NRCC Chairman Steve Stivers On How To Succeed In 2018: Consistency, We’re 5-0

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers today joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss the GOP tax plan and how the NRCC sees success in the 2018 midterms.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Joining us now, the Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee Congressman Steve Stivers of Ohio. Good to have you on, Congressman.

NRCC CHAIRMAN STEVE STIVERS: Good morning.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Congressman, I don’t have to tell you this. Even in the best of times, even if you had a President with historically high approval ratings, just historically the cycle is going against you in a big, big way. Parties in power usually lose pretty big. Reagan did it in ’82. So – Clinton did it in ’94. You have a President, though, with historically low approval ratings. What do you do to stop the dam from bursting?

STIVERS: Well, we do what we’ve done in the five special elections we’ve won. We’re 5-0 in special elections. We know how to get our voters out. We know how to run campaigns. We’ve got a good team. We’ve recruited good candidates. That’s what we’re doing in 2018.

JOHN HEILEMANN: How worried are you about future retirements from the caucus?

STIVERS: So, I’m not very worried about retirements. Right now, there are five competitive seats with Republicans retiring, five competitive seats with Democrats retiring. It’s about a push on retirements. If you look at more ruby red Republican seats, we have a ton of retirements there. But they’re not going to flip parties. The only retirements I would be worried about are competitive seats that could actually change the balance of races. Right now, there’s about 50 races in play. Democrats need to expand the field if they’re going to have a shot to take the house.

HEILEMANN: You’re not under the sense that there are a bunch of Republicans in those competitive – potentially competitive seats who are waiting in the wings to drop over the course of the next few months?

STIVERS: If you’re in a competitive seat you’re in a fight every day. If you know you’re not doing it anymore, you’re going to tell people right away. I don’t see a ton of those coming up. There’s always one or two that can come up. It’s rumored that Martha McSally might run for the United States Senate in Arizona. If that happens, my understanding is there are two or three great candidates, including the head of the Hispanic chamber of commerce and she’s a great candidate as well and could, I think, hold that seat in the Tucson area.

BRZEZINSKI: Carol?

CAROL LEE: How do you plan to sell the tax bill in 2018? And do you expect that people will feel the benefits by the time they vote next November?

STIVERS: I think people will feel the benefits because in January, after we do the changes, I think withholding tables will be changed and people will see a little more money in their pocket. But the most important thing about tax reform is not the $1,100 on average that the average family will see in their pocket. It’s really about economic growth. It’s about jobs, which will drive wages up. We had a great jobs report last week with about 20% more jobs than expected by the analysts. But wage growth has been stagnant. What we need is, you know, a little pressure on wages. Economic growth will do that. So that’s what tax reform is really about, is economic growth. And economic growth can help solve a lot of our other fiscal problems in this country.

SCARBOROUGH: Eddie?

EDDIE GLAUDE: So, when you look at that poll data, it’s interesting. In terms of the decline of the number of folks who self-identify as Republicans. You guys are getting hit among white women and among millennials. How do you grapple or attack the issue that the Republican party is really just simply the party of old white men? Let me be more specific – old rich white men? How do you tackle that in the ’18?

STIVERS: Part of what we do is our recruiting of candidates. Elise Stefanik from upstate New York is our recruiting chair. We’ve got some incredible recruits. Eddie Edwards out of New Hampshire, Navy veteran, former police chief, happens to be African American. We’ve got 26 female recruits in seats we can win, more female recruits than we have ever had. We have more African American Republican members of the House than we’ve had any time since Reconstruction. We are actively working to expand our party and grow our party and we’re going to continue to do that.

SCARBOROUGH: How many seats – do you know off the top of your head, how many seats are held by Republicans that Hillary won?

STIVERS: 23.

SCARBOROUGH: 23. Now a good number of those are, I think, in California and New York.

STIVERS: California, New York, a few other places. That’s correct.

SCARBOROUGH: Are you concerned that the tax bill, which will increase taxes in a sense for small business owners in states like New York and California, are you concerned that your members voting for it in those vulnerable seats will get hit?

STIVERS: So, I think what you’re talking about is the reduction of the state and local tax deduction, eliminated in the Senate plan but reduced and changed in the House plan. I expect us to make some changes in the conference report that actually make people in those high tax states do a little better. I’m not overly worried about it because I believe that our tax plan will grow the economy and people will see it in their paycheck, but they’ll also see it in their prospects for jobs and how fast the economy is growing. So, I think if people make a little more because the economy is growing and pay a little more taxes, they net more in their pocket which is really what matters to us.

SCARBOROUGH: Alright. 

BRZEZINSKI: Chairman of the National Republican Committee Congressman Steve Stivers, thank you very much for being on the show.