Were in iowa and New Hampshire this weekend. You can follow our coverage on the web at cspan. Org, and we want to check in with reporters in the early primary and caucus states. We also want to hear from you. We have a line set aside for those who live in South Carolina, iowa, and New Hampshire, and you can begin aling, 202748000 for democrats. 2027488001 for republicans. 2027488002 for independents. Again, we want to hear from those in iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Joining us on the phone is james, political reporter with the post and courier in South Carolina. And i want to put on the screen some new numbers, courtesy of real clear politics. It shows you the state of the race in South Carolina. Again, this is a summary of all of the most recent polls with former Vice President joe biden at 32 . Senator Bernie Sanders at 15 . Hes closely followed by senator Elizabeth Warren, tom steyer at 8 , and former mayor pete buge ajudge. Those numbers have been pretty consistent over the last couple of months. Why . These numbers have been consistent over the last few months. Why . Former Vice President has had a very durable base of support in South Carolina. He is by far the best known of the candidates. He is viewed favorably by black voters of South Carolina who of the the majority democratic electorate in South Carolina, 61 in 2016. It is partly because of his association with president obama, the Vice President , partly because he has been coming to South Carolina for many years and has lengthy relationships here. He has been very popular with that group of folks and it has been hard for the other candidates to try and chip away at it. They have all been competing for second so far. His lead has not really diminished. It will be interesting to see whether the results in iowa involves New Hampshire or New Hampshire will have an impact on that. That has been the state of the race for months. The road to South Carolina begins in iowa and then New Hampshire. In the first time in South Carolina. Biden campaign, is South Carolina a firewall if he fares orlie in the other two states . Poorly in the other two states . It is preclear that is the case. I have spoken to folks on the campaign and the Vice President himself. As far back as last summer in an interview with him, i asked whether he viewed this as a state where, if things did not go as well and i he hoped and in New Hampshire, that this could be a place to start winning some states. Part of the reason with South Carolina that South Carolina been significant is it has historically a bellwether for other southern states. There are a lot of delegates in the south. It is extraordinarily hard to win the democratic president ial nomination without winning the black vote. Nationwide. Carolina is the first test of a candidates strength with the black vote. Den certainly sees that as a stronger situation for him than and morehose whiter progressive states early on. Host were talking with a politico reporter joining us live via skype from charleston, South Carolina. When you look at the political demographics of South Carolina, it is a solid republican state in a general election, but what about in the primary and where are the democratic votes in your state . Guest the main hotbed of democratic votes is in columbia. Democrats have been growing their numbers, certainly in charleston, where a democratic foridate for congress won the first time last year in 2018, in 48 year in 40 years. Has historically been viewed as the conservative stronghold, but the city of greenville is also starting to add quite a few democrats. Columbiaspread out but and Richmond County in the middle of the state has been the for frequent Campaign Stop a lot of these candidates because it does have the most amount of democratic voters. The candidates are trying to get all over the state and South Carolina is a state with a lot of rural areas and we are seeing candidates go to these rural towns to demonstrate that they are going to be a president that will work for not just the folks in the big cities. I want to ask you about senator Lindsey Graham. His democratic challenger in one survey statistically tied. How competitive is the senate race going to be this year . Guest it has been hard to read the polls in that race. It is fairly early and senator grahams challenger, the likely by farger who has raised the most money, he is still relatively unknown in South Carolina. Former south the carolina democratic chairman, but that is not really a wellknown person outside of party politics. He now works for the dnc, he ran for the dnc chairman back after the 2016 election. Money,raised a ton of which is certainly the first step to making a competitive election. Senator graham also raised a ton of money, even more. They both have studied fundraising records. Imagine we will get National Attention because of senator grahams profile. It will be an uphill climb the matter what for harrison. I think he would admit that himself. You never say never in this profession. Host tom steyer, the billionaire, has doubled his support, approach in double digits. He is now in the 8 or 9 attending to the polls in South Carolina. Why is he moving up . Guest it is impossible to turn on a television, a radio, a computer in South Carolina right now, without seeing tom steyer very quickly. He has completely blanketed the state with ads for several months now. When otherver tv candidates have not been on tv at all or barely on tv. He has got pulled with all over the roads. State really placed the blitzed the state and the state of nevada are his top areas. He is still mostly right now competing with senator sanders and senator warren for that second spot. Nobody is really encroaching on joe biden at this point. The fact that tom steyer has gone from a candidate who nobody really knew before this campaign is anto that position interesting story to watch. Host a political reporter from the postcourier is joining us from South Carolina. We thank you for being with us. We have aligned set aside for those of you who live in South Carolina, iowa, or New Hampshire. 202 7488003. Lets get to your phone calls. Patty from new york. We are about three weeks away from iowa. Caller good morning. York andally from new talking about the campaign trail and all of these democratic republicans, what i really hope for and what i pay for for this country is that somebody will step up for the people and not for their party. I think that is really where most americans are concerned. Nobody is for the people anymore. They are for the party. On the campaign trail, i have not seen democrats say, ok, this is what i will do. It is all about how they are going to debunk trump and impeach him and the impeachment trail. I think people want to see policy. People want to see what will be done. What i find very troubling as a new yorker and the wife of a first responder, my husband retired, as is well as 3000 people who perished on that day, i want to see somebody who will step up and say, how are we going to protect the people . How are we going to help the people who are on the medicare on medicare and how will we help the homeless . S someone from new york, trump is doing that. As somebody who, i will not tell trump but i will say, he is putting the people over the politics. I will leave it there. Richard next in missouri. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am a burning man. Bernie man,. Man. The people running for president , why dont they come out and tell us who their cabinet will be . I would sure want people to know who would be my running mate and who i will put in charge of different things. It would make more sense than just running on yourself. I think it would help quite a bit. Host who would be your pick for Bernie Sanders . Caller warren would be practical to run with him because they are real liberals and we want to get health care and makebody we can the world a little better place for everybody and educate people. And help the people get more doctors and nurses and invest in machines and stuff like that. Help the people. Host thank you for your call from them from missouri. The Pete Buttigieg campaign airing in the early primary pop caucus states. One of four advertisements he has released this week. As a veteran and a mayor, i have seen what we can achieve when we have each others acts. Dividedof america, we are at each others throats. Health care costs are soaring and kids are learning active shooter drills before they learn to read. To meet these challenges and if he president , we need real solutions, not polarization. I approve this message because acting together to conquer these challenges is the only way forward. Your calls in newark, new jersey, james, good morning. Good morning, cspan. Good morning to new york city and washington, d. C. I am a moderate. I have been in politics since i was three years old with eisenhower. Ashamed of this country because of the fact that new , the poor are being left behind. The homeless situation in california is insane and nobody really cares. All these trillions of dollars going to new york city wall 12 tax. Aying a 0 to i used to work on wall street in 1973. I have experience. Me moreeally a damn sha is not being done for the poor. Host thank you for the call. Jim in new york. Caller hi. The lady that from the from new york that called, i am from new york also but she left out when she was talking about the people that the democrats seem to be stepping all over themselves to give Illegal Immigrants all kinds of benefits. It is unbelievable. Now they are getting licenses in new york. , the all of these years dmv is hiring more people because the lines are so long. I cannot believe it. Down is up and up is down. Is else decides trump talking besides trump is talking about all the stuff we biased the store is made in china and bringing jobs back . Nobody. Nafta. All of these jobs people are getting now. I would like to know what people are doing. Bernie sanders wants to give away all kinds of free stuff. Really. Vote for . U going to if you are voting democrat, i really dont know. I have no idea what your mindset is. You should see how overrun this area is. With Illegal Immigrants. Countrye is a asshole out here. Host thank you for your call. This program is carried live on channel 134 every sunday morning. To our viewers in great written who are live every sunday afternoon british time on the Bbc Parliament channel. Christine is on the phone as we talk about camp in from rhode island. Good morning. I was calling because i think people need to listen to yang. My first choice would be Elizabeth Warren, but i have been listening to yang and following his policies. I think people need to give him a chance and listen to him, because he makes a lot of good sense. Thank you. David is next. Albuquerque, new mexico. Caller good morning. I believe that these democrats that are running for president are all fakes. They are not for real. They are putting their show out there. President trump is right. If you do not like america, leave. They did not even mentioned nothing about that contractor that got killed. All they talk about is that dude over there, that terrorist, and mourning for him. Love america, why are you here . Biden and warrant dont love america. People lovee america. Everybody needs to listen to trump because he is telling it the way it is straight up. Call. Thanks for the heres what the president told reporters in ohio this past week. Have a lotrump we of support because our country is doing so well. Our country is doing so well. [applause] President Trump when we went out, we started and went right to the top of the polls. It was not like these folks today. 2 , 3 , but they are climbing. We went right to the top from day one and never missed centerstage in the debates. Remember those great debates . We got high ratings. They dont get good ratings anymore. I am supposed to watch. It is like my job, try and watch the competition. But it is like watching death. [laughter] President Trump those debates are boring. You have to sit through those things for two or three hours, you have to be really committed to the country to do that all stop that. [laughter] you seet trump pocahontas is slipping badly . [cheering] President Trump and bernie is going up, he is surging. [booing] President Trump crazy bernie is surging. Biden does not know the difference between iran and iraq and has gotten it wrong four times. From stockton, california, your thoughts . Caller my one and only president is joe biden. That is who i am voting for and he is the most qualified. Host thank you. Lets go to linda in staten island, new york. Good morning. For campaign 2020, i think the the homefront. I have been complaining about this for a long time. That is the first issue for me as an american. Having a place to live, permanently. In new york, we have to get to the nittygritty of the situation of homelessness. First, lets have someone check the Financial Budgets here in new york city. If we start following the money, like for instance, on one of my budgets, there was a mortgage that came and has gone out. I dont even have a home. If we start checking where the money is going, perhaps we can get to why so many of us are domiciled. Thank you. Host caroline in virginia. Good morning. Caller how are you doing . Sanders. Te and bernie Bernie Sanders is really truthful and honest and speaks the truth. [indiscernible] in his office, that is sexual and messing with the women, the women cannot work in peace, and you mean to tell me [indiscernible] doing a mess like that and women have to keep going and they will do nothing about it. Not me. No, sir. Thank you anyway, byebye. In thee is not competing primaries or caucuses but he is competing for super tuesday and delegates there and beyond. Michael bloombergss campaign admitting he would spend upwards of 1 billion in this election this year. That story is available on the new the New York Times website. We will try to get that for you in a moment. Bob in massachusetts. Caller i just wanted to talk about Pete Buttigieg. Im a little dismayed. We have got countries that stone gay people and we are going to a note to elect a president to go to these countries and negotiate . Host do you think that will be an issue . He has not been elected for anything yet and we have to wait for the primaries. Caller i know that but how could you possibly consider him . How is he supposed to go to iran, iraq, and saudi arabia, where they throw gay people off the top of buildings and stone them . It does not make any sense to me and nobody has ever brought it up. None of the media brings it up. Host who is your candidate in this election . Caller trump. No question about it. Host ok. Thank you for the call. Isning us from New Hampshire a political reporter for the concord monitor. Good sunday morning. Thank you for being with us. Guest great to join you. Heading to iowa for the debates. In New Hampshire, we are having january fog. Winter will return tomorrow. It has been warm and washington, d. C. , as well. If you look at the polls from real clear politics, it is showing essentially a threeway or fourway race in New Hampshire. Let me put the numbers on your screen and get your reaction. Senator sanders is leading in New Hampshire with 22 . Followed closely behind by former Vice President joe biden in 19 . People to judge at 18 and senator Elizabeth Warren at 15 . What are you seeing on the ground . What hose polls are reflective of what we think is the lay of the land. Four toptier contenders. The story in iowa, the same four. The four largest and strongest campaign organizations, boots on the ground and grass read grassroots outreach. Some of them have ads up here. In tv ads. Ot gone up all four of them are spending a lot of time in the state as well. Off some ofriting the other contenders. Andrew yang is spending a lot of time here and getting a lot of energy. Amy klobuchar. She is from neighboring minnesota but spends a good bit of time here. Cory booker spends a lot of time in this state and seems to have a lot of energy when he holds campaign events. Lets talk about Tulsi Gabbard from hawaii who basically moved here and is renting a house in New Hampshire through primary day. Host if you look at who is moving ahead and who is moving behind, the Biden Campaign has lost ground based o