GOP rep: ‘Things are moving our way’ ahead of midterms

The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee said Sunday that he’s confident the GOP will hold its majority in the House, adding that “things are moving our way.”

“Our message is working and our policies are working. The economy is growing at a faster rate than it’s grown in years and years and we’re keeping people safe at home and abroad. Contrast that with the Democrat message,” Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“They want to take away your safety by getting rid of Customs and Border Enforcement, they want to cut the military, they’re going to raise your taxes and slow down the economy. I think we have a pretty clear message and frankly, you know, it’s a vote between [Rep.] Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif.] as Speaker or a Republican that’ll keep the economy growing and keep us safe at home and abroad.”

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Stivers also pointed to the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll that showed Republicans closing the gap on the generic House ballot by 1 percentage point.

“Things are moving our way,” he said.

Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, however, said Stivers is “one of the only people in America that believes Republicans will hold onto the House” in the midterms.

“I’m confident that Democrats and will win back the House. We have extraordinary candidates with records of service, veterans, women, small business owners that do incredible work all across America,” he told ABC’s Martha Raddatz.

“And we are connecting with a very personal message. Putting people first. Democrats have always been for the people. And the more that we can drive an agenda that helps to lower the costs of health care and prescription drugs for the American people and increase wages, the stronger we will be and the stronger we will do,” he said.

“This is very personal as we talk about how we stand up for the people, put people first and have a strong agenda that is built around for the people,” he added.

Stivers responded that Democrats want to “put people in line” instead of “putting people first.”

“They’re going to put people back in the unemployment line with their terrible economic policies, they’re going to put people in line for health care with their government takeover of health care, and we all saw with the [Veterans Affairs] scandal under President Obama that some of those veterans died waiting in line,” he said.

“That is not the answer for health care, a government takeover of health care, a single-payer system is not the answer, it will put people in line, it won’t put people first.”

Democrats currently lead Republicans by 7.3 percent on a generic House ballot in a RealClearPolitics average of polling.

— This report was updated at 11:24 a.m.