Paulina Tam is one of seven ABC News campaign reporters embedded in battleground states ahead of the November midterms.
Tam is based in the Midwest and had a bustling schedule last week as the election season enters its final stretch with a series of anticipated debates. Below, she recaps her week.
See more of Tam's work with the embed team and anchor George Stephanopoulos on Hulu's "Power Trip."
Sunday to Monday: Kicking off 'debate week'
As a student, you remember the crunch of finals week. Campaign reporters like me deal with something similar -- "debate week." I cover three states: Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Many of the candidates I'm following duked it out on stage last week, so a lot of preparation (mostly research, logistics and refreshing myself with my candidates' stances on key issues) was needed to put me in a good position to write and send reporting notes to ABC News' numerous producers and platforms as quickly as possible.
(Thankfully, I had a lighter assignment last Sunday night: watching a virtual fundraiser hosted by the Wisconsin Democratic Party, which featured cast members from "Veep" and "The West Wing.")
Democratic candidate for U.S. senate in Wisconsin Mandela Barnes poses for a picture with Mandi Miller and her 3-week-old daughter Lark during a campaign stop in West Allis, Wisc., Oct. 12, 2022.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
The candidates on my radar last week included Ohio Senate nominees Rep. Tim Ryan and J.D. Vance, the Democrat and Republican; and in Wisconsin, Senate nominees Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Republican incumbent Ron Johnson and the gubernatorial hopefuls, Democratic incumbent Tony Evers and challenger Tim Michels. I was also tracking the Michigan race between Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and GOP rival Tudor Dixon.
The Senate races, in particular, are high-stakes given that the chamber is divided 50-50 right now and each contest has the potential to decide the balance of power in Congress.
I woke up early Monday morning and double-checked that I was credentialed for the first Senate debate, in Cleveland. I also went to refill my car with gas. I knew my challenge in the coming days would be to stay laser-focused but also pace myself, so I had enough "gas" to get me through.
Arriving two hours before the Ohio debate allowed time for me to decompress slightly in the media room, which was perched above the news set. The shades were drawn to prevent photos and videos from being taken but curiosity got the best of me. I took a peek and saw Rep. Ryan drinking from a glass of water.
Once the debate started, everything else got drowned out. It was just me, the debate program and my transcription devices trying to keep up with the rat-a-tat of questions and answers from the candidates. I also knew I had to stay nimble, so I used my iPhone to record the two gaggles after the debate wrapped.
I was in the middle of writing my second note for the other ABC News teams when the venue handlers quickly ushered everyone out of the spin room.
I drove back to my hotel to finish sending out my notes. Before I knew it, it was early Tuesday morning.
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon are seen during a Michigan Governor debate in Grand Rapid., Oct. 13, 2022.
Bryan Esler/AP
Tuesday and Wednesday: On the trail
The middle of the week was dedicated to following candidates on the road as they made their pitches to voters before and after taking the debate stage. Ryan had two events back-to-back (one in Canton and the other in Akron) so my schedule mimicked his.
Ryan held a meet-and-greet with a couple dozen supporters at an outdoor plaza in Canton on Tuesday. They congratulated the congressman for a "job well done" the night before as Ryan mingled. After speaking with several attendees, I conducted a quick interview with Ryan -- what we call a "pull aside" -- and asked him about several debate moments that needed clarification, in particular his comment about not wanting President Joe Biden to run again in 2024.
When asked whether he would like a member of their party to primary Biden if Biden were to run again, Ryan told me that he was "not going to get into all of that," and that his main objective was focusing on his campaign.
Later on Tuesday, at Ryan's event in Akron, I met with family members impacted by the opioid crisis in the state. He held a roundtable with advocates, many of whom have already known Ryan for some time. Each participant told the congressman stories about losing loved ones and how they want to keep students safe in schools as an influx of so-called "rainbow" fentanyl pills have been seized by authorities in other parts of the country.
Afterward, I followed Ryan back to his campaign bus and, along the way, asked him questions about providing additional resources to those recovering from opioid addiction. When Ryan left, I returned inside to continue my conversations with the family members, asking for more information about the work that they're doing to memorialize their loved ones. Several advocates gave me brochures and photos of those they'd lost. I now carry them with me in my gear bag as a reminder of one goal of reporting: listening to and sharing people's stories.
Back in Cleveland for the night, I prepared to do it all again the next day with Barnes, Wisconsin's Democratic nominee for Senate.
After sneaking in a few hours of sleep, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday to catch an early morning flight to Milwaukee. The weather had taken a turn and the sky cracked open -- pouring rain -- with tornado sirens wailing when I arrived at the Barnes event, which was a stop on his "Ron Against Roe" tour, where he speaks to voters about Sen. Johnson's opposition to abortion access.
At the event, at a restaurant in West Allis, I ran into one Wisconsin resident whom I met previously at another event in downtown Milwaukee.
When I was introduced to Mandi Miller of Wauwatosa, in August, she was pregnant with her second child. When I saw her in the room on Wednesday, Miller had dressed her beautiful new child in a shirt with the words "Mandela Barnes" on it.
Like with Ryan, I asked Barnes questions -- but this time in a press gaggle, sharing my time with the other reporters on site.
That wasn't all I had to work on: Correspondent Rachel Scott and team were doing a package on the state of the race in Ohio, so I was assisting them on gathering information as well as location-scouting for them to film. (As an ABC News embed, you service all the platforms so when one -- or a multiple -- comes knocking, you answer.)
Neither the Republican Senate nominees in Ohio nor Wisconsin had events on Tuesday and Wednesday. While I hoped to spend more time with them on the trail during the week, I knew that with Election Day looming it was only a matter of time before I caught up with them again.
Thursday and Friday: More face-offs
I was finally in the final stretch of debate week -- though there are a couple more later in the month. (Who's counting?)
Thursday saw an embed team-up because I had two simultaneous debates to cover, so my colleague Hannah Demissie, who usually covers the South, watched and reported on the gubernatorial event in Michigan.
I started my Thursday morning by covering a virtual news conference between Barnes and retired U.S Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who served in the Trump administration and was a key witness at the former president's first impeachment trial. Barnes and Vindman were pushing back on GOP criticism of Barnes' statements about police by highlighting Johnson's ties to Jan. 6, which Barnes underscored with a new campaign ad that day.
A House Jan. 6 committee hearing earlier this year revealed text messages from Jan. 6 in which Johnson's chief of state wrote to an aide to then-Vice President Mike Pence that "Johnson needs to hand ... alternate slate of electors for MI and WI" to Pence as part of the effort to derail the certification of Joe Biden's victory over Trump.
Johnson insisted to the ABC affiliate WISN in August that the Jan. 6 committee was making a "grotesque distortion" and that he had "nothing to do" with the fake electors and "virtually no involvement" in the efforts to send anything to Pence, adding that his participation "spanned the course of a couple seconds."
After writing a note recapping Barnes' news conference -- plus an article for ABC News' website -- I continued prepping for the second and final Senate debate in Milwaukee.
I arrived at the venue nearly two hours before the start of the showdown expecting Barnes supporters to be outside -- and sure enough, like the first Wisconsin Senate debate a week earlier, there they were, waving signs and chanting.
I interviewed a couple of attendees and it was in the middle of filming when I realized my fingers were getting numb. Wisconsin's fall and winter are no joke! I made a mental note to order some gloves and hand warmers online.
Inside, the hour-long debate got underway and it flew by.
Interestingly, no one from the Barnes campaign came to the spin room so I asked a member of his team afterwards for their take. They said, "His debate performance speaks for itself!"
I ran (drove) back to my hotel where I spent the rest of the evening writing notes about the debate and prepping for the Wisconsin gubernatorial debate on Friday.
Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan and Republican candidate J.D. Vance, of Ohio are pictured in composited file images.
Getty Images, FILE
After a few hours of sleep, I woke up to grab some coffee, put on some "war paint" (aka some makeup) and joined an Instagram Live with "Nightline" co-anchor Juju Chang to promote this week's "Power Trip" episode and give viewers a glimpse at my wild week.
It warmed my heart to see Juju again. Did you know she used to be a presidential embed? She has seriously done it all!
After a quick meeting with my fellow embeds, I spent the rest of the afternoon prepping for the gubernatorial debate before heading to Madison where I grabbed some MOS -- jargon for "man on the street" interviews -- with several supporters of Gov. Evers.
I also saw the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party in the crowd so I chatted with him about the state of the gubernatorial race as well as asked questions about whether any big-name surrogates were coming to campaign on behalf of the ticket. The chairman respectfully declined to confirm any names but shortly after said off-camera that former President Barack Obama was planning to travel to Milwaukee later this month.
I immediately alerted my team about the development and shortly after sending that email, it was debate time. News of Obama's visit would dominate the spin room later in the evening, with a surrogate for Michels, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, contending the Democrats were "in trouble" because they're "bringing out the big guns."
With the debate wrapped, I sent one last note off to my colleagues, packed my gear and headed back to my home for the night in Milwaukee. There I read up on what happened in the gubernatorial debate in Michigan and finished my half-eaten breakfast sandwich -- cold but still delicious, especially after a grueling week.
"Power Trip" releases new episodes on Sundays on Hulu.
