national focus. people are seeing less about state and local taxes. they're seeing more about schools and national debates on curriculum and mask mandates. and topics like reproductive freedom, even though there's no current challenge to box rights in virginia. >> for now. voters in key races are already sending in ballots as democrats in washington, d.c. remain embroiled in chaotic and messy negotiation over a pair of infrastructure bills. the likelihood is dwindling that democrats will actually be able to work out their differences before these elections and allow democrats to run on president biden's achievements. cnn's phil mattingly has more on all this. >> reporter: kristina and laura, now comes the hard part. and if you've been watching capitol hill, you've been watching the white house over the course of the last several weeks, even months, wasn't that the hard part? that pales in comparison to what democrats are facing now. keep in mind this is the president's poll numbers are dropping, gas prices are