Race to the midterms

So we are only a week away from Election Day. Both parties are making that final push to influence control of Congress. Yeah, and Michigan is among the states with key races. Here to help us unpack all of this is Oakland University political science professor Nicole Matthew. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. How would you describe this midterm election cycle? Oh, it's pretty intense for a midterm. We had the last midterm there, we had a lot of incumbents running, but this time we're going to have a new governor, a new senator, a new attorney general, a new secretary of state. I want to get your thoughts because over the past weekend, we saw former President Obama, we saw President Trump, we got J.D. Vance coming in a little later today, but we also had celebrities. We had Nicki Minaj, we had Kerry Washington. What do you make of many of these high profile names coming in the week before and how it What may influence the election coming up? Well, everybody's trying to reach those kind of low propensity voters. And so that's why you see the celebrities coming in. And both sides seem to be focused on turning out their base. And so that's why you see Vance and Trump coming in. I don't think they're gonna convince a lot of Democrats to vote for Republicans, but they're certainly trying to get their people out. Are we seeing more young voters get involved and participate in making their voices heard ahead of this election? I think so. one of the issues that's animating them is the data centers and the impact that AI might have on their future careers. Look, we've talked about affordability. We see gas prices, groceries. You talked about data centers. Are there any other big issues that maybe we're not necessarily seeing on the news but are being talked about in many of these communities? Yeah, I think these tariffs in Canada, I mean, that plays into the economic insecurities and the cost of things. And you're seeing a lot of people focusing on that. Now the Republicans that are running are trying to distance themselves from Trump on the Canadian tariffs. Well, how do you think the midterm elections, how do you think it'll influence our next presidential election? Well, if Republicans do surprisingly well, they're usually in midterm, the in party doesn't do as well. If they do surprisingly well, then that might give Republicans a boost. If the Democrats have a big wave, that might embolden the more progressive side of the Democratic Party, and you might see more candidates from that lane. Well, there's been a lot of talk about Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers and reaching out to the traditional Democrats that may be uneasy about El-Sayed. We've seen black voters. We saw El-Sayed with black voters yesterday. We've heard his name come up in conversation about black voters, Jewish voters. What needs to happen for either El-Sayed or Mike Rogers to reach out to lock down these voters and maybe secure a win in Michigan? Yeah, well, in 2024, there was lower than expected turnout for the Harris campaign in some black areas of Michigan. And so I think Rogers sees an opening there. But whether the issues that really matter are the economy, I'm not sure that he can really turn out black voters based on Trump's economic record. And we do know here in Detroit, we just had a record first day of voting. What do you think it is that's motivating people to get out here and vote, even doing so early because they have that option now? But do you think a lot of people are fed up? Well, I think people are becoming more comfortable with these new ways of voting. We've only had early voting for a few election cycles, and people are finding it's quite convenient. And the absentee ballot voting is held steady. Even as we introduced early in-person voting, we still see substantial numbers of voting by mail. Professor Matthew, we know you're a busy woman. I see Amy Lang over there in the studio. She's going to talk with you a little later. We're going to have you on at 1 o'clock on our Fox Local stream. She's hanging out all day. Just having more conversation about this big election, so we appreciate your time. You bet. Thanks for joining us.