The Election's Ultimate Power Brokers
BLITZER: We're following breaking news. The crash of a commercial spacecraft in California's Mohave Desert. We're also watching the final weekend of campaigning ahead of the midterm elections here in the United States. And no matter where you live, you know the power brokers who will decide the winners. Here's CNN's senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar. She's watching this election very closely.</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We are and we're watching a key demographic, and that is women. As you know, Wolf, Democrats normally have a tremendous lead with women. That is the case. But that's not necessarily the case here. In many races you're seeing that lead diminished. Republicans trailing Democrats with women by just single digits in some races and then exceeding Democrats in their performance with men by double digits. That's why for Democrats it is so key to turn out female voters. It could really be the key to holding on to the Senate.</s>KEILAR (voice-over): President Obama making a closing pitch to an all-important voting bloc -- women.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When women succeed, America succeeds and we need leaders who understand that.</s>KEILAR: In a heated and bitter campaign season, both sides say female voters may be the key to the Senate majority. Democrats hoping to hold on to their traditional edge with women are targeting them with ads.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A vote for Tom Cotton is a vote against Arkansas women.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A vote for Thom Tillis is a vote against families like mine.</s>KEILAR: And appealing from the stump.</s>SEN. MARK UDALL (D), COLORADO: We're for respecting women's reproductive freedoms.</s>KEILAR: But Republicans are pushing back, and polls show they're narrowing Democrats' lead. An unrelenting focus on women's issues earned Colorado's Mark Udall the nickname Mark Uterus.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want my daughter to have the same choices I do.</s>KEILAR: His Republican challenger, Cory Gardner, has touted moderate positions on issues like equal pay and he has been inching ahead in the polls.</s>JONI ERNST (R), IOWA: Gaining control of the United States Senate.</s>KEILAR: In Iowa, the female candidate Joni Ernst is a Republican, and she's leading with men in a tight battle against Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley.</s>BRUCE BRALEY (D), IOWA: I believe the pill ought to be available over the counters.</s>KEILAR: Republicans are also turning Democrats' attacks against them in ads of their own.</s>TERRI LYNN LAND (R), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: There's a war on women in America, and it's being waged by the Democrats.</s>KEILAR: In previous cycles, some Republican candidates hurt the brand with inflammatory comments like this.</s>REP. TODD AKIN (R), MISSOURI SENATE CANDIDATE: If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.</s>KEILAR: This year, they've largely avoided those damaging moments.</s>KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER: Women are really open to Republican candidates in a way that perhaps they weren't in 2012.</s>KEILAR: While Democrats are working to turn out many of the women who pushed Barack Obama to victory in 2012.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is about turnout, it is about getting to the polls right now.</s>KEILAR: And it's also about the kind of issues that candidates are emphasizing with women, Wolf. It's not just social issues, the hot button social issues, but also combining them in a way with an economic message. For instance, you look at Georgia, Democrat Michelle Nunn has a lead over David Perdue to the tune of about 18 percent in the polls. She's emphasizing workplace fairness and it's really resonating with women there.</s>BLITZER: It's going to be a huge, huge issue. And we're going to see what happens Tuesday. Obviously we'll have extensive coverage throughout the day and well into the evening.</s>KEILAR: Sure will.</s>BLITZER: Brianna, thanks very much. Coming up, back to the breaking news. Another catastrophic failure of a spacecraft. This time it's Virgin spaceship that goes down in the Mohave Desert in California. And days after an ISIS massacre, hundreds of Sunni Iraqi tribesman. Is the U.S. now preparing to send military advisors into the heart of the ISIS held territory?