Ironworker Wants Paul Ryan's Job
LEMON: Some call him a walking, talking Bruce Springsteen song. Some call him iron stash. He is Randy Bryce and he is running for Congress against Paul Ryan.</s>RANDY BRYCE (D), IRONWORKER RUNNING FOR CONGRESS AGAINST PAUL RYAN: I decided to run for office because not everybody's seated at the table and it's time to make a bigger table. I'm the best person to represent this district because I'm a working person. If somebody falls behind, we are so much stronger if we carry them with us. That's the way I was raised. You look out for each other. I think it's time. Let's trade places. Paul Ryan, you can come work the iron and I'll go to D.C.</s>LEMON: Joining me is Iron Stash himself, Randy Bryce. Welcome to the program.</s>BRYCE: Thank you, Don. Great to be here.</s>LEMON: OK. So listen. You are a father. You are an army veteran. You are an iron worker. You are cancer survivor. Why do you want Paul Ryan's job? Why do you want to challenge him?</s>BRYCE: Because Paul Ryan's been in about 18 years. I have been working iron for like 20 years. And I just compare what's going on. I can drive around our district and I can point to things that I literally built. I literally built our community with my hands. And I look at what Paul Ryan has brought to the community and I see jobs leaving. We have a plant being taken away, good paying auto making jobs. UAW plant down in</s>LEMON: So my question, are you really serious about this, Randy?</s>BRYCE: Absolutely. I'm dead serious. It's been over 600 days since Paul Ryan has been seen in the district. You know, when he has seen there is breaking news alerts. And the people have had enough. We want to be heard, you know. Our concerns, what problems we are facing trying to raise families. It's ridiculous that Paul Ryan hasn't been in the area. We had to borrow representative</s>LEMON: I want to watch part of your campaign ad. And this is particularly pointed today. Here it is.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: This is repealing and replacing Obamacare. Everybody doesn't get what they want.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a very painful condition. It's like hot knives going through and you can't talk, you can't swallow. It's terrible. I'm going to cry. I'm on 20 drugs and if I don't take one that costs thousands of dollars, I don't know what would happen.</s>LEMON: So Randy, tell us about your mom.</s>BRYCE: She is lucky. She is one of the lucky ones. Even having MS that can be debilitating at times, she is one of the lucky ones. Because she has insurance, because she is lucky that my dad had insurance. And my dad, by the way has Alzheimer's. He is an assisted living. And without the independence that the insurance brings, she can take her medications, she can visit him daily. It's horrible. It's a horrible medical condition that she has. But she's a hero to me and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her and she's given me the strength. She has raised me to make sure we look after each other. And I can't say enough good things about her. But like I said she's lucky. She's lucky.</s>LEMON: We certainly wish her well. But you know, this -- everything is politicized, especially the health care bill. What do politicians in Washington -- what don't they understand?</s>BRYCE: Well, for one, I would say Paul Ryan doesn't understand the first thing about what people in the first district need. They don't understand that we are working harder and we are getting less. And I mean this last health care bill that Paul Ryan tried pushing, it didn't even look. When you are looking at it, it didn't even really have the feel of any health. It is not providing. It's not helping anybody. It's a tax break bill that was disguised as something deal that they want to portray as having to do with health.</s>LEMON: What is your next step? Because you announced your candidacy on Sunday and then five days later, here you are. I mean, you have won and lost in state and local races before.</s>BRYCE: Right. And I think you are going to see why the losses took place when you see the new districts that there redrawn due to the gerrymandering case. It is about to go on from the Supreme Court.</s>LEMON: I wonder - we have --.</s>BRYCE: That's given me --</s>LEMON: Go on.</s>BRYCE: I'm sorry. I was going to say that those races have given me lot of experience. And I think that what I have learned has been shown by the way that our campaign has taken off.</s>LEMON: So, you know, we have you under -- it says iron stache. I'm wondering if you like Bruce Springsteen because here is what writer</s>BRYCE: What American worker doesn't love Bruce Springsteen. The boss rocks.</s>LEMON: Yes. That's a nice Stache. So tell us your secret? What happens?</s>BRYCE: It's a -- I don't want to give away the secret. Maybe come election time as part of the celebration I'll be happy to share the secret. So I would invite everybody to come and watch the election results in November of 2018.</s>LEMON: All right. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate it. And best of luck to your mother. Give her our regards.</s>BRYCE: Thanks for having me.</s>LEMON: Thank you.</s>BRYCE: Thank you very much, sir.</s>LEMON: When we come back, is the Democratic Party in crisis? Why some are calling for Nancy Pelosi to step down?