Battleground state reporters talk presidential polling, campaigns | The Hill

and veteran political reporter Rick Albin from Old Wood in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's great to have you guys with us from our next hour. Family First, I wanted to ask you, what are you seeing on the ground in your states? What's the dynamic? What's the state of play on this Labor Day as we hit this final stretch? Rick, I'll start with you. We have been inundated with candidate visits and I mean almost daily. If you take a look at last week, president former President Trump was in the state twice. J.D. Vance was here once. Doug Emhoff, the husband of the vice president, was here for a visit. We are seeing a lot of attention here, and that's going to continue with Vice President Harris in town on this Labor Day. And then coming up, President Biden is going to be in the state on Friday, we believe. So These campaigns are taking Michigan very seriously. And Ross, what's the situation in North Carolina? Yeah, I mean, you're definitely seeing a lot more energy. I sort of put it like this. The Democrats suddenly are catching up with the excitement that the Republicans have had for a long time in North Carolina. They see an end to the end of the road here that could go in their way. But it's going to be tough. I mean, you got to remember, you were talking about Barack Obama. He won North Carolina in 2008. That's the lasast time the Democrats won this state. And before that, it was Jimmy Carter back in 1976. But I know they're spending a lot of money here. You talk to sales folks at local TV stations. Their budgets for August were blown out of the water, far exceeded expectations. All you have to do is turn on your television. You know, the last thing you want to be is a local, you know, car car dealer who's trying to get on the air. It's hard to get here on time whatsoever. ah, completely. Your mailbox is full of all these sorts of fliers that are coming out your doors full, and there's certainly canvasing and going around. All right. Let me ask you about the substance and what voters are actually concerned about. And, Russell, I'll start with you. What do you see as the key issues for voters there in North Carolina? Yeah, the economy is by far number one. And, you know, you alluded to that Hill next Star poll that we recently had in the top three issues in North Carolina. Number one, again, the economy than health care, than education. It's interesting that immigration was all the way down to number five, and that's actually very, very consistent to what we've seen all year, not only from our polling, but pretty much every poll that's been out there that immigration is not really at the top of the list. But when you watch the ads as far as GOP ads are concerned, that's what we see a whole lot of. So it's interesting that the messaging is focusing on that when they're trying to get some of these folks who still may be on the fence or to motivate these folks who typically don't go out to vote or weren't planning to vote or might be leaning one way or the other. And in Michigan, is it the same situation? I'm fascinated to learn that immigration is sort of sinking down the list of priorities. What are voters they're concerned about? Well, the economy is the overriding concern. I mean, that is still a major issue in a state that has seen its share of economic roller coasters. And it is the everyday costs of things that you hear so much about when you're out and talking with people. And I think that that is something that the Harris team has tried to address. But the Trump team continues to hammer away on that. I think immigration is still a concern, but it's a concern to a certain group of people. And those people have probably already decided what they're going to do in terms of voting very largely. And let me just very quickly, Ross, come back to you. So these tightening polls, do you attribute that to this enthusiasm gap that's being closed or do you interpret that as sort of a the appeal that Donald Trump is having over the past two cycles on voters is sort of fading? Or to what would you attribute that? I think it's a combination of both. I think that, you know, you would we are always considered a purple state, mainly because a Republican typically wins this state in the presidential race and a Democrat typically wins at the same time in a gubernatorial race. So that's why we're considered purple. But now we're seeing more enthusiasm and hope from Democrats that Harris can actually bring this across the finish line. And they feel like they're hearing the same old story from Donald Trump. I mean, that's at least what I'm hearing from voters. I want you to the other big issues. One of the other things that we've got to watch is for the first time ever, for the voters under 45 are a plurality in North Carolina. That's the first time that's happened. So their biggest challenge is, of course, going to be turnout. Are these people going to show up?