Ryan to rule out presidential run
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will definitively rule himself out as a contender for the GOP presidential nomination in a formal statement before the media Tuesday afternoon.
{mosads}”He’s going to rule himself out and put this to rest once and for all,” an aide said.
The Speaker will make his statement at 3:15 p.m. just steps from the Capitol, at the Republican National Committee headquarters.
Ryan has ruled out running for president multiple times this cycle, but speculation about the young Speaker emerging as a consensus candidate at a brokered Republican National Convention hasn’t died down.
The speculation only grew in recent weeks after Ryan called for a more dignified political dialogue in a speech to House interns before the chamber’s spring recess.
Ryan’s office — unintentionally, aides say — stoked the flames by releasing a video of the speech that some, including conservative news site the Drudge Report, interpreted as a campaign advertisement.
And over the nearly three-week House recess, Ryan’s office regularly released photos of him meeting with prominent Middle East leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during his first foreign visit as Speaker.
Ryan, the GOP’s 2012 vice presidential nominee and a former chairman of the Budget and the Ways and Means committees, is considered by many in the party as one of its biggest stars.
He was also publicly reluctant to step into the Speaker’s role after Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced his retirement.
That convinced some Republicans he could similarly change his mind about a presidential bid.
Republicans are worried that the two leading candidates for the GOP nomination, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, won’t be able to win in the fall. Worries are also rising that a weak presidential candidate could hurt Republicans running for House and Senate seats.
That’s led to speculation that another candidate not currently in the race could emerge at the convention in Cleveland. Trump’s recent loss in the primary in Wisconsin, Ryan’s home state, also makes it harder for him to win the 1,237 delegates necessary to clinch the nomination before the convention.
But the idea of someone becoming the nominee who is not now in the race has its drawbacks.
If Trump or Cruz were to win the most delegates but leave the GOP convention without the nomination, Republicans warn that the party would face a backlash from that candidate’s supporters.
“I would envision pain for years to come,” one Republican said to The Hill about the possibility.
Ryan, who will be the ceremonial chairman of the July convention, has maintained that whoever emerges as the party’s nominee should be someone who has campaigned for the position over the last year.
Ryan first ruled out a presidential run last year and has rejected the idea in multiple media interviews since then.
He also denounced a group that called itself the Committee to Draft Speaker Ryan for President last month and threatened potential legal repercussions if it didn’t cease its activities. The group shut down shortly thereafter.
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