In Photos: Paul Ryan And Bryan Steil Stop At GOP Headquarters

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI -- Speaker Paul Ryan appeared jovial and upbeat Monday as he and the candidate chosen to succeed him in Wisconsin's First Congressional District appeared at an eleventh-hour campaign stop at the Racine County Republican headquarters.

That man, Bryan Steil, a 37-year-old Republican from Janesville, is leading in the polls against Democrat Randy Bryce as campaign season enters its home stretch.

Ryan was effusive of his former assistant, saying: "As I move on, the thing that matters most to me is to make sure that the people who trusted me to represent them in Congress have an excellent human being and a wonderful leader to take that mantle on and be a great representative, and Bryan Steil is going to be a great congressman."

Ryan said that Steil's best qualities include having the intelligence and candor to be an effective representative.

Steil, in a short speech Monday afternoon, Steil opened by sharing some of the lessons he learned while on the campaign trail. He concluded with talking about the direction of the country, and what his vision is in the event he's elected.

"At the federal level, we elected Republicans in the House of Representatives, and we took the Speaker's gavel from Nancy Pelosi, and we began chipping away at the Obama administration's overreach," Steil said. At the end of this year Paul Ryan is going to take the Speaker's gavel, and he's going to hand it to somebody new. He's either going to hand it back to Nancy Pelosi and the failed economic policies of the past, or he's going to hand it forward to continue the economic growth that we've seen here in Wisconsin."

The two Republicans took time to greet supporters and longtime friends, including Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), State Rep. Thomas Weatherston among others before heading to another campaign event - this time in Waukesha.

Photos by Scott Anderson/Patch