House Speaker Mike Johnson says he’s confident Republicans can keep and grow their majority as he paints the November midterm elections as a choice between “common sense and crazy.”
Speaking at a campaign stop in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, Mr. Johnson said Democratic socialists are driving the opposite party’s agenda and voters do not want to go down the “dark, dangerous, deadly road to communism.”
“In the next Congress, we will not be arguing over marginal tax rates or regulation,” the Louisiana Republican said. “We’ll be arguing over whether or not we’re going to maintain our republic in our 251st year as a nation.”
Mr. Johnson is in the middle of what he described as “a 30-day nonstop tour” campaigning in 34 House districts across 18 states.
“I’m absolutely convinced that we’re going to grow the House majority,” he said, touting Republicans’ roster of “extraordinary people running.”
On Monday, the speaker campaigned in Rep. Jen Kiggans’ district in Virginia. The two-term representative is facing a rematch against former Rep. Elaine Luria, a Democrat she defeated in 2022.
A Democratic poll conducted in July showed the race tied.
But Mr. Johnson expressed confidence that Ms. Kiggans can win, touting her record as “one of the most effective members of Congress.”
“She’s among the most bipartisan members, one of the members that can walk into the middle of chaotic situations and get things done,” he said, while also touting Ms. Kiggans’s experience as a Navy helicopter pilot and geriatric nurse practitioner.
Ms. Kiggans said her district wants to move forward, not backwards, but the onus is on her to remind voters what’s at stake.
“It’s a fight right now between craziness and common sense, and really civility and communism, socialism — the direction the Democratic Party has had to go to the left,” she said. “And the opponent that we’re running against who doesn’t live in the district and who made $21 million inside stock trading, who now turns around and says she’s against inside stock trading.”
Ms. Luria pushed back on social media, slamming her opponent and House Republicans for refusing to stand up to President Trump.
“As corrupt Jen Kiggans and Mike Johnson meet with wealthy donors today, working Virginians are seeing their gas and grocery bills skyrocket, their friends and family members in uniform sent to fight in another foreign war, and their healthcare taken away to pay for tax cuts for billionaires,” she said.
Ms. Kiggans offered a different narrative, saying “Republicans are delivering on security and prosperity.”
As she and Mr. Johnson took questions from the press on Monday, they were asked about House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York on Sunday, denouncing the Democratic Socialists of America’s policy platform and distancing his party from leftist policies such as Medicare for All.
“It’s a fascinating thing to see the Democrat Party; they’re in the midst of now an open civil war,” Mr. Johnson said.
He said that Mr. Jeffries and Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer may say they are against some of the DSA’s platform, but they still have to bring those candidates into the fold.
“The energy and the excitement and the grassroots and the funding is on the side of the insurgent left in the Democrat Party,” the House speaker said. “They don’t know what to do about it. There’s no national leader of what they call the pragmatic Democrats. … There is no moderate Democrat Party anymore.”
Mr. Johnson said the left aims to bring waves of Marxists and communists into Congress over multiple election cycles until they can take it over “and assume the means of production to the government.”
“That means no more private property ownership. That means the small business owners across America who provide jobs and opportunity for people will be taken over by the government,” he said. “It’s a dangerous game.”
The speaker said House Republicans launched a website over the weekend, contrastforamerica.com, to highlight the differences between the two parties’ agendas.
“The Republican Party welcomes everyone with open arms,” Mr. Johnson said. “If you believe in America, if you believe in individual freedom and limited government and the rule of law and peace through strength and fiscal responsibility and free markets and human dignity, we have a place for you.”
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