Trump Makes Final Push in Key Midterm Races

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0:33One week to go and dozens of races could go either way. I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines and inside politics.

0:48Just seven days, one week from today. That is Election Day. And we are tracking the races, candidates and stories that could shift the balance of power right here in Washington and all across the country. Here's what's on our midterm radar. Today, President Trump heads to Texas for not one, but two rallies. First in Corpus Christi, then in Lubbock, where he'll stump with his hand-picked Senate candidate, Ken Paxton. At the same time, Democrat James Tallarico will hold a rally there. It's part of the president's final push through states he won handily. But as he explained while campaigning in what is usually a reliably red state, Mississippi.

1:30He said he can't take anything for granted. Sometimes when you think somebody's doing so well, nobody votes. They all stay home. Oh, Cindy's great. She's going to do no problem. Let's stay home. And then bad things happen, Cindy, right? So that's why I'm here. Just get out and vote. Somebody says he has quite a busy schedule. Yeah, let's see somebody else do it. But it's fun to do it. You know, when you love the people, it's fun. You know, God didn't make your vocal cords to do a rally every day. But when you love the people, it's fine. After his two stops in Texas, he'll be in Ohio tomorrow and South Carolina on Thursday.

2:10Now to Michigan, where a top Democratic donor and former chairman of Democrat Haley Stevens' Senate campaign is crossing party lines to vote for Mike Rogers. In a statement, David Kramer explains why he's choosing Rogers, the Republican, over Abdul El-Sayed, even though he says he disagrees with the Republican on many issues. Kramer writes in part, I do believe that Mike Rogers is committed to keeping Jews safe in Michigan and in the United States and to clearly distinguishing between American enemies and allies, including our ally Israel. El-Sayed is a frequent critic of Israel, who has declined to say the country should exist as a Jewish state.

2:53And the 2026 midterms just set a record. Another one, political ad spending, according to AdImpact campaigns and outside groups. Ready for this? They've already poured in$11.21 billion just into ads, surpassing the record set during the 2024 presidential election. And with a week to go, that number is only going to get bigger. Now to Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass is getting a boost from a former opponent in her race against Democratic Socialist Nithya Raman. Billionaire Rick Caruso, who lost the 2022 mayoral election to Bass, posted this video on X. For the love of L.A., I must put the past behind me because this election must be about our future and not a referendum on the past.

3:47I will be casting my ballot for Mayor Karen Bass. I have serious concerns about Councilwoman Rahman. It is not so much about ideology, but about confidence. Recent polls have shown City Councilwoman Nithya Rahman is leading Mayor Bass. I'm joined here by a terrific group of reporters. One week to go, guys. Let's look at what's already happening out there because it's big. Early votes nationwide. We're looking at 32 ,600, excuse me, 32 ,641 ,036 votes cast and counting. Let's drill down on Texas where the president, as I mentioned, has two rallies today. Just in Texas alone, it's over 4.5 million votes.

4:34And then let's look at this, because this could help tell the story of where Texas is going to go. Look at, this is broken down by ethnicity, and all the way on the right, you see 24, 21, 19. This is the Latino vote in Texas. Right now, it's 24 percent. Let's go down to 2022 because that was the last time there was a midterm election. This is the share of the vote. Now it is 24. And last time it was 19. What does that? again, we don't know who the Latino voters in the share, which makes up a big one, who they're voting for. But the fact that the enthusiasm is there says what? Preface with, because our research wizard, Ethan Coen, would punch me if I did not preface with this.

5:28And he's the one who actually tells me what's really going on. Because according to my Twitter feed, both candidates are cooked and raced over or it's already won, none of which is true. Your Twitter feed is much nicer than mine. There's a lot of bad stuff, too, especially Ohio State football. But you talk to Texas operatives on both sides who are like, look, there's no clear, clean line here. There's not party identification. No. What people are pointing to right now is, to the extent you can read anything at all, the demographic makeup of voter share up to this point, if it tracks with what we've seen in polling for Latino voters over the course of the last several months, where for Republicans, many of whom benefited for a pretty significant swing, particularly in Texas border counties in 2024 in supporting Donald Trump, if that swings back, if it swings back to the degree it seems to have fallen off a cliff for Republicans over the course of the last couple of months, then presumably a higher share of Hispanic voters voting would net out on some weight.

6:23But we just don't know. We know that there is a significant enthusiasm. Not as big as 2018. Bigger than 2022 by a lot. Seems to be going in that direction, So we'll just have to watch. Yeah, and in 2018, obviously, generally speaking, not necessarily in Texas, but Democrats did quite well. They took over. Speaking of, let's look at the bigger map because it also shows that when you look at the share of the Latino vote, it's up 10%. 10%. And if you look even more specifically, there's sort of different shades of the green that shows you in which states, including obviously Texas, which we talked about, and some other key swing states where the enthusiasm, at least, the share of the early vote is up among Latino voters.

7:11I appreciate all the Ethan caveats here, I would say. I did it so no one else has to. I appreciate that. It's a universal caveat. But look, right now, Democrats are looking at this and they feel like this is a promising sign for them. We won't know until obviously election day and until it's truly over. But for Democrats, they were hoping to see this boost of turnout amongst Latino voters because poll after poll and myself just traveling to South Texas and parts of the country with large Latino populations, you hear about the frustration and the shift away from Donald Trump and Republicans. He had campaigned successfully with many in 2024 and not just Latinos, but voters writ large with this message about how he was going to improve the economy, how he was going to get the border under control, and how he was going to have a tighter immigration enforcement that did resonate with people at the time in 2024.

7:59But now, two years into his presidency, something I've heard voters reference was in 2024, he'd talk about, oh, is your life better today than it was four years ago? And now, two years in, people are asking themselves the same question two years in, and they don't feel that the economy is better, and they feel that the immigration enforcement looks a lot messier and uglier than they ever thought it could. Which is one of the reasons why Elon Musk is just flooding the zone, the zone being Texas, other states, but let's stick with Texas right now, with money. Check this out. His Texas Senate spending,$158 million.

8:38And talk to Democrats. they will say that as much as they have enthusiasm, Democrats have enthusiasm on their side, they just don't know the impact that this huge sum of money, particularly in Texas, will have on trying to boost the Republican turnout to overcome their lack of enthusiasm. The person who is also clearly worried about it is the Democrat on the ballot in Texas, James Tallarico. He called out Elon yesterday. This election is about whether or not you want a senator who serves you or who serves his billionaire megadonors. Elon Musk wants our land. He wants our water. He wants our tax dollars.

9:24He wants his very own personal United States senator. Jamie? I think it is time to quote Dan Rather with the following Texasism that both sides are more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Look, they don't know. This is a toss-up. And I've spoken to pollsters on both sides who say, let's talk on Tuesday. They really don't know. A couple of anecdotal things, in addition to what Sabrina said about voters. A friend of mine in Houston, someone from Bush World, has been trying to go early vote. And every time this person goes, they can't even find a parking space. The person said the voters are around the block, said it looks like a Taylor Swift concert.

10:22A lot of young people turning out. I also think it's worth underscoring that Donald Trump, as you said, is back in Texas, not making one stop, but two stops. So they're both worried. Yeah, yeah. And he's campaigning for the Republican candidate for Senate, who he endorsed and really helped make this as incredibly tight and competitive as it is. Don't go anywhere. Coming up, we have new information on the Justice Department's push to contest midterm votes before they're even cast. Plus, the latest course in the Trump rally, excuse me, the Trump-Obama rivalry involves the Cheesecake Factory. We're gonna serve up the details, which actually includes a French dip cheeseburger.

11:11Cannot make this up. Stay with us.

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13:06The Justice Department is having a very busy week ahead of Election Day. We learned yesterday that the Trump DOJ criminally charged James Comey again, this time for a decade-old allegation that as FBI director, he ordered his staff to leak classified information. It would almost be funny if it weren't such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice, one that we cannot become numb to. Nothing's changed with me. I'm still innocent. I'm still not afraid of these people. And I still believe in the independent federal judiciary. And on the election front, we're learning a lot more about how the administration plans to put pressure on state and local election officials and the judiciary.

13:50Yesterday, the Justice Department announced it will send 1 ,000 election observers to all 50 states. That's more than double the election monitors sent under the previous administration. And it comes as the Trump administration faces legal setbacks in two preemptive moves, one in California to get 20 ,000 ballots set aside that the administration insists could be illegal and in its attempt to pause certification in Alaska if the incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan doesn't win. Gabe Cohen is following all of the election top lines, particularly what is going on on the election monitoring front.

14:31Gabe, sort of catch us up on, I know it's a lot because Because we're starting to really drink from a fire hose as we watch what the DOJ is doing. But put it in context for us on how aggressive they are being versus what you've been reporting on for the better part of a year and what the expectation was. Yeah, let's start with the election monitors, because I will stress that these are not federal law enforcement officers. These are mostly federal lawyers. There's a long history of election monitors being sent out to polling places on election day, even if they say this is the biggest effort in history.

15:10President Trump himself, as well as other Justice Department leaders, have said there are not going to be any sort of disruptions at polling locations, so voters shouldn't be scared to go out and vote. This is really about looking for, they say, potential violations of federal law or any other irregularities that could lead to challenges after election day. I will note we did have previous reporting on the monitors that were sent out during the primaries that showed at least a few of them had previously worked on some of the legal efforts to challenge and overturn the 2020 election. And there was this incident in Wyoming where even the Republican state election officials were very upset about the federal monitors that were there, their aggressive behavior.

15:49They said they way overstepped their authority. But I think talking to officials across the country, they're less concerned with disruptions with the monitors on Election Day. It is more about, you know, an administration that is trying to find voter fraud. Just look at the president's comments offering a million dollars to anyone who digs up evidence that they are seeking it out. And will this overhaul Justice Department and particularly the Civil Rights Division that's leading the monitor effort, will they follow those longstanding federal standards? or are they going to potentially use some observations to sow doubt?

16:25And it's the sowing doubt. And just to be clear, and I know this is exactly what you're saying, making sure that there's no election fraud is what they should be doing, and it's what the federal Justice Department and election monitors have done in Democratic and Republican administrations. It's what is paired with that, the other moves that not just the administration is making, but some of their allies are doing online, which I'm going to get to in one second. Because you mentioned the president and the$1 million bonus that he's giving people on voter fraud, here's what he put on social media.

17:06Anybody reporting voter fraud in past elections or the upcoming 2026 midterm election will be paid a million dollars upon the arrest and conviction of those that created the fraud. So that speaks to, you know, the, okay, it's fine for people who are officials going in and looking at the situations to make sure everything is going smoothly. It's another thing to potentially instigate vigilantes. Yeah, correct. And I think the lawsuits that we've just seen in California and Alaska and this letter that went out to the state of Washington about non-citizen voters also set the stage for this administration to perhaps challenge the results of the election.

17:46Obviously in Alaska they're talking about preemptively blocking the state from certifying the election if the Democrat wins. But in California we're seeing this lawsuit over what they say are 20 ,000 non-citizens who they believe have already received ballots in the midterms and are casting votes as we speak. So they're saying that election fraud is literally happening right now. That's what the Justice Department's position is. And they're demanding that California set those ballots aside until some sort of investigation can happen literally in the midst of a midterm. States are really not capable of doing that.

18:18And now we have Washington getting a letter saying, we found non-citizens on your rolls as well who are voting. The question is, and something that struck me about the letter is it's almost like a copy paste from what we saw in California, 48 hour deadline. That deadline hasn't come yet. We don't know if they're going to sue Washington, but they're now going to the courts saying fraud is underway. And the question is, if they do get blocked, which a lot of people think they will, what does that mean for legal challenges to the actual results? And just what they're going to say, they, including especially the president, are going to say publicly once we get these results.

18:53On that note, our friends at the New York Times spoke to the Secretary of State in Maine, Shanna Bellows, who said, this is the first time ever that we have had to engage in scenario planning to safeguard against potential federal interference in elections. It seems like the federal government is now adversarial to the states. Jamie. Well, Attorney General Todd Blanche does not seem to be Attorney General Bill Barr. And the problem with all of these cases and what you're hearing from Maine is there is no proof in some of these cases before. It's gone from, you know, maybe there was a question about 6 ,000 and then it was 374.

19:37There is no underlying reliable information that this is fraud. And I think what Maine is saying and California and Alaska is, look, we all hope there are no disruptions. We all hope that this doesn't become a situation where people who are elected are not seated. But January 6th did happen. And you can't ignore that President Trump, his allies, and it appears Attorney General Todd Blanch with these cases are setting the stage for doubt, chaos and confusion. And your former colleagues at The Washington Post are reporting that there are nearly 600 high-profile right-wing social media accounts, podcasts, and other online media publishing more than 7 ,000 statements already questioning the election's integrity so far.

20:36This is the concern. This is the movie that we have seen before, at least the trailer. Hopefully the movie looks different. Well, it's interesting to see that because I think back to 2021, I remember the Senate runoffs in Georgia where one of the concerns Republicans had in it was that Trump talking so much about undermining the election integrity and coming out and saying the election was stolen was going to depress turnout and was going to make people question the election or make them even question if they wanted to turn out. So I think there's some of that playing out now where there's questions of people saying, well, does it matter anyway?

21:09And I think that long term hurts us here, you know, hurts this country, hurts people, voters that are questioning the integrity of our elections. When you have the president of the United States and his allies and now a massive influencer community that has only grown in the last five years since that election coming out and already trying to sow that doubt. So I'm going to everybody put put a pause button on this because John King has made it to Michigan. He's taking the pulse of voters in that Senate race, which is so close that both parties are very uncomfortable. Stay with us.

21:52It's day two of five states in five days and CNN's John King is in Michigan. The Senate race between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers could very well determine control of the U.S. Senate. There you see him. John is in Dearborn, Michigan. You can explain to the viewers how you're getting from point A to point B later. But more importantly, what are the Michiganders you're talking to telling you? Dana, as you know, this is a fascinating state. We'll get to the map more in a minute. But just to show you the map, and you look at 80 ,000 votes in 2024, Donald Trump wins this state.

22:29Kamala Harris loses it. Remember, Democrat Alyssa Slotkin won a Senate race in that same campaign by about 17 ,000 votes. So every vote does matter. It's a cliche, but it matters here. Dearborn, majority Arab American city. We were just at an early voting location where local officials said there's been a steady stream of people coming in. That is absolutely essential to Abdul El-Sayed's math here. He needs to run it up. Kamala Harris could not get the support here because of anger at the Biden-Harris administration over what these voters believed was too much of a green light to Israel in Gaza after October 7th.

23:03So this year, it's all about coalition building. Abdul El-Sayed thinks he'll get bigger turnout here, but we know from our all-over-the-map voter conversations he's also going to lose a lot of votes that would normally go to Democrats. We've spoken to a number of Jewish voters here who have never voted Republican before, who say they simply cannot vote for Abdul El-Sayed. There are other Democrats who are frustrated by that, who say they understand the pain of the Jewish community. They wish those voters would look at it differently. Here's just a little bit of a sample of the emotions here. I'm a lifelong Democrat.

23:34I've never voted Republican a day in my life. But I feel so strongly about El Sayed not winning because I don't believe that he supports the Jewish community and the safety of the Jewish community. that I actually, I'm happy to place my vote for Rogers as much. Like I said, again, I've never voted Republican ever, but that's how much I don't want him to be elected. Well, I mean, midterm elections are supposed to be your response to the presidential administration. Maybe not supposed to be, but that often ends up being how they work, right? So, you know, if you're happy with the pointless war in Iran, high gas prices, high grocery prices, people being murdered in the streets, ice going unchecked, and a completely incompetent con man convicted felon in the office, then maybe you should vote for MAGA Mike Rogers, who's committed to doing his bidding and who is going to work on behalf of his corporate donors and not Michiganders.

24:37I am going to approach this race voting for progress, voting for change, voting for Abdul El-Sayed.

24:46So, Danny, you hear the emotion and the frustration there. Again, lifelong Jewish Democrats saying, I'm sorry, but I just can't do it. I don't like Donald Trump. I hope the Democrats win the Senate. But I'm going to vote Republican for Senate here, even though this state could be absolutely critical to that Senate math. And then the frustration of a young progressive who says this is a chance. Remember, this is not just about coalition building. This is about the message of the election. Imagine if Abdul El-Sayed can win. Medicare for All is his signature issue in a purple 50-50 presidential bellwether state.

25:16That would give Democrats that issue, health care broadly, Medicare for All specifically, a big boost heading into what we talk about after the election. But we'll see. This one's going to go down to the wire. Everybody knows it, as you know, as well as anybody. The Democrats need to hold their seat. They need plus four. If they lose this one, then they need to win five somewhere else. And we could go across the map. Can they do that? Yes. Is it difficult? extremely. I will say that Jade probably has a future in politics if she wants one. That was that was a remarkable conversation that you had.

25:48What else are you seeing on the map there in Michigan? So so you just look at Michigan again. If you look at Michigan, you see all that red, right? That's Donald Trump. That's a decade of Trump. It's also Republicans have long had an advantage in rural America. Trump just put it on steroids. But remember, gas prices here are high as well. Another issue is can you do coalition building? One of the issues I'm showing you, Wayne County, that's Detroit. This is the Democratic base. It's the biggest county in the state. Abdul El-Sayed, remember, did not, he won the primary. Haley Stevens, the Democratic Congresswoman, had deep support in the black community.

26:21So one of the issues for El-Sayed is turning up voters there. We're going to go to a phone bank in a little bit. It's a UAW auto phone bank. That's one of the challenges there. So again, it's a 50-50 state, a battleground state that Trump has won twice. There are also a couple of competitive House races here and a big governor's race here as well. Middle America, places where Donald Trump has run strong, Dan, are incredibly important in the midterms. That in and of itself tells you that Republicans are on defense. But one week from tonight, we count the votes. And this one is expected to be among the closest.

26:51All right. Looks like a pretty day there. Thanks so much, John. See you tomorrow. And up next, Barack Obama dished out cheesecake. The White House clearly has a beef. Up next, the food fight, putting an American institution on the campaign trail.

27:14President Trump is returning to South Carolina on Thursday for the second time this month to boost Republican Senator Darlene Graham. And when he gets there, he'll find a party divided over the nominee that he personally chose himself. CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju is in beautiful Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. OK, Manu, you win. But let's talk about the substance of what you're reporting there. Parts of reporting, Dana. Yeah, I know. Tough. Tough assignment. You are hearing about lingering GOP divisions in South Carolina over their candidate. Yeah, and that's one big reason why the race is so tight, because the Republican voters have not yet come home for Senator Darlene Graham.

27:59Another big reason why Donald Trump is coming here for a second time in consecutive weeks, just days away from the midterm election in a state that he's won three times overwhelmingly. One data point to show you about why there's Republican divisions. Listen to what Congressman Ralph Norman told me this morning. Of course, he ran against Darlene Graham in the Republican primary, but he's very much concerned about her. He says that she's simply not a, quote, true conservative in this race. I asked him why this race is so close. He criticized both Annie Andrews and Darlene Graham. He said the voters have not settled on a candidate that has been propped up by special interest groups and a Republican president spending millions of dollars spending false narratives about why Darlene Graham is qualified to be elected for the next, is the next U.S.

28:47Senator for the next six years. He said this election is about attempts to force a candidate on the voters of South Carolina. And regardless of the outcome, it didn't have to be this way, as the great people living in South Carolina deserve better. And his son, Dana, Warren Norman, actually wrote an op-ed just a few days ago saying he would not vote for Darlene Graham. I asked Norman about that. He said he's going to vote for the Republican ticket, but he also agreed with the criticism in that op-ed where he said that Graham was not a, quote, true conservative in this race. A big reason why Graham is appearing with Donald Trump and would top Republican surrogates across the country try to convince them she is a true conservative and warn them if the Democrat Annie Andrews wins, the chances of a Democratic-led Senate increase significantly.

29:31Diana? Yikes. Thank you so much for that reporting. I appreciate it, Manu. See you soon. And back here at the table, just real quick. Um, so what does, what does that tell you, especially given the reality that South Carolina is still South Carolina and its DNA is still very red? There's history. There's obviously bitterness in the wake of the race, but it was the double exclamation points in that text message that when we say, damn, you know, no, look, the fact that that exists, that the fighting is real, that money going in there is real, that Trump has to be down there is real, underscores that in a really tough environment where a lot of races are coming online that Republicans didn't want to have to fight over or didn't want to have to deal with, certainly didn't want to spend in, this just makes life harder for SLF.

30:19It makes life harder for John Thune. It makes life harder for Maggie Inc. Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about what's really at stake here, and that is the future of the Cheesecake Factory. It's great, by the way. I'm just going to... I'll throw it on you. Yeah, I know. You're going to get to talk about that in a But in all seriousness, President Obama started this by saying that the White House looks like Saddam Hussein's palace and the Cheesecake Factory. And then the president has responded. We'll show you what has happened.

30:49He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Hi, Mr. Secretary. It's an interesting lunch choice today. What did you order? What did you order? I always had the French dip cheeseburger. I would tell the Martha's Vineyard set to give it a try. He said, this isn't a cheesecake factory. Can you believe it? Which is a very successful company. It's not money, it's peanuts. He spends all his time thinking about the ballroom. That has to be pristine. And I would try and explain that to a guy like Obama, but he wouldn't understand. Nobody loved it like I do.

31:27Jamie? Yeah? I know. But the Scott Besant move was one to remember. So, you know, Scott Besant calling Barack Obama elite. I believe that Scott Besant is, according to his financial disclosures, worth somewhere between$500 and$600 million. He eats most often, according to my reporting, at a very nice restaurant in Georgetown called Cafe Milano. If you don't know it, look it up. So, and there was that camera, Fox camera, just waiting outside to catch him. I'll leave the rest to Phil. Hi. Sabrina. I would just add, I mean, this episode does remind me a little bit of in 2024 when, like, Trump got on the go.

32:20garbage truck to try and take a dig at Biden and when he went to McDonald's to try and take a dig at Kamala Harris. But we're in a very different time right now than we were in 2024 and that lead up to that election. And right now, I think this is the trying to divert the attention. But and as we were talking off camera, you know, this is like the moment before the election. This is what we're talking about or this is what the president wants to draw attention to. I think just speaks to the moment we're in. And it's not the same as in 2024 when sort of the wind was at his back. I know you're pro Cheesecake Factory.

32:54I'm the same. Stop it. Stop it. This is my safe space, my nirvana, my utopia. Leave it alone. I don't want any of you talking about it. Leave it alone. You're ruining it. The only thing I care about other than my children and wife. At the Cheesecake Factory. Oh, I take that. Yes. All right. Up next, priced out, Bill Mattingly, who is very passionate about his restaurants. went to North Carolina to talk to Americans who did everything right, but are barely getting by in today's economy. You don't feel like anybody's listening when... They're not listening right now. It's not a good time to ask me to vote for anybody.

33:33My light's off. Can you help me get them on?

33:44In North Carolina's newly redrawn First District, tourists are checking in while locals are getting priced out. Phil Mattingly traveled from the Outer Banks to Rocky Mount to talk with Americans who have worked hard and played by the rules and are still struggling to get by. For a dozen years, the Outer Banks was the promise kept for Stu Laird, driving wild horse tours across the northern Outer Banks. When I first moved down here, I was pretty happy with my life. He says he made$50 ,000. When the house he'd rented for eight years went back on the vacation market, the money wasn't the problem. Now it's back to a weekly rental.

34:25Homeowners can make a lot more profit renting to vacationers. Stu moved into employer housing, beds his employers needed back every spring for seasonal hires. At what point did you realize you were going to be living in your car for a period of time? When I moved out of the second employee housing, there was nowhere to go. So he lived in his truck, moving from parking lot to parking lot. Then in January, it snowed. My battery had died in my truck. I couldn't start it and run the engine. and after a couple of days of that, my feet felt pretty brittle. How much pain were you in? I'd say on 1 to 10 scale, I was probably at 9.

35:10Frostbite, three hospital stays, a fall and a broken hip. Now he's 65 and assisted living an hour and a half from the beach, waiting on his social security. When I was living in my truck, that was a pretty dark time.

35:29So how does a place built on hospitality run out of room for the people who provide it? Nearly half the homes in Dare County are vacation homes. This June, short-term rentals here averaged about$617 a night. At the same time, the wage it takes to rent a modest two-bedroom has jumped from$22 an hour to$27.50 in just three years. And that's forced employers here to come up with their own solutions. Solutions like buying homes just to house their labor force in order to have a labor force. The break came with COVID. We saw real estate doubling, tripling. Chris Merrick runs Ocean Atlantic Rentals.

36:13The housing stuff came out of necessity and we would not be in business today. For Matt Corey, the biggest worry used to be inventory. I used to have shrimp dreams. Now it's more so about the people. And I need to find a way to get housing for these people. Chris spent his first summer here living in a garage. Three decades later, he has a business, a home, and three daughters. My kids will probably never live here. I mean, where are they going to buy? What are they going to do, live in my downstairs? Yeah, I mean, it's heartbreaking. So we're driving on US 64. We're driving west, about 150 miles.

36:50This one highway connects two very different economies in the same newly redrawn congressional district. It's a toss-up district at this point, but it's those two economies that really underpin the scale of the affordability crisis across the country. One highway connects two communities redrawn into a single house district. But tourism money flowing into one end hardly reaches the other. Tobacco fields and textile factories once supported a thriving local economy here in Rocky Mount. The industries hollowed out, just like its population. And those left behind are still absorbing the financial aftershocks.

37:29I'm Phil. Very nice to meet you. Sheila Scarborough is a retired veteran living on the VA disability and Social Security she earned. She moved home from D.C. I wanted the good old days my grandmother had. That's why I moved back here, because D.C. was getting too expensive. Rocky Mountain's shaky finances fueled a crisis at its municipal power company. In April, the city raised utility rates about 15%. It's not supposed to be hard. This is not what I worked all those years for. In June, she went to the utility office to set up a payment plan on her past due bill. She tells me, if you don't have$1 ,100 right now, I'm going to cut you off Monday.

38:15$1 ,100 is more than a week's pay for the average private sector worker in Edgecombe County. And she needs insulin, which has to stay cold. Yet her power was off for nearly two months this summer. I slept in my car. Either I can cut my air conditioning on in my car if I'm hot. I might have to spend more in gas, but that's how I survived. Before she retired, Sheila's job was helping homeless veterans get the benefits they'd earned. Now she was the one sleeping in her car. It can happen to anybody. Nobody's safe out here. Help finally came from a veterans charity donor. Sheila kept her home. Many of her neighbors are not so lucky.

38:59Edgecombe County has the highest rate of eviction filings among renters in North Carolina. Two people, opposite ends of one congressional district. He needs first month's rent and a deposit. She needed$1 ,100 just to keep the lights on. Both worked hard, both did all the right things. Both ended up in the same place. One priced out, one was pushed out. This is the affordability crisis.

39:28Stu knows exactly where he's going when his benefits come. finding a room along the beach somewhere between Kitty Hawk and Nagsit. I made a pact with myself when I moved down here that I would go to the beach every day. And I did that up until this past winter. I miss the beach. You don't feel like anybody's listening when... They're not listening right now. It's not a good time to ask me to vote for anybody. My light's off. Can you help me get them on? So until you help me get my light, don't ask me about voting for nobody. Wow, Phil, I mean, the entire piece is just so powerful and so incredibly sad.

40:13And the fact that they opened up to you and told you the reality, which unfortunately is the reality for so many people right now. But that last remark, I don't even want to hear it from anybody in politics until you can do the most basic thing. It's the most basic that voters, so many of them, need and want. And it's the most basic that they want. That's all they want. They don't want handouts. They want the most basic things for survival, essentially, at this point in time. And I think what she said was something that I heard often over the course of six months of reporting this out. They hate everybody, with good reason.

40:48It's an incumbency thing. It's anybody who's a political official. And so while I think, obviously, the polling looks like it's heading towards Democrats, the economics cost of living are certainly an issue. People are just mad right now. And over and over again, you understand why. And they want big changes. Who will deliver those? I think that's going to be a question that goes far beyond what happens a week from today. And just the highway and the new district that literally splits the haves and the have-nots. It's really powerful. Thank you so much for bringing it to us. Thank you for joining Inside Politics today.

41:21CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

41:51Yes, I mean Gwyneth Paltrow and Anna Wintour. She has done biographies of both. And she is also the sort of rare fashion writer who, at this point, kind of outside the system. And so the question that we're going to try to tackle is... Is fashion terrible now? Well, no, I mean, I would phrase it as how do you develop a personal style in the age of AI slop? You know, on social media, like creators have to try a whole bunch of different things and see what catches. And then they make it over and over and over again. The same thing happens with clothing. So they're sort of seeding the market, seeding the internet with all of these different ideas.

42:24And then they can see what sells and then they can just make them really fast. Follow Engagement Party. Wherever you get your podcasts.