When Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. in 2005, it was ranked as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. In the wake of the storm, Katrina claimed more than 1800 lives and destroyed more than 800,000 housing units. David Barrier and his family lost their home. And everything they owned when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. And David Jones is now, he's Democratic candidate for one of Mississippi's Senate seats, trying to unseat incumbent Senator Roger Wicker. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. And how is the campaign going so far? It's going very well. Everywhere we go, we get a crowd like this. I mean, it's wonderful. There is an enthusiasm gap that we have on our side, on the Democratic side of the aisle, for the first time in my adult life. And I get this kind of enthusiasm everywhere I go, folks, already for change in Mississippi for 30 years. We've sent the same group of people to Washington and we get the same results. And I think Mississippians are finally ready to turn the corner and make some changes. So how do you navigate President Trump in your message? Well, I heard Secretary Mike Espie on your show a little bit earlier as he said, I'm not running against President Trump. I'm running against someone who won't stand up to this President or his leadership when they make bad decisions that hurt Mississippians. I'm running. Give us an example. What's a bad decision that he's made that hurts Mississippians? Well, the tariffs are bad for Mississippians. They're bad for soybean farmers. They're bad for our automobile industry. They're bad for our shipbuilding industry down in Pascagula, Jackson County where I came from and Professor Glow had came from as well. It's going to hurt us in Mississippee. These tariffs are already hurting us. And that's why he's tried to bail out the folks who are hurting from it. Do you feel that you're getting much support from the Democratic National Committee? Well, the Democratic National Committee puts its money into the state parties. And so we're getting support through the state parties. They have given money to our state party to our field personnel and to help get these folks energized and get them registered and out to vote on November 6th. That's the key. We've got to have a very big turnout amongst Democrats in the state of Mississippee. And we feel like we're going to get that because of this type of enthusiasm that you see right here. What are some of the challenges that your campaign faces and doesn't have anything to do with President Trump? Like are there parts of President Trump's message and the way he leads that resonate with the people of Mississippi? Well, certainly there are. I mean, you heard Senator Chris McDaniel talk about the wall, which is a very fifth-century idea, I think. Next we'll be... I want to ask, does that come with a moat or does that cost extra? We have the ability to secure our border without building a wall that costs $30 billion. We have a combination of electronic security, fences, some walls, and then of course arm security on the border. We don't need to do that. But a lot of people think that's a great idea just because it sounds good. When you dig in a little bit, when you talk to people like these folks behind us and you talk about what we would not be able to fund if we put $30 billion into a wall, then they start to think about that decision and rethink it. Professor Edward Gawd. So first of all, let's give a shout out to Jackson County. All right. I went to school with his sister. Is that why you called you? That's right. Now listen, I went to school together. Great. The South is changing. At least that's what we want to... That's what we want to hold. Demographically is changing. There are all these assumptions about what we stand for, what Mrs. Alabama, Georgia, Florida. Is Mississippi ready for someone like you? I think Mississippi is ready for someone like me. And I can tell you, you all know my story. The hurricane prompted my entry into politics. A year, I mean, a month after our hurricane Katrina and where we lost everything, we lost our oldest child. And when you have a double whammy like that, it knocks you to the ground. And when my wife and I picked ourselves up, we decided we wanted to invest in our community. We wanted to turn outward and we wanted to help our fellow Mississippians. So every day of the 11 years that I've been in politics, I have gotten up in the morning and said, be yourself, be who you are. And don't try to sell out for votes or for money or for anything else. So I've done that and people have responded very well. That's why I've been elected three times in a district that votes 75% Republican. Votes for our governor, 75% votes for Donald Trump, 75%. People respond to authenticity. And the issues that I talk about resonate with most Mississippians. Not all, I mean, there's a 30%, 35% out there that's going to stick with our president, no matter what he does. But our issues and our message is resonating with a lot of Mississippians. And we have an ad, an internet ad up right now. I think we have over 50,000 views and something like a week, which in Mississippi is huge. It might not be huge in New York, but it's huge in Mississippi. We've heard David a bunch of people, Democrats, today's look at Alabama and the race last fall as an example of what a Democrat could do in the South and Doug Jones. But wasn't that a case of Doug Jones running against one of the worst candidates in the history of politics and maybe catching a break that way? Or do you believe there's something transferable and something happened in the South for Democrats right now? Well, I think it's both. Judge Moore was an awful candidate. No question about that. But what happened in Alabama is happening in Mississippi. And that is, and I think that someone mentioned Latasha Brown earlier and the organization of black women in Alabama, that's going on right now in Mississippi. But in addition to that, the NAACP is in our state working very hard to register and energize the African American voter base. There are other groups that are working, including the DNC putting money into Mississippi for the first time in a long time so that we can hire a field personnel and do that work. And then my campaign has done that work. I've been endorsed by the legislative black caucus. I served in the Mississippi legislature. I have 42 endorsements of my colleagues, black and white. I'm the elected minority leader in the House of Representatives. All of my colleagues didn't just lend me their names, but they went back into their districts and they worked to turn out the vote for me in the primary and in the runoff, which I won by 18 points. So we built a network of folks who can go out into their districts and their areas that they represent and energize people and get them to the polls in November. We feel it on the ground. The polls may not reflect that, but speaking of polls, my opponent hasn't gotten above 47 percent in any poll in the last two years. When you've been in Washington for 24 years and you can't break 50 percent, there's a problem. Roger Wickers vulnerable. Are you going to debate Roger Wickers? I've asked for a debate several times, but not only have I, law school has asked for, both law schools have asked for debate. The Stennis Press Institute, the Mississippi Bar Association, crickets from Roger Wickers. I ask him again today. Let's debate, Roger. Let's talk about the issues in poor communities. All right. The questions out there, David Varia. Thank you very much. And up next, this is residents up and down the east coast have done so for days I had a Florence's arrival, the College Football World, has also taken precautions heading into this weekend. Well, also doing their part to pitch in and help, however they can, will tell you how next on morning job. Thanks for checking out MSNBC on YouTube and make sure you subscribe to stay up to date on the day's biggest stories and you can click on any of the videos around us to watch more from morning Joe and MSNBC. Thanks so much for watching.