On Tuesday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Hurricane Milton grew to a monster Category 5 storm Monday. Hospitals are urging emergency steps on possible IV fluid shortages after Hurricane Helene. USA TODAY Congress, Campaigns and Democracy Reporter Karissa Waddick takes a look at how Georgia became a swing state. Georgia's abortion ban has been temporarily reinstated. USA TODAY Editor Karen Weintraub breaks down exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University polling showing Vice President Kamala Harris losing ground among Latino voters to former President Donald Trump in two major battleground states. A judge gives preliminary approval for an NCAA settlement allowing revenue-sharing with college athletes.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Tuesday, October 8th, 2024. This is the Excerpt. Today, Hurricane Milton is now a category five. What's next? Plus how the aftermath of Hurricane Helene could impact supplies of IV bags at hospitals around the country. And we discuss how Georgia became a swing state.

♦

Hurricane Milton is now a monster category five with sustained winds of 165 miles an hour. Milton is barreling across the Gulf of Mexico bound for what could be a devastating landfall tomorrow along Florida's already storm-battered Western coast. The National Hurricane Center said in its 11 PM Eastern Time advisory last night that Milton poses an extremely serious threat to Florida after earlier warning that hurricane wind speeds had explosively intensified. Those speeds increased by 95 miles an hour in less than a day. And the storm rapidly intensified from a category two to a category five within hours yesterday. Milton is expected to weaken slightly before making landfall, but experts still expect a powerful storm. You can stay up on all the latest with USAToday.com.

♦

Meanwhile, the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene are still being felt in parts of the country. Towns across North Carolina are just beginning to recover and rebuild, and there's a new concern. Hospitals are urging the White House to help shore up supplies of IV bags after a North Carolina factory closed due to flood damage brought by Hurricane Helene. Several hospitals have implemented conservation plans and warned the public of potential disruptions since Baxter International temporarily closed a manufacturing site in Marion, North Carolina, about 35 miles from Asheville. The Marion factory supplied 60% of the nation's IV fluids to health facilities. The factory also ships dialysis solutions to dialysis centers. You can read more about those worries with the link in today's show notes.

♦

Once a GOP stronghold, Georgia is now a swing state. I caught up with USA TODAY, Congress campaigns and democracy reporter, Karissa Waddick, to learn more about how the Peach state became a battleground. Karissa, thanks for hopping on today.

Karissa Waddick:

Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

So Karissa, just starting here, what has Georgia really been politically in a historical light?

Karissa Waddick:

Prior to 2020, the last time Georgia had voted for a Democratic presidential candidate was in 1992 for President Bill Clinton. And then of course in 2020, the state voted for President Joe Biden, who's a Democrat. So it has gone back and forth and right now we are seeing that becoming a swing state, putting it in play for Democrats where over the last 30 years or so it has been a pretty Republican stronghold overall.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. So really, how is this changing? What are some of the factors here that you've seen?

Karissa Waddick:

Stacey Abrams, she is a big name in Georgia politics and in national politics. In the mid-2010s, Stacey Abrams founded an organization that was pivotal in registering Black voters and then also getting Black people in Georgia who were already registered to vote out to the polls. Stacey Abrams, with that work registered thousands of new voters ahead of her 2018 gubernatorial campaign.

And although she lost that campaign, the margins were smaller than they had been before. And so between around 2012 and 2020 when President Joe Biden won in Georgia, we saw the margins slowly shrinking for Republicans. They were winning by less and less. And then when you got to Biden, he actually flipped it and won the state by a pretty large margin.

And so registering those throughout Atlanta, Stacey Abrams efforts paid off, we also saw those efforts in other parts of Georgia. I spoke with a woman who leads the Gwinnett County Democrats and she said that they similarly were seeing new residents move into the state and they did that outreach effort with those new residents and got them to the polls.

So it was an across-the-board effort from Democrats across the state reaching out and registering large swaths of people to even it out in Georgia.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. So on the Republican side, Karissa, how are they responding to this shift? What are they doing to center their efforts in the state?

Karissa Waddick:

So republicans are also doing outreach efforts. In Georgia, there's a large population of Latino and Asian Americans who are moving in from other states, from New York, California. All those other more liberal leaning places tend to be diverse and Republicans are seeing this just as much as Democrats are.

And so they're reaching out to them trying to meet these communities where they are. I spoke with one Republican in Gwinnett County, which is north of Atlanta, and he said that they see hope for reaching Latino and Asian business owners specifically with their economic platform.

Taylor Wilson:

So you mentioned some of these counties both in and around Atlanta have been crucial to really what happens in Georgia and recent elections. What's the next county that's up for grabs that might really become a battleground county and even shift this thing further to the Democrats or change this equation even more?

Karissa Waddick:

So growth is spreading out from Atlanta. We've seen that over the last 10 years, right? You had growth move from Atlanta to the Atlanta suburbs and then now it's going to the exurbs. And one of the exurbs that I focused on was a place called Forsyth County. You might know of Forsyth because it was originally a sundown town.

There were no Black people who lived in Forsyth for the majority of the 20th century. It was an extremely white county or was. But in recent years, it's seen a large influx of people and particularly South Asian. When I went there, I went to a Democratic event in Forsyth, and a majority of the people who are running for office were from out of state. They had moved in 2020 shortly after Joe Biden had won.

They were looking for cheap housing prices in the greater Atlanta area, and that's where they went. And so a place like Forsyth, we're seeing the margins shift a little bit. Forsyth is still an incredibly Republican county, but the margins are slowly shrinking. And the democratic chair in Forsyth told me that there was 16,000 new voters in 2020 there, and that margin would've made the difference for Biden in that election.

Taylor Wilson:

Wow. All right. We'll be keeping an eye out there for what's next in Forsyth. As far as the election next month, Karissa, we're talking about Georgia here, four or five weeks out from election night, how big a player will Georgia be in this November election? And what's the expectation really for which way the state ultimately goes?

Karissa Waddick:

Georgia is a major swing state this election and the polling there is extremely close. Trump appears right now to have a slight edge in the polls, but most are within the margin of error, which essentially means that it could really go either way. The thing to look out for in Georgia is turnout.

Turnout is really going to matter in these different regions. And how many people get out to vote, both Harris and Trump, they're competing against each other, but they're also competing against the couch. And if people don't go to the polls, that's going to matter in Georgia because it is such a close margin.

Taylor Wilson:

Great breakdown for us. Karissa Waddick covers Congress campaigns and democracy for USA TODAY. Thank you, Karissa.

Karissa Waddick:

Thanks so much.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

In other news out of Georgia, the state Supreme Court has temporarily reinstated a six-week abortion ban across the state, effective one week after a state court overturned the law declaring it unconstitutional. The 2019 ban known as the Living Infants Fairness and Equality or Life Act was reinstated at 5:00 PM yesterday, meaning abortion will once again be inaccessible for the vast majority of Georgia residents until the state Supreme Court issues a decision. The renewed battle over Georgia's abortion law is the latest development in a years-long court case that was filed shortly after the law took effect in 2022. It also comes a few weeks after reporting from ProPublica found that the law forced healthcare providers to delay medical care to pregnant patients and link the deaths of at least two women, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candy Miller to the ban.

♦

Vice President Kamala Harris holds an edge among Latino voters in the critical battleground states of Arizona and Nevada. But former president Donald Trump is making inroads according to two exclusive new USA TODAY, Suffolk University polls. I spoke with editor Karen Weintraub to learn more. Hey there, Karen.

Karen Weintraub:

Hi.

Taylor Wilson:

So Karen, what did this new exclusive USA TODAY, Suffolk University polling find about Kamala Harris really losing some of this edge she's had with Latino voters in the key swing states of Arizona and Nevada?

Karen Weintraub:

It's not that Harris is losing, but she's losing a little bit of ground. So she's still 57 to 38 in Arizona and 56 to 40 in Nevada. There is a gender gap. Trump is winning among young men. He's got 51% of the vote among young men to 39% for Harris. 62% of young women support her. And then it's roughly the same in Nevada where men support Trump more than Harris and women support Harris more than Trump.

So really the issue is that she's winning, but she's not winning by as much as Biden did. And so that's really going to be the key. He won those states narrowly, and if she doesn't win by enough votes among the Latino voters, she probably will not hold those two key swing states.

Taylor Wilson:

In terms of policy, Karen, what are the top concerns for poll respondents and really, how do these compare to policy priorities from the two major candidates?

Karen Weintraub:

Inflation, the economy, as in most other states, are the top issues in both of those states. In Nevada, 37% of Latino voters said that it was their top issue. In Arizona, 29% said that it was. Immigration is the second most important issue for both states. 17% in Nevada, 15% in Arizona, and then abortion is third or fourth in those states, 8% Nevada, 11% in Arizona.

Trump clearly has made immigration and inflation, the economy a top issue on his campaign. Reproductive rights and the economy are top issues for Harris. And we're seeing more or less the issues are consistent across the country. People care about the same things regardless of the states. People in border states care about immigration, people who are way far away from the border care about immigration.

Taylor Wilson:

So Karen, you touched on this a bit, but really just how vital will Arizona and Nevada be for whoever wins the election next month? And would these be good enough numbers for Harris to win these states, or is this really a positive sign for Trump?

Karen Weintraub:

It's too soon to tell is the short answer. Every poll we've seen statewide, national polls really are within the margin of error. In this case with Latino voters. Harris leads beyond the margin of error. Will it be enough? Who knows? This is going to be a nail-biter. This is going to come down to, I was going to say election day, but it's probably going to come down to after election day.

We probably won't know that night because we're going to have absentee ballots, things coming in the mail a couple of days later, hand counting. So it's going to be very close. And these swing states, it may be tens of thousands of votes in a few key swing states that are going to make these decisions.

So particularly, if you live in one of these swing states, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania is hugely important. Michigan, Georgia, everybody's vote matters, but your vote really, really matters. So get out there and cast your ballot.

Taylor Wilson:

Karen Weintraub is an editor with USA TODAY. I appreciate your insight as always, Karen. Thanks so much.

Karen Weintraub:

Thank you.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

A federal judge yesterday granted preliminary approval to the slightly revised version of a multi-billion dollar settlement of three athlete compensation antitrust against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences. The decision moves the college athletics organization and the conferences closer to funding a $2.8 billion damages pool for current and former athletes over a span of 10 years and sets the stage for a fundamental change in college sports. Division one schools being allowed to start paying athletes directly for use of their name, image, and likeness, subject to a per school cap that would increase over time, but additional legal appeals could be on the way. You can read more about those with the link in today's show notes.

♦

And thanks for listening to the Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for the Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back tomorrow with more of the Excerpt from USA TODAY.