Trump Scraps Iowa, Kansas Rallies Days Before Midterms

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1:15Five days out from the midterms and the breaking news tonight as the president has just canceled two campaign stops in a pair of hotly contested states that could decide control of the Senate. Good evening. Thanks for joining us. the president was scheduled to be in Kansas on Saturday and Iowa on Sunday. Now both trips are off, replaced by a series of televised remote appearances instead. At least that's how the White House is explaining it. Late today, though, the president was asked whether it's because he'd simply gotten tired of being on the road. So you not going to Kansas have nothing to do with you being sick and traveling?

1:46Oh, you're sick to ask that question. You are sick. Who you with? I'm with Reuters, sir. You are a sick guy. Reuters is terrible, by the way. Can you imagine? Look at this guy. He's way out of shape. Look at how badly he comes to me. Sir, you're not going to go to Kansas. I'm not going to Kansas because he's doing very well. That is the president just back from a trip to South Carolina where new polling shows Senator Darlene Graham in a dead heat with her Democratic challenger. As for the he, the president said was doing very well. He appears to be referring to Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall, who's not doing especially well.

2:19According to a new CNN polling, he's trailing his Democratic challenger, Adam Hamilton, by four points, which is within the margin of error, meaning there's no clear leader. It's not supposed to be even this close in a state like this, where the last Democratic senator was elected in 1932. That same polling shows Democrats either leading or statistically tied in Texas, Michigan, and Maine as well. It's both the backdrop to and perhaps one of the reasons why the president's canceling those campaigns stops. More on that now from CNN chief White House correspondent and anchor of The Source, Caitlin Collins.

2:51So, Caitlin, do you know why he's canceled this? It's pretty unusual, Anderson, because the president likes to tout how much he's been on the road. And there's no denying he's held a bunch of rallies this month. I think the count was at 25 today based on where he had gotten so far. And he's got one more rally in Florida tomorrow. But then that is it for his midterm campaigning. And this is a president who I remember from being on the trail with him in the midterms in 2018, when just as much was on the line for him then. Not his name personally on the ballot, but control of Congress right here where I'm sitting tonight, which certainly can, of course, affect the White House agenda and deeply impact what the last two years of his presidency looked like.

3:31Back in 2018, Anderson, he was doing still multiple rallies a day before Tuesday night, two a day, three a day, in some cases leading up to those midterms. So it just shows you how different the end of this midterm season is going to look for the president compared to the last time he was in office. Now, the White House is arguing he can use these tele-rallies to stretch himself further, that he can do rallies in different states and do several of them a night on Sunday night, for example. But those are pretty different, Anderson, than, of course, having an in-person rally where people show up, wait in line.

4:03There's a big crowd waiting for the president. in these tele-rallies, you know, he's basically on speakerphone and he's reading off of a script typically for about 10 to 15 minutes. And so it's very different, obviously, than his in-person rallies. However, given the president's numbers and what that looks like, in some of these cases, that might be just fine with the candidates who were on the ground. My colleague Jeff Zeleny is in Michigan tonight, and he's reporting that at least one Republican official is expressing gratitude that the president is canceling these two rallies in Kansas and Iowa, respectively.

4:34And so it just shows you how different the end of this campaign is. And then I also think the way he snapped at that reporter who was asking a perfectly straightforward question and wasn't implying that the president was ill or that anything was wrong, was simply asking what was behind the cancellation. And if his health was good, given how much he spent on the road and his age, that says a lot to Anderson. Yeah, Caitlin, thanks very much. We'll see you at the top of the hour for The Source. Caitlin's going to be talking to Senator Bernie Sanders. Let's get some perspective now from former Democratic mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, former Trump campaign advisor and Republican strategist, David Urban, a New York Times journalist and podcast host, Lulu Garcia Navarro.

5:12David, why is he canceling, you think? I don't know, but I'll tell you what he got upset about. I've traveled with Donald Trump a bunch on the campaign trail in 16, 20, 24. That guy, he goes like the Energizer bunny. So I think he was taking umbrage with the notion. The word sick. Yeah, that's what he was upset about, that you're less than. Donald Trump can outwork anybody. So the reason he's canceling, I'm not quite sure. Maybe their response is, you know, teletown hall meetings are pretty effective. If lots of senators and other people campaigning do them, you can connect. You reach far more people than you do with a rally.

5:49I mean, the argument has been for all of this was, you know, he goes there, he's on the ballot. Pumps people up. Pumps people up. So that's their argument. And then as my colleague and mentor, former Governor Haley Barber, famously said, you know, good gets better, bad gets worse. And maybe there's some of that going on, right? Like undecideds are starting to break. What are you implying there? That perhaps it might not be going well for the president? I'm just saying, that axiom, that axiom, right? Maybe, maybe holding true. I think there's two things going on. First of all, what is he going to be doing at this point?

6:26I mean, we are now literally days ahead of this. You said it, not me. Sorry, that's very funny. There are, indeed, that he could talk about. However, you know, we are already seeing that the early vote is breaking a certain way. I think it's, as you say, there's just not a lot of good energy that he can kind of bring to the table. And secondly, I also think at this point, he doesn't want to take the blame for what looks like it's going to be a very ugly, ugly result for him. So I think it's probably wise that he just stays home. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting to hear the Zeleny talking to some campaign person in one of those states saying they're kind of relieved he's not coming.

7:12Yeah, look, this guy told the world, imagine I'm at the top of the ballot. That's the exact last thing he should have said in this environment. I think for these Republican candidates, he's clearly become a major negative. The rallies, I respect David, but the rallies are much more effective in person than the tele-town halls. Those things only get so much pickup. I think what we're seeing here, it's very interesting the choice is Kansas and Iowa that they pulled back from. Two places where Democrats chose unusually good candidates, and I'm being self-critical about my party here. I mean, a guy like Adam Hamilton, a Methodist minister with a mega church network in Kansas, that's not your typical Democrat candidate.

7:50I love it. Because he used to be a Republican. That's why. You know what? We accept redemption. We accept redemption. I mean, that's an amazing candidate. Josh Turek is an amazing candidate with an incredibly compelling personal story. It's not surprising to me that the president's team looks at this and says they're in a bad situation in those states. And him going in is only going to make it worse. I agree. He also is the master of trying to avoid blame. So he has set that predicate now over the last few weeks that it's someone else's fault. But in fact, he also said, imagine, imagine I'm at the top of the top.

8:20Do you think it matters? I mean, if you're a voter in Kansas, a Republican voter in Kansas or in Iowa and you hear the president's canceled, do you think it? I mean, to a certain extent, that's cooked in already. The base, I think the president's fired up the base, you know, the turnout, one, two percent, whatever the MAGA base, that bump is going to be. Look, I could see Kansas is a much rougher road, I think, at this point. Anyone ever anticipated. I think the candidate there who's running against, you know, Roger Marshall is unexpectedly good. I still like Ashley Hinson's chances in Iowa. I think she's an incredible gifted political athlete.

8:56I think she wins. The problem in Iowa is at the top of the ticket, the governor there happens to be, he'll be running for president the day after he gets elected for governor. He's an incredibly talented guy. And so that's dragging the numbers down. The Democrat. Yeah, the Democrat. He's incredibly talented. And so that's dragging Ashley down. But she's going to win. She'll win that race, I still believe. And so I think maybe... But with no help from the president. I guess the answer here is we're talking about why President Trump isn't doing something. And the answer is she doesn't need him there.

9:26If she wins, it's not going to help her to have President Trump there. And at a certain point, they have to call it, right? They have to call it. Well, I'm not sure it's there. I'm not sure it's her call. I'm not sure Ashley Hinson says, you know, don't come. And he's like, oh, sure, I'm not coming. I mean, the people around him. I think there is some, again, the president's a smart guy. His time is valuable. He's going to spend it doing what he thinks is best. And they're going to. He does have a, I mean, I don't know about right now, but he traditionally has had a very finely tuned sense of like when to really commit to something and when like there's trouble brewing and I got to distance myself.

10:02You may not look, you may not like the guy, but he's masterful at campaigning. He's a masterful politician. And so he judges. He's got an innate sense of this stuff. And, you know, you turn the screw too much, it breaks. And the golf course in Florida is beckoning. Let's not forget. There's a previous performance problem here. He has been masterful at times. But this time, they had, yes, they had multiple opportunities to change the narrative on the Iran war, the price of gas, everything over these last six months. The Congress did nothing. The president didn't introduce any new message or any new policy.

10:34So I would argue he's losing a step or two. Can I start right now? I want to actually just turn to developments in Alaska because those are threatening to upend Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola's challenge to Senator Dan S. Sullivan. The middle initial is important because there's also, as you may know, a Dan J. Sullivan on the four-candidate ballot and a blockbuster report in the New York Times that was published yesterday linking Dan J.'s existence on that ballot to the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senate campaign committee. Both deny it. Tonight, sources familiar with the investigation tell us the Justice Department has accelerated a criminal probe into whether Alaska Democrats sought to confuse voters with the alleged ploy.

11:15Vice President Vance also weighed in. Well, I think we should certainly look into whether she committed election fraud. I mean, she is a person who for months now has pretended that she has had nothing to do with the fact that they have put a fraudulent person, a person explicitly designed to confuse Alaska voters on the ballot. She is trying to steal a Senate seat from the voters of Alaska, and it's disgraceful. So whether it's criminal or not, she certainly has committed, I think, a great moral failing, and hopefully the voters of Alaska punished her. In addition, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee says it is opening investigations of the matter.

11:52CNN's Kyung Lai is in Alaska tonight, joins us from Anchorage. So can you talk about the Justice Department's accelerated criminal probe? What more do you know about it? They have refiled that lawsuit, Anderson, and the governor here in this state has weighed in on all of this. But that's discussion that's happening up here. I want to give you a look at what it's like on the ground here in Alaska. This is Anchorage. We're actually in a mall. This is the back of the line. This is early voting. And early voting's been going on since the 19th. And so I'm just going to walk with you this way. The people who are running this particular polling place say what they are seeing this year, and it is unusual, is that there is a lot of energy when it comes to people showing up, standing in lines, not just at this place, but at other spots around Anchorage, because they are energized to vote.

12:46There are a lot of issues that are affecting people here in Alaska that are outside of what we're hearing and what we are discussing and what is in The New York Times. When I've been talking to people here, as they get up to where they will vote, what they are saying is that, sure, they've all read what's in The New York Times, but I want you to listen to what one voter told me. Yeah, I really think it's shade to cover up a lot of the other issues that need to be addressed as to why we're here voting today. Did it impact your vote at all? The latest news? Yeah. Not a bit. I knew who I was voting for months ago.

13:27Okay, and what you're looking at here is a sample ballot. You can see here there is Dan S. Sullivan. He is the incumbent, the registered Republican. And then above him is the similarly named Daniel J. Sullivan. We took a sample ballot and asked everybody, the people who we've spoken to, and say, is this confusing? And you hear this in their voice, Anderson, that they're almost insulted. What we have had thrown back in our faces is that Alaskans are smarter than that. that the drive with all of this that you're seeing behind me is that there are issues that are about cost, about the price of milk, and trying to fill up their tank of gas.

14:15So they say that everything that we're talking about, that is just noise that a lot of them are not going to be changing their vote. Yeah, King Allah, thanks so much. Great to have you there. Appreciate it. Back with our panel, joining us is former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams. Elliot, I want to start with you just on the legal front. In an updated court filing today, the government argues that Daniel J. Sullivan's inclusion on the ballot, I'm quoting, is the result of a conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the electoral process. Is that a crime? First of all, do you agree with that statement?

14:45Is that a crime? You know, Anderson, I think J.D. Vance really hit it on the head here by saying that Mary Peltola has a, I guess the words he used were a moral failing and perhaps the voters of Alaska will punish her for that. That's the remedy here, for the most part, for what we're seeing. The kinds of things that this case dredges up are maybe dirty campaigning or untoward behavior, but it's just hard to find where the crime has been committed. Now, to be clear, the Justice Department is probably looking into false statements or false filing or even campaign finance questions. But to the underlying question of, is it a crime to put somebody on the ballot who has the same name as another candidate, even if it sort of looks shady or shifty, you're going to have a really hard time getting a viable prosecution out of that, Anderson.

15:33Elliot, if Paltola wins and there's an ongoing investigation, what happens? If Republicans retain control of the Senate, could they refuse to seat her? They could try. And I think that would lead to months and months of litigation and create work for legal analysts like myself, only because she could claim that she is the duly elected senator of Alaska. And moreover, the Alaska, the state of Alaska has noted clearly who these two individuals are by noting what their middle initials are. Now, look, you and I both know there's a little bit of winking and nodding here and a little bit of cute trickery by the Democrats.

16:08But the simple fact is, as a legal matter, it is hard for Republicans and the White House to say that something truly unlawful has happened when candidates have been identified and so on. Again, if there are crimes to be prosecuted here, and this is a big if, it's going to be the kinds of things that I think we would call, quote unquote, and I hate this term, process crimes, the false statements, the lying, the spending and so on. But I think on the campaign stuff, and it's just not there's not much there there. There is this right now. There's a clip that Republicans have shared online that CNN hasn't independently verified because it's a clip.

16:46We don't know the full context, but it's a Mary Peltola back in August saying, quote, it should be a criminal offense to lie or mislead the electorate. It's about seven seconds. David, is that I mean, is this I mean, you think this gets the law besides being maybe sleazy? Listen, it's completely sleazy. I defer to the legal experts. I play a lawyer, but I'm not, you know, I'm not our good friend Elliot here. It's completely sleazy. If it wasn't sleazy, if they're just like, well, of course, I'm a third party person. That happens all the time. But they searched the tundra, the frozen tundra of Alaska to find a guy named Dan Sullivan.

17:24In a very isolated town. Right. So no one can go get him. I mean, on a dog sled. You can just imagine this. This is the dumbest election conspiracy. I mean, this is like, because this is, you know, what I'm hearing from Democrats when this became public is like, how on God's green earth? First of all, it's insulting to the people of Alaska. Secondly, it's this thing where it all hinges on people really not getting. They have no idea. They've been in a sleep for six years, and they have no idea who their senator is. And they're not actually reading the ballot, which says incumbent. That says incumbent.

18:02I mean, that was to do with litigation. It wasn't clear before. But all of this is just nickel and diming the electoral process. And the result is that you now have Democrats, instead of driving home their closing message, what instead is happening is that they're having to play defense and they're looking like the bad guys. And so they've lost the moral high ground. There are the bad guys here. I mean, however this is coming out, they've really lost the moral high ground. And you have President Trump, who was struggling to really kind of land this and not talk about people's butts and other things, to now have a very clear case of saying, look, they're talking at me all the time about what I do with elections, but look what they've done in the last month.

18:43I'm going to argue differently. Three quick points. One, I think the big story this year is the public has turned against corruption. They've turned against massive money in politics. They're looking at Elon Musk, richest person in the world, trying to dominate elections, hundreds of millions of dollars. That looks very big. This looks very small in comparison to that. The second point. Why do it? But the second point, real quick, the point that the interviewee made. People are concerned about the cost of living so desperately that they're making their decisions on who to vote for, not on these last minute little issues.

19:13It might not have an impact, but then why do it? Why do it? I mean, my point about this is, well, it's the same question about Democratic. You know, when Democrats, you look at this, you look at what happened in Maine with Graham Plattner, getting a candidate unvetted, raising him up, and then if they lose Maine, I mean, Democrats really only have themselves to blame. You don't know the impact that these things might have. And so the question becomes, why do it? Fair, but I'm going to give you a little historical. Because they could. Because some consultants fly to Alaska, and they think they're so smart, they're not Alaskans.

19:49And they think, look how cute we're going to be, and this is going to work, and it's going to backfire. Democratic voters in Alaska, to your point, they were smart enough to write in Lisa Murkowski. They wrote her in, right? This is a state that's used to trickery, and they got her name, they spelled it correctly. It doesn't help that Donald Trump actually, in response to all of this, then goes on air and says, you know, they're trying to fool the Alaskan people, and they might very well be fooled. I mean, he's also saying that they're dumb. He's insulting them. He's insulting them, too. So really, who loses from everyone here?

20:22I mean, frankly, the Alaskan. I think the Alaskan people are going to go right by this because there's bigger issues. But the final point is a historical one. and I think you'll love Anderson, 1946. John F. Kennedy runs for Congress for the first time. His main opponent, Joe Russo, a councilman. Mysteriously, another Joe Russo appears on the ballot. The Kennedy family perhaps had something to do with that. Well, also, Bertola was running against the last time, somebody who was incarcerated, who had been put up, I guess, by Republicans. This is not new. Next, the Michigan Senate race. The Democrats are good at it.

20:52They just refined it. You said it. The Michigan Senate race, plus the factors behind the new polling there, and in three other key states that suggest the Democrats now have many potential paths to controlling the Senate. And later more, though, one that leads through South Carolina, where the president was today and where the late Senator Lindsey Graham's sister, Darlene, is in a very tight race with her Democratic challenger. I'll be right back.

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22:16Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is campaigning through Western Michigan tonight as a new CNN poll shows he has a narrow lead over his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers. That poll we mentioned earlier showing him with a 49 to 42 % edge among likely voters. CNN asked him about it earlier. What do you think about the poll this morning that shows you seven points up? You always love to see it, but we're gonna run like we're 10 points down. Well, the campaign is among one of the most bitter in the nation as Republicans have attacked al-Sayed on his Muslim faith. The president has suggested repeatedly he's a jihadist.

22:48CNN is Jeff Zeleny at the campaign rally in Kalamazoo. How much stock is the campaign putting into these new poll numbers? Well, Anderson, when we asked Abdul El-Sayed earlier today about the numbers, I mean, you heard what he said right there. He said, we're going to act like we are 10 points down. But the reality is campaign advisors do believe that the excitement and enthusiasm is on their side in the closing days of this campaign. You can see behind me here several thousand people are here in Kalamazoo. So they definitely believe that the early vote has been successful for them, but they are trying to use these activists and volunteers to motivate others over the next five days.

23:30And the attacks have potentially backfired, but it's unclear if that is true among the masses. But one part of the poll that is heartening to them are the independent voters. Independent voters now are favoring El-Sayed by a fairly significant margin here. But in the final days of this campaign, one thing is a potential worrisome note, and it's not the Republican attacks, it's the Democratic coalition. Senator Alyssa Slotkin, who will be taking the stage here momentarily, implored Democrats earlier today to set aside their differences, talking to Jewish voters, perhaps some black voters as well, to, even if you don't agree with everything El-Sayed says, that it is time to rally behind him.

24:13So that Democratic coalition is one of the question marks here. Has El-Sayed been able to hold on to all of it? So the attacks will come, in the words of advisors, but it's that Democratic coalition they're trying to shore up tonight. And I'm told he'll be taking the stage here in just a few minutes. Anderson? All right. Jeff Zellemany, thanks so much. I appreciate it. As we said, new polls from CNN and four key Senate races show Democrats within striking distance of taking back the chamber an outcome that looked extremely unlikely just one year ago. Joining me now is publisher and editor-in-chief of Cook Political Report Amy Walter and CNN Political Director David Chalian.

24:49David are the polls as straightforward as they seem? Democrats in a strong position, Republicans are not? I mean I assume it's a little more nuanced than that. Yeah I mean I think they're straightforward in the sense that they do tell a similar story across all four states of the fundamentals. Donald Trump is upside down in all four states and his approval rating. The economy is the number one issue going away. Nothing else really coming close across all four states. But as you noted, we have two of the polls, Anderson, that show no clear leader. They're within the margin of error. And I think the one thing that is not so straightforward is there's still a not insignificant significant chunk in these states, especially in the three states other than Maine, that are persuadable 1314 % in Michigan, Texas and Kansas say they could change their mind less so in Maine.

25:39Only 9 % say that and those folks are Republican Republican leaning voters. So in some of these red states, if they choose to sort of put on their partisan Republican Jersey at the end of the day, you could see how these races could narrow. And Amy, the Cook Political Report has gotten a lot of attention for is to and from Republicans and Democrats. How does your team make those decisions? And does this year feel different in a big picture sort of way? Well, I think the big difference this year from, say, 2018 or even back in the 2022 elections is just how narrow we knew the playing field was going to be for the House and for the Senate.

26:21But looking at the House in particular, there were just fewer seats than we had had in recent years that were truly swing districts, districts that the president either lost or narrowly carried. And then you had redistricting, the mid-decade redistricting, that put a whole other set of variables in there, narrowing the field even more to Republicans' benefit, to Democrats' challenge. The reason that we're, the seats then, what's happening now, and the reason that you're seeing the movement here is that those races that we once thought the campaign would be centered on, those very competitive, just the 14 or 15 or so really swing districts, those are now considered, those are the ones that we've been moving in recent times to leaning more democratic.

27:12They've moved in that direction. The seats that are coming online now are ones that the president carried by double digits. Those are the same dynamics that are going on in the Senate as well. David, the Democratic Party remains unpopular in states that voted for President Trump in most polls. Did the CNN polls tell us anything about how these Democratic candidates in deep red states are managing to kind of buck that trend to do well? They do, Anderson. I actually think this is one of the most interesting findings in our polls, especially in those two deep red states that we polled, Texas and Kansas.

27:49Take a look in Kansas. You see that, as you would expect in a deep red state like that, the Democratic Party brand is in the toilet. Now, 34 percent have a favorable view of the Democratic Party. But look at Adam Hamilton, the Democratic nominee. His favorable number is at 41 percent. He's outrunning the brand. Same thing in Texas with Tallarico. You see that the Democratic Party brand is way low at 36 percent favorability among likely voters there. Tallarico's favorability is at 44%. So these are candidates that this is the only way a Democrat could be competitive in these deep red states is to have an image that is separate and apart and more favorable in the minds of voters than the Democratic Party.

28:32Amy, also I saw you wrote earlier this month, you said the political environment is as brutal for Republicans as any I've seen in at least 20 years. If Republicans lose seats in Texas, South Carolina, or Iowa, Kansas, just to name a few, Does anyone own those losses more than the president? No, it's hard to believe that could be the case. I mean, look, you have a series of events that have really gotten us to this place. I mean, we know in every midterm election there are headwinds that the party in the White House face. But the headwinds that they're dealing with right now were really ones of Donald Trump's making.

29:08And nothing more important to talk about, of course, than the war in Iran and its impact on two things. Not only did it raise the price of gas and diesel and fertilizer, critically important in a lot of these states like Kansas, but it really undercut the core, two of Donald Trump's core sort of fundamental pillars of all of his campaigns. One, he was really good on the economy. he was going to bring costs down. And the second was he would never get the U.S. into a war in the Middle East or get us into forever wars. Both of those things coming together in this election. This is why you're seeing Republican turnout.

29:52This is what Republicans are worried about. Republican turnout sagging Democratic enthusiasm up, getting those Republicans to show up when they're really disappointed in the cost of stuff and the promise breaking. that's really hard to do. Yeah, Amy Walter, David Tellian, thanks so much. Coming up next, more on the kind of Senate candidate South Carolina's Darlene Graham has been in a race she never expected to run to keep a job she never expected to actually have. And later more on some of the Democratic candidates we've been talking about tonight who are distinguishing themselves by their devotion to their respective religious faiths.

30:27We'll be right back.

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31:04President Trump today made his second trip to South Carolina in eight days to stump for Republican Senate candidate Darlene Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. The fact that the president had to travel at all to a state he won by nearly 18 points in 2024 is likely due to his record low approval rating and Graham's own political stumbles weighing down her poll numbers. Your CNN's Tom Foreman. The sudden candidacy of Darlene Graham came from a family tragedy. The death this past summer of her brother, Lindsey Graham, a longtime Republican senator. South Carolina's governor appointed Darlene Graham to serve out his term, and she made it clear, like her brother, she'd be a staunch Trump ally.

31:45I knew that I had to step up. You know, I had to carry on his legacy. But lacking her brother's deep experience in government, she quickly started stumbling. In a debate, she was asked about U.S. interest in Taiwan and said this. National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise. Former South Carolina governor and U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley scolded her lack of knowledge on the matter. This is not something you inherit, Haley posted, and it's critical in the U.S. Senate. it. When the president, through an executive order, bypassed key provisions of a Ukraine aid bill named for Graham's brother, the candidate remained largely silent, saying at one point she had not found a private moment to raise the issue with Trump.

32:33We did talk about the rally and how great the turnout was. What a positive, wonderful night we had at the rally. We here in South Carolina on November 3rd will remind the country that there is more that unites us than divides us. And when Graham labeled her opponent, Annie Andrews, a socialist, the Democrat counterpunched, suggesting Graham had leaned away from her married name, Darlene Nordone, to capitalize on her brother's success. She's been told to come out here and call me Bernie Ocasio, Mom Donnie. That's what's in her script. But the truth is, my name is Annie Andrews, and there shouldn't be any confusion about that, because unlike my opponent, I haven't changed my name recently.

33:18Graham says she never legally changed her married name. The president has hurled slurs at Andrews. The party has poured money into Graham's effort, and yet the polls say the race remains tight. And even some Republicans say they'll be voting for Graham's opponent. I think Darlene Graham is a great person, but I believe that she is being led by the people that, you know, are following Trump and she's not listening to her heart. Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington. Back with us, David Urban, joining us, CNN political commentator, former South Carolina Democratic state lawmaker Bakari Sellers. David, President Trump didn't have to push Darlene Graham him to run for the full term?

34:03Is it his to lose? Yeah, it looked like just like in Texas. We had a layup in Texas with John Cornyn would have kind of sleptwalked to the victory there. And the president chose to go a different path here. You know, you have Ralph Norman, sitting House member who was running for the seat. Do you think he would be in the lead? I don't know. I think he probably would have done been doing a little bit better. And so also he's kind of currently saying you don't have to vote for. You're saying vote your conscience. He says he's going to vote for her, but people should vote. And so he's like, I'm not being a sore loser.

34:33You have to vote your conscience. That right in Ralph Norman movement is surely not helping her either. Bacardi, do you think this race would be this close if Norman was in the race?

34:45No, I don't think it would be at all. I think Darlene Graham, Norton Graham, I think that one of the things that you're seeing is that she fits right into the recipe for Democrats to win in the South, which is she's a terrible candidate. We saw that she hid from the campaign trail when she was running in the Republican primary. She's hid from Annie Andrews. And then she comes out and just hurls all of these different kind of sloganeering type of derogatory terms towards Annie Andrews. And the fact is, there are a lot of South Carolinians, Democrats, independents and Republicans, who do not like Washington or Donald Trump coming in here and telling you what you should do or how you should vote or who you should vote for.

35:25And so I think that's what you're seeing right now with the pushback on Darlene Graham. We had this whole conversation about DEI a while ago, a couple of years ago, and she fits that term and slogan more than most. It is kind of amazing. I mean, out of the gate, she had that terrible performance where she clearly didn't really know Taiwan and China and the significance of any of that. Yeah, it's tough. Look, again, you know, running for public office, there's a reason you run, right? You get vetted. You go through these debates. You talk to journalists. You've got to be on the stump. You know, the weeds get separated from the chaff during that process, right?

36:04And generally, people who emerge are pretty good at what they're going to do, pretty good at being a senator, pretty good at being a House member. And so being able to skip over that with the endorsement of the president, you know, undercuts a lot of that. But Corey, Senator Graham has one big advantage over Dr. Andrews, according to the New York Times poll, which is name recognition. Do you think that's going to be enough?

36:28South Carolina still is South Carolina. And one of the things I caution Democrats about, particularly in the South, is South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, even now Texas. We're not North Carolina. We're not Virginia. we're not Georgia in terms of being able to harness the energy of the wave. However, we do have quality candidates in Scott Cologne. You do have quality candidates in Annie Andrews and James Tellarico, so you give yourself a puncher's chance. What I think this breeds, though, is an energy, not necessarily for next Tuesday because Annie Andrews does have a chance.

37:04And, look, I'm somebody who sits here before you and tells you I ran statewide in South Carolina. and respectfully, Anderson, I'm still mad at you because I worked for, you know, two years and you called my race at 7.05. Annie Andrews is going to make it until later on in the evening and I believe that she'll have a good chance of winning this race. Listen, David, it's nothing like working your ass off for a long period of time for Anderson to come off and done a non-breaking news the first race we called. I'm sure I said, can we at least delay until 8? Bacar, you and I will be together on election night.

37:38We can make sure that doesn't happen. God. Well, it's nice to reminisce, Bakari Sellers. Thanks very much. Things worked out for you, okay? Yeah, you're doing all right. David Urban, thanks very much as well. Coming up next, how several Democrats seeking office in Washington, including Kansas megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton, are turning to their faith as they try to flip red seats blue. Be right back.

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39:05As we count down to midterms, there's a new dynamic this election year when it comes to several key races that are going to decide the balance of power on Capitol Hill. Several Democrats running in competitive red states are members of the clergy or seminarians, and they're hoping to connect with Christian voters as they talk about their faith. Here's CNN's Dana Bash. They march. The least we can do is walk. These candidates are going from the pulpit to politics. I pastor a church of 24 ,000 members. I was a parish pastor. It's a 2026 trend for Democrats. You may know me as a state representative, but I'm also a chaplain.

39:44At least eight Democratic Senate and House candidates around the country are ordained ministers or seminarians, like Texas Senate candidate James Tallarico. When I take on the politicians who are serving themselves and not the people, I am doing it on biblical grounds. The raw volume I haven't seen in my career. Jack Jenkins is a reporter for Religion News Service and says the number of clergy running as Democrats is astounding. What is your sense of the why? There does seem to be something that resonates when a candidate is a vocal person of faith. It's notable where the most hotly contested versions of these races are, right?

40:23We're seeing Reverend Adam Hamilton run in Kansas. I mean, they haven't had a Democratic senator since the 1930s. I looked at what was happening in Washington. I thought, this is not what I've been preaching for the last 38 years. There's an indecency in Washington. Hello there. How are you? Adam Hamilton is the most high-profile pastor running on the Democratic ticket. His United Methodist Church of the Resurrection has more than 20 ,000 congregants and nine locations. They are making it harder for Republicans to cast Democrats as anti-religion or anti-Christian. James Tallarico! In Texas... We are going to shock the nation, shock the world, when we beat the billionaires and take back Texas.

41:09Democrats are hoping James Tallarico can deliver the first Senate victory in the Lone Star State since 1988. Tallarico is in the process of becoming an ordained pastor. His stump speech often sounds sermon-esque. In a world obsessed with power and wealth and status, Jesus is saying that real greatness is serving others. His faith is creating a permission structure for crossover voters. David French writes about politics and religion for his column in The New York Times. He recently traveled to Texas to see if Tallarico leaning into his faith is connecting with voters who wouldn't normally consider a Democrat.

41:51He's got to give people a reason to vote for him. And person after person I talk to use some variation of the phrase permission structure. In other words, by very intentionally reaching out to people of faith, by very intentionally highlighting his faith, and by very intentionally leading with a decency in contrast to the corruption of the Paxton and the name-calling of the Paxton campaign, He's trying to create a contrast that says, look, if you like Christian values like kindness and humility, this is the campaign for you. To be sure, many Democratic candidates who are clergy say they are running because of their faith.

42:32Ordained minister Chris Jones is a Democratic congressional candidate in Arkansas. He told me his faith played into his decision to run. Humanity is hurting because of all of the vision. And so those of us that are of the cloth, those of us that are ordained ministers are saying this is another way that we can step up. But particularly among black ministers, it has long been a tradition that black ministers have stepped up in leadership roles, also in politics. 82 % of evangelicals voted for Donald Trump. Kamala Harris won everybody else 58 to 40. So that will tell you how much the evangelical vote matters.

43:09So the Democrats chipping away at that 82-17 margin should be a priority. Even if Democrats are not going to win the majority of evangelical voters, they still see an opportunity to try and reach other Christian voters, like mainline Protestants, who make up at least 11 percent of adults in the U.S. It's not enough in this highly polarized time to just be upset at your own side, as we know. There's got to be a reason for you to cross the divide. And that's what many of these Democrats are trying to create, is a reason to cross the divide. America is still a really religious country.

43:51And that was Denabash reporting. Just to have my conversation with singer-songwriter Alex Warren, whose dad died when he was young. It's part of a new episode of my podcast, All There Is. It's going to be released tonight. Also, we remember the legendary actor Patrick Stewart, whose voice alone spoke volumes. We'll be right back.

44:14More breaking news tonight. Legendary British actor Patrick Stewart has died at the age of 86. His spokesperson says he died in his Los Angeles home last night after what they called a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia. Some of Stewart's best-known roles include Captain Picard in Star Trek, The Next Generation, and Professor X in X-Men. Stewart was born in 1940 in northern England. He performed in local youth theater groups as a child. Before his acting career, he worked briefly as a journalist and a furniture salesman. In 1966, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he gained a reputation as a critically acclaimed Shakespearean stage actor before his debut on screen.

44:53A new episode of my podcast, All There Is, is being released tonight. It should be out in about an hour or an hour and a half or so. So it's a really moving and revealing conversation with singer-songwriter Alex Warren. He was just nine years old when his dad died of cancer, and his mom then descended into alcohol addiction, and she died when Alex was 21. Here's some of what we talk about. I don't know my dad, but I'm learning about him, and I think that's the coolest thing about loss. He died 16, 17 years ago, and somehow I smile like him, and I write like him, and I talk like him, and I say these things like him.

45:29I was driving the other day, and I'd imagined if he was in the backseat of my car right now. What do you say? I just started bawling thinking about it. I don't know what I would say. Would it be you, the 26-year-old, talking to him, or would it be the 9-year-old? I think it'd be the 9-year-old. I think so, too. Because I would crawl on my dad's lap. Yeah. That's what I miss the most and have sort of been searching for, I think. F*** this is sad. It's really sad. But it's healthy. I think that these are the questions and also the conversations that people don't have. And I think that oftentimes no one's willing to have.

46:23Grief is beautiful, but it can be wielded so dangerously. And I think it's important that you just talk. And we're in a society right now where I feel like it's not promoted to talk.

46:37It's a really, really remarkable conversation. You can listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcast. It'll be out, as I said, in about an hour or two. You can also see it on our community page at cnn.com slash allthereis. You can also see the most recent episode of my streaming show, All There Is Live. Thanks so much for watching. The news continues. The Source with Caitlin Collins starts now. See you tomorrow. You're listening to a quick ad. You know what else is quick? Selling your car on Carvana. Just put in your vehicle information and we'll give you an offer. Done. No hassle. No negotiation.

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