Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on what they’re watching in final days before midterms

Judy Woodruff:

There are two weeks until Election Day, and more than 7.5 Americans already cast their ballots.

Here to break down what they are watching during these final days is our Politics Monday team, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Hello to both of you.

So, to be exact, 14 days after tomorrow until Election Day, but, as we just heard, people are voting. So, the two of you are watching this full time.

Tam, and you have been on the road. Tell us what you are seeing.

Tamara Keith, National Public Radio:

The thing that really stood out to me — I was just in North Carolina in a swing district, the only swing congressional race in the entire state of North Carolina, one of probably fewer than three dozen swing races in the entire country.

And yet, in a swing district, I'm just not sure there are a lot of swing voters. Even people who are registered as no party preference had very strong feelings, basically, that the party they weren't voting for was not just wrong, but bad or evil or a danger to society or a danger to America.

It was — we talk a lot about polarization. It was shocking to hear it repeated again and again and again.

Judy Woodruff:

Yes.

Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report:

I was in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the weekend before last. And it wasn't quite as vitriolic as that. We were going door to door.

But it was clear that people weren't voting for someone. They were voting against someone. So, I'm for this candidate because fill in the blank is terrible on fill in the blank issue.

Judy Woodruff:

So is this something — so, we're not — this is not unique to what Tam saw in North Carolina in the Raleigh area, you're saying.

Amy Walter:

That's right.

I think what we're seeing is, again, what — especially in a midterm election, but, unfortunately, with politics now, overall, the biggest motivator to get people to show up and vote is anger. And getting people engaged and enraged is an easier way to prod your supporters to the polls, but it has significant consequences.

If, year after year, the only way you're getting people to show up is to say, you're doing this because the other side is terrible, well, guess what, by the time we get to where we are now, nobody trusts anybody.

Judy Woodruff:

And, Tam, it's not just the other side's terrible. It's that they are — you need to be afraid of them.

Tamara Keith:

Right.

Amy Walter:

That's right.

Judy Woodruff:

I mean, the ads that I was watching — and I was covering the Senate race and in Pennsylvania this weekend. Our report tomorrow is going to air tomorrow night, we hope.

But the ads — you look at the ads and you would think, you need to crawl under the covers, because life is going to change drastically if this person gets elected.

Tamara Keith:

Right.

And every cycle, voters in places with competitive races get sick and tired of the ads and think the ads are terrible. Some of the ads in the race that I have a story airing tomorrow about on NPR are so toxic, it is — it's almost comical just how, like, over the top, scorched earth they are.

The other thing I will say is that we have been wondering how the abortion issue would play out in the field. And it has fallen in terms of polling as a top issue. What surprised me in talking to voters — now, I was in a suburban part of — outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. So I'm in a suburban area — but was just how many voters said: I'm concerned about the economy, but I'm voting on abortion.

Judy Woodruff:

That's interesting. That's really interesting.

Amy Walter:

Yes. Yes.

Judy Woodruff:

And, Amy, I was going to ask you, because, I mean, we have heard negative ads work.

Amy Walter:

Right.

Judy Woodruff:

And that's why the campaigns keep doing them. But what else are you looking at right now? Two weeks out, we're getting…

Amy Walter:

That's right.

Judy Woodruff:

The opinions are getting solidified.

Amy Walter:

That's right. That's right.

Judy Woodruff:

What are you watching for?

Amy Walter:

So, what we're really watching for is to see sort of, where is the narrative? What are voters talking about, what is the media talking about in these last two weeks of the election, when, it is true, many voters are still making up their mind, maybe not so much of who they're going to vote for, but whether they show up at all.

Judy Woodruff:

Right.

Amy Walter:

And if you think about what we were talking about over the summer, it was abortion, it was Donald Trump, it was January 6. Now we're back to talking about the things that put Democrats on the defensive.

Inflation continues to be a top issue for swing voters, for independent voters. That is the issue that just keeps coming back, that we keep coming back to. Earlier in the year, the question was whether or not the abortion decision was enough to turn what was a typical midterm election referendum on the president and his party into one that was more of a choice.

What we may end up getting is a little bit of both, depending on where you live. And so I think there's some issues like abortion where, if you're in a state where the issue is going to be decided, clearly decided by that state's legislature and governor, like Michigan or Pennsylvania, that may be more of a salient issue, than in a blue state, although North Carolina is not, but in a blue state where the voters there aren't worried that abortion access is going to be limited.

Judy Woodruff:

Yes.

And then you have the tug-of-war in states, Tam, with a Republican legislature and a Democratic governor, as you have in North Carolina.

Tamara Keith:

Right.

Judy Woodruff:

But, in these final days, I mean, what I was finding was that people did — I mean, they sounded like they're going to vote. They certainly would raise the issue. They raised the economy. They also raised the issue of crime.

I mean, we had several people say to us, I live in a rural area, but I know people in the cities are facing a frightening time of this, and we need to have somebody in power or somebody in office who's going to do something about that.

Amy Walter:

That's right.

Tamara Keith:

Which, if you are looking for issues that put Democrats on their back feet and where Republicans want voters to be focused, crime is one of those issues. That's why they have spent millions and millions and millions of dollars on ads accusing Democrats in key races of being soft on crime and tying them to the idea of defunding the police.

Judy Woodruff:

What about who's campaigning for whom, Amy?

At this point, President Biden is doing some of that. There are certainly Democrat — members of the Senate who are out there campaigning for their friends and whoever they want. How much of that is making a difference?

Amy Walter:

Well, I learn a lot by who campaigns choose to ask to be the surrogate for them, right?

Because the people they don't ask — for example, the president isn't getting invited to a lot of Democratic states. He's pretty much underwater popularity-wise in most of these battleground states and districts. But you know who else isn't getting invited is Donald Trump, who did a lot to make sure that many of the Republicans who are on the ballot this year made it through their primaries.

So I think, for both parties, they would like it to be less about the person on their side who's polarizing, much more about the person the other side who is polarizing.

President Obama will be on the trail in some of these states working to turn out Democratic voters.

Judy Woodruff:

Georgia, I think he's going.

Amy Walter:

Georgia. I think Pennsylvania probably as well.

Tamara Keith:

Yes.

Judy Woodruff:

Yes.

Amy Walter:

So, that one.

And you know has been really very popular is Pete Buttigieg, for good reason. He's the secretary of transportation. Remember, we have an infrastructure bill, a lot of money going to a lot of states. Here's an opportunity for a member of Congress to say, see, here's our money at work. The Treasury secretary is coming. And here's the new road we're going to build.

Tamara Keith:

Yes.

Judy Woodruff:

Who doesn't love infrastructure? We love it.

Amy Walter:

That's right.

(LAUGHTER)

Judy Woodruff:

Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, thank you both.

Tamara Keith:

You're welcome.

Amy Walter:

You're welcome.