamic thats going to persist until election day . Lets talk more about those dynamics in georgia now, joining us is charles a Political Science professor at the University Of. Georgia professor, thank you for joining us. I appreciate it. You know the Lay Of The Land in georgia, you saw that debate tonight, you have a sense of the electorate, i am curious, do you think that anything that happened in that debate tonight will affect this election, one way or another . I dont think anything that happened tonight will make a dramatic change. Now on, apparently, Made A Statement Which a Missile Statement kind of thing which then becomes the news, the kind of thing that may work its way to a political ad if something says something out of left field. The candidates held their own tonight. We played two clips when it came to the subject of former president trump. At the end of the debate, Herschel Walker was asked, would you support trump or 2024 . He immediately said that he would. Earlier in the night, the, when asked if biden had legitimately won in the election in 2020, he said, flatly, joe biden had won the election in 2020. That puts him at odds, obviously, with Everything Donald Trump has claimed about the 2020 election. When you look at that dynamic of splits to get voters, we were just talking about, that folks for camp, but not yet for walker, did he give him anything in that answer, simply affirming joe biden, the legitimacy of joe bidens victory that met with them over . I dont think so. I think where he hurt himself was saying, right off, that he would support reelection of donald trump. Donald trump didnt carry georgia, and indeed, trumps negatives contributed to walkers election back in that runoff in january. There is a share of the georgia electorate, white, college educated, suburban voters, and a lot of those still probably identify as republicans. 40 of those are someone who looks like our past elections cant bring themselves to vote for donald trump. That 40 right there could be the decisive element, because a democrat to and has to get a share of the white vote and its those voters, White College educated voters, democratic candidate has his best prospects with. That readily endorsement of donald trump might actually be a back burner. Its interesting, One Direction early in the debate on the subject of trump, and another direction at the very end. Itll be interesting as the voters who are talking, about which one makes more of an impact on them. Charles bullet, professor at the University Of georgia, thank you so much for joining us, i appreciate you spending a few minutes. Coming up, a normal mid term year, joe bidens low Approval Ratings would spell certain doom for his party, at the polls. And yet, in one key measure, democrats seem to be defying gravity. Is this an illusion . Are they poised to pull off something practically unheard of for a White House Party in a Midterm Election . David plouffe and rich lowry will be here to tackle that, next. Next i get bladder leaks. I didnt want to feel like i was wearing the pads i wore when i was twelve. Then i tried the always discreet pads. They fit perfectly in the places theyre supposed to. Look how much it holds, and it still stays thin its the protection we deserve people remember ads and iwith young peoplen having a good time. So to help you remember that Liberty Mutual customizes your home insurance, heres a pool party. Good times. Insurance only pay for what you need. 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