Walking through downtown D.C. is a little like taking a trip through Florida before Hurricane Helene. Businesses and government buildings are eerily boarded up like there’s a major storm brewing — and maybe there is. New fencing lines the Capitol, White House, and even Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence, as locals hunker down for what everyone prays is not the violent disaster the city seems to expect after the election.

Policemen on horses trot up and down the National Mall while FBI guards post up in strategic driveways nearby. Across the District, there’s a growing unease about what could unfold in the coming days. There’s “no need for alarm,” D.C. leaders insist, while nearby companies deploy thousands of private security personnel to work around the clock for who knows how long.

The view is a little different on the road, where the candidates and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have been for months. Checking in from his whirlwind, 40-state tour, the Louisianan told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins that the atmosphere isn’t one of fear or concern but enthusiasm and excitement. “There is a real energy out here,” he said on Saturday’s “This Week on the Hill,” “and everywhere we go around the country, we’ve seen it [in the massive crowds].” He hinted at the demographic shift that he’s noticed “for weeks,” which he believes is “really coming to fruition.”

As the early voting numbers continue to astound both sides — clocking in at more than 78 million by Monday morning — Johnson believes we’re in for a historic night. “Republicans [are] coming out in droves to get their votes counted early … and I think because of that, the Democrats are nervous and very concerned and they’re flailing. And many of these campaigns, certainly the Kamala Harris campaign, [have their] back against the ropes. And that’s why they’re so desperate and making all these crazy statements this week. This is a good sign for Republicans. And we feel that energy. And we’re going to run through the tape. We’re going to run like we’re 10 points behind. But the Real Clear Politics average still has President Trump up in the battleground states. And if we keep that momentum through Election Day, I think we’re going to have the outcome that we’ve all been working and praying for.”

This is despite the fact, as Perkins pointed out, that Democrats have outspent Republicans by as much as $35 million in the top 25 races where the House is going to be decided. “A lot of people are focused on the presidential [race],” he noted without surprise. “I mean, that’s the big ticket. But there are those that are living in … blue states who will make the difference in the outcome of control of Congress, because it’s those blue states that will actually determine victory in some of these highly contested congressional races.”

The speaker agreed, insisting that control of the House will come down to less than 20 races in America. “Nineteen House seats … will determine the fate of the Republic. That is not a hyperbole,” he said, “because even if President Trump wins the White House and we win the Senate for the Republican Party, if you don’t have Republican control of the House of Representatives, it’s all for naught — because there’s no question that they will impeach Donald Trump, probably on his first day of office. We’ve already seen that play many times, and they will impede all the progress in everything that he and the Senate Republicans would want to do. The House is where the power begins … so we have to have the House majority.” He reiterated, “You have to vote. You have to get everybody in your sphere of influence to vote, because this one really matters.”

Asked what he thought of Joe Biden’s comment that Trump supporters are “garbage,” Johnson replied simply, “[T]hey’re desperate right now.” And it’s nothing new, the speaker said. “This week, they’re playing cleanup on all sorts of things. Not only did Joe Biden say that everyone who supports Donald Trump is ‘garbage’… but then also Mark Cuban, just a day later, he said that basically all powerful Republican women, anybody who supports Trump, are weak and unintelligent. I mean, so they don’t have anything to run on. … Kamala Harris cannot have a substantive conversation or a debate or a talking point on policy, because every metric, every area of public policy is a disaster, and she’s the architect of it. So they have to engage in this, [and] I think people are seeing through it.”

Meanwhile, he and his Democratic counterpart, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), are already in a long-distance scuffle over the certification of the election. Johnson has said for months that his chamber would “follow the Constitution” if Harris wins, providing the election is “free, fair, and safe” — a caveat Jeffries’s party decries as unacceptable. And yet his side, led by leaders like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), insists on the same conditions, telling Axios that if Trump “won a free, fair, and honest election, then we would obviously accept it.”

Even so, Jeffries is blaming “his colleagues on the other side of the aisle” for not stating “unequivocally” that “they will certify the election and the verdict that is rendered by the American people.” For his part, the minority leader has pledged to solidify a Trump victory, promising — somewhat surprisingly — that as House Democrats, “that’s what we will do. We believe in democracy, even when we disagree with the outcome.”

For his part, Johnson hopes the results are too overwhelming to contest. But, he urged, conservatives need to “leave it all on the field.” “That’s what President Trump is doing. He hasn’t taken a day off in over 60-something days. And we haven’t either because we have to [win] this.” At the end of the day, he concluded, “John Quincy Adams gave us the best summary, ‘Duty is ours. Results are God’s.’ So let’s do our duty, and then we can sleep well at night knowing we left it all on the field.”