In her reporting for ABC News, Martha Raddatz is usually traveling the roads of Afghanistan or Iraq.
But this week, the network’s chief global affairs correspondent and co-host of This Week, is hitting the highways of the USA, talking to voters in the lead-up to the Republican National Convention.
Raddatz and her crew have already traveled 640 miles interviewing dozens of voters, from Plano, Texas, to the Fantastic Caverns near Springfield, Missouri.
Who wouldn’t want to visit a massive cavern in Missouri? #roadtriptoRNC Many voters undecided. pic.twitter.com/3JcHLsLVOW
— Martha Raddatz (@MarthaRaddatz) July 13, 2016
Today Raddatz and her crew are in Ferguson, Mo., which saw days of rioting in 2014 following the fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old African-American man by a white officer, who would later be cleared of any criminal charges. Two years later, the storyline is similar: Last week’s police-involved fatal shootings in Baton Rouge and St. Paul, were followed by the ambush murders of five police officers in Dallas. That’s where Raddatz and company began their journey Tuesday.
“We are seeing the faces and hearing the voices behind the polls,” Raddatz tells TVNewser. “You get a sense of the American voter that you cannot get from a desk. I have been continually surprised by the responses as we travel back roads and highways through this broad swath of the country.”
During the 2012 campaign, Raddatz was selected as the moderator of the one and only vice presidential debate. As she makes the 1,200-mile journey to Cleveland taking the pulse of the voter, it’s not out of the realm to think the commission on presidential debates could select her to moderate a Clinton-Trump debate this fall. The commission should be revealing the moderators for the three presidential and one VP debate in a few weeks. In the meantime, Raddatz and her crew will be back on the road talking to voters. They should arrive in Cleveland on Monday.