Speaker Paul Ryan Will Not Run for Re-Election
Number of Republicans leaving Congress continues to grow.
Speaker Paul Ryan confirmed he will not run for re-election and will retire in June. In his remarks, he said his family is the main reason why he will leave.
From The New York Times:
Growing emotional at points, Mr. Ryan said family considerations weighed heavily on his retirement, explaining that his daughter was 13 when he became speaker and he did not want to be a remote figure in her teenage years.
“The truth is, it is easy for it to take over everything in your life and you can’t just let that happen because there are other things in life that can be fleeting as well: Namely your time as a husband and a father,” he told reporters.
Ryan’s father passed away when he was in high school.
Ryan remarked that if he stays one more term his kids will only know him “as a weekend dad.” He reminded everyone that his children weren’t even born when he first came to Congress in 1999.
Ryan called his journey in congress a “wild ride.” He also stressed that President Donald Trump is not a reason for his choice:
“I’m grateful for the President for giving us this opportunity to get the country on the right track. The fact that he gave us the ability to get this stuff done makes me proud of the accomplishments that I’ve been a contributor to, it makes me satisfied that I’ve made a big difference and he’s given us that chance and I’m grateful to him for that and that’s really how I see it.”
He has “no regrets” during his time in Congress:
“You realize something when you take this job, it’s a big job with a lot riding on you and you feel it, but you also know this is a job that does not last forever. You realize that you hold the office for just a small part of our history so you better make the most of it.”
Statement from @SpeakerRyan’s office confirming he won’t run for re-election: pic.twitter.com/m677jPOmNu
— Gio Benitez (@GioBenitez) April 11, 2018
Axios wrote that friends have said that since Ryan passed tax reform, something he always wanted to do, that he is now ready “to step out a job that has become endlessly frustrating, in part because of President Trump.”
More than likely the next speaker will either be House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) or House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA).
It’s also important to note that Democrats may not have an easy time flipping Ryan’s seat.
Ryan’s WI-01 is not an easy D pickup. Trump won it by 10.2 while winning state by 0.75. Last week the conservative state supreme court candidate won it by 5.2 & LOSING state by 12. Obama lost by 5 in ‘12, won state by 7 and won by 4 in ‘08 won state by 14 @JMilesColeman maps! pic.twitter.com/IPyrrHTSln
— Charles Franklin (@PollsAndVotes) April 11, 2018
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Comments
Is their a chance he may get “primaried”?
Good. (Weasel)
When the filing date passes I’ll be happy and trust Ryan’s statement.
I hope that the idea that flipping Ryan’s seat to Dem won’t be easy because the Dims that have run against him are really lunatics.
I live in Ryan’s district and vote for him because he’s the best choice we’re given. But it’s a little SE corner of Wisconsin that has always been Democrat and his success has always been more of his likability than his politics. And many Republicans here in Wisconsin don’t hate him like people outside Wisconsin do.
All those who wanted Ryan gone are getting their wish. I just hope they remember the old saw about “being careful what you wish for.”
/This.
You are absolutely correct.
The DC swamp consultants are probably already booking longterm rooms at the Pfister. The influx of Democrat cash to win this race will be massive and the incredibly biased Milwaukee media market will soak it up like a dry sponge. I’d be willing to bet that the Chicago machine will be called upon to mobilize to exercise all manner of voting fraud to swell the 1st district’s voting population.
This is not a good development. The worst of it is that I fear the party is not up to the task of holding that seat.
Not disagreeing with you, but I wonder if it’s not a good thing that so many RINO seats are vacating. It will be hard to focus the rage 24/7/365 on individual races like they did in Alabama.
The DNC is in a shambles and in a war against itself. It has many Dem seats to defend and hard left ads to attract the needed Bernie Brats will fire up the right.
The primary difference these days is that the Democrats/MSM are capable of waging a civil war while simultaneously fighting Republicans. The Republicans are also waging a civil war, not recognized as such by many conservatives who falsely claim ownership of the entire party, but are too busy pissing in each other’s pockets to focus on battling Democrats. While Ryan may not be conservative enough for some, you can be certain that any Democrat who may slide into that seat will fall far short of the purity standard that has been applied to Ryan.
I don’t care if a dem gets the seat. We can afford that. We can’t afford a pro-open borders speaker!
“The primary difference these days is that the Democrats/MSM are capable of waging a civil war while simultaneously fighting Republicans. ”
That’s true, but that is partly because we have so many Ly’n Ryan RINOs who say one thing to get re-elected and then sell us out.
It will remain true until we can purge the Flakes from the Republican party.
“It will remain true until we can purge the Flakes from the Republican party.”
Republican is not synonymous with Conservative and therein lies the crux of our dilemma. Strong conservatives do not currently have the numbers to control the Republican Party at the national level and are still viewed by the bulk of the party as being the outliers.
Even though Wisconsin has been pinking rather nicely the last several years, WI-01 will not likely support a strong conservative Republican candidate for that seat. Ryan’s overwhelming success in holding WI-01 for so long is due in large part to his compromising, consensus building style of politics. He was acceptable to his district’s Republican voters, Independents, and didn’t cause most moderate Democrats to retch. This is also exactly why he was selected for the Speaker position.
While Ryan was certainly not a strong conservative’s BFF, he was a moderately conservative Republican of influence. Best case scenario for WI-01 now is replacing a Republican of considerable influence with another similar Republican, but an end-of-the-bench freshman representative of absolutely no impact whatsoever. And we WILL get another compromising consensus builder as Speaker of the House. All that’s really likely to change here is the names of the players.
It is certainly a dilemma. However the people of his party spoke loudly that they wanted what Trump was selling and Ryan was a gleeful backstabber.
So right Elle.
Plus the DNC is going deep, deep into “more” debt to finance their current operations.
Shouldn’t it be illegal for political parties to borrow money? It’s sort of like and advance bribe……..
I agree with “being careful what you wish for.”
IIRC – Ryan got to be speaker because the people who ran Boehner out of office had the power to remove him but not enough brains to have a replacement ready. Ryan was the compromise candidate. It will be interesting to see if anything has been learned since then.
I hope there is a wave of retirements…..we need new blood.
Ryan was a big one but others need to be cleared from the tracks also.
If you can’t lead, get out of the way…
If you can’t lead, cheat with the windage adjustment…
If you can’t lead, get out of the kitchen.
Mission accomplished, damage done, time to leave before intended collapse and cover up tracks. Promised much, supported much, delivered little.
Next few months will see GOPe support Democrat bills and bans.
I find so much disagreeable about him, I am not sorry to see him go, even though it will probably mean another seat lost to the Socialists. It isn’t like he was doing all that much to push through Republican platform ideas.
There were shady things which he was involved with on his becoming Speaker, and I don’t believe him that he didn’t seek that position. He is a swamp critter in so many ways, and quite a RINO in many ways. If the House flips, you know he wouldn’t have done well as the minority leader, given his poor performance as Speaker.
“to step out a job that has become endlessly frustrating, in part because of President Trump.”
It’s becoming much harder to sell out the American people while enriching myself at their expense.
You don’t mind Trump enriching himself?
Hillary Clinton will never be President of the United States.
Get over it, pal.
Touche! Elle wins the intertubes for the day!
RE: “It’s becoming much harder to sell out the American people while enriching myself at their expense.”
Maybe it’s time for the Rev Sharpton to move to Wisconsin to insure a democratic win?
Whose Paul Ryan?
The guy that passed two Cromnibus bills as Speaker, funded PP every year, and still has yet to get rid of Obamacare.
“to step out a job that has become endlessly frustrating, in part because of President Trump.”
And this is why he was the wrong man for the job … and why the Repubs are losers. For all their faults, you won’t see a D’rat tossing petulant cheapshots like this at their own party.
Ryan is a ridiculous twit pretending to do a professional politician’s job. The sooner he’s out, the better for all.
Why can’t we have a Speaker in the mold of Nancy and a Majority Leader in the mold of Harry? Nope, we get the absolute wimps.
“if anything has been learned since then.”
Learnin’? We don’t do nunnathat communiss stuuf rown heah”
I’m opposed to Scalise as speaker, McCarthy I’m not sure.
ALSO, wondering why someone that posts here that lives in Ryan’s district, doesn’t run?????? I’ve run for office, it’s not that hard.
Step forward, your country needs patriots and not just typists.
McCarthy is an attention whore who has never had a real job. He went from aide to Bill Thomas to his current seat. He likes to call himself a former small business owner because he owned a sandwich stand for about a minute. He’s a pleasant enough guy but the very personification of what is wrong with our political system, in my opinion.
Why do you oppose Scalise, please (trying to learn, here)?
The district voting maps embedded in the article should give the Pubs some pause. It suggests that much of the ‘red’ in that district is actually pink or purple depending on the candidates and the election (and perhaps the phase of the moon).
While distasteful to some, running a true believing ‘crimson’ candidate may end up flipping the seat to the Democrats, particularly if the latter are cunning enough to run a Blue Dog-style, ‘purple’ candidate as they did recently in southwest PA.
Mr. Ryan was disappointing in a number of ways, but I suggest that the Pubs can’t win with a crimson candidate in every district. As William Buckley once reminded us, you vote for the most conservative candidate electable.
Also, I’m in favor of RULES changes in the house. Apparently the Speaker appoints committee chairs? is this correct? if so, it’s a bad policy.
I would like to see a rule wherein ALL members of the majority party – EXCEPT reps in their 1st term — vote on who becomes committee chairman. This would reduce the speaker’s power and distribute it throughout the body. This would help eliminate the stranglehold that the “leadership” has on legislation and on the country.
The “leadership” these days doesn’t appear to give a damn about the country as we’ve seen through many many legislative sessions. Time for that to end.
As I understand it the committee chairs are voted on by the majority party caucus after being slotted by the leadership. Your suggestion would simply remove the first-termers thus REDUCING the voice of the electorate (who after all may have elected a bunch of new reforming-type first termers). The maneuvering for the chair and other leadership slots is complex but in the end it’s a joint decision by the leader and the inner brain trust for that party in the House.
Thanks, Steve White M.D.:
What do you mean “slotted”? I believe nominations should come from the floor and voted upon, no nominations from leadership. That’s where leadership twists arms. Secret vote also.
The omnibus didn’t come from the GOP members, it came from leadership. This has to be ended. Same with every other abomination up there.
The nomination process is a key to those in control staying in control. In law firms the top dogs frequently use a “nominating committee,” whom they appoint.
Good Riddance Paul!! He was a Never-Trumper (at heart), Globalist, Open Borders, Baby Killer, Communist, UNIPARTY, Big Government, Big Spender.
Great day for America!
While Ryan could probably have been reelected within his totally blue district [anyone ever wonder why there was never a serious Democrat challenger to Ryan?] he did not want to have to go on the public stage after essentially torpedoing Trump in the Omnibus Spending Bill. He did the bidding of his Establishment masters and is now getting out of Dodge before the public comes for the Congress with torches and pitchforks. We have seen this involving several “Republican” Congress Critters, such as Jeff Flake.
The problem with Ryan’s exit, is that does not leave the Republicans very much time to find and groom a successor for that seat. So, there is a good chance that the liberal denizens of his district will elect a Dem.
I’m sure they will blow it, but the Republicans could win it if they were not such losers.
The Republicans should do what the left always does. Run a candidate that is not offensive to the population and then fund the candidacy of some leftist nut who espouses hard left views forcing the democrat candidate to move further left to avoid offending the base.
There is lots of red in that map.
When the going gets tough the tough apparently take their winnings off of the table and try to beat the women and children to the lifeboats.
Seriously, that needs a keyboard alert! I don’t lol often 🙂
Realizing they’ll have to actually fight to retain their seats and their House majority, GOP representatives are quitting in droves.
This news should make Lou Dobbs very happy.
Good riddance and don’t let the door hit you in the rear. Now if only McConnell would take the hint as well.
only way he leaves is feet first.
there are a bunch of nevertrumpers lite running/crawling around.
question: can SCOTUS do anything to stop the decapitation of the elected POTUS ?
SCOTUS has no desire to stop the decapatation of an elected POTUS who is not a Democrat.
Don’t you mean “defenestration” [the forcible or peremptory removal of an adversary]?
His retirement nest is very well feathered and will be more comfortable than lying everyday to people that placed their trust in him.
Lost any respect I had for him after he allowed Biden to turn the Vice-Presidential debate into a mockery.
Considering what it takes to run for public office today, I’m sure glad he didn’t wait until the last minute to make the announcement. /s
Good riddance, you corrupt rino s-bag.
McConnell’s next:
McConnell And Chao: As Corrupt As The Clintons:
https://www.redstate.com/joesquire/2018/03/19/mcconnell-chao-corrupt-clintons/
It’s us versus them, folks.
Loved that last budget. Too bad he can’t stay and maybe triple the next one. Bipartisanship is so wonderful. sarc off.
No loss for conservatives.