The first conservative has walked off the field before the Republican race for president has begun. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., today announced he will not run in 2016, saying he wants to concentrate on his new chairmanship of a major tax-writing committee.
“It’s clear the country needs a change in direction,” @PRyan says.
Ryan, a popular conservative who won his ninth House term Nov. 4, became much better known to Americans as GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s running mate in the 2012 presidential campaign.
Ryan, formerly chairman of the House Budget Committee, is the new chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. The panel begins its work Tuesday in the new Congress and will have a big role in the advance of tax reforms.
“It’s clear the country needs a change in direction and our party has a responsibility to offer a real alternative,” Ryan, who will turn 45 on Jan. 29, said in a phone interview with NBC News’ Alex Moe, the first of several with national TV news correspondents.
In the Ways and Means chairmanship, he added, he intends to “lay out conservative solutions that will help our nominee lead us to victory.”
Shortly after 5 p.m., he posted this on his Facebook page:
Ryan was third in a Romney-less field of 12 Republican presidential hopefuls in the latest Real Clear Politics average of polls, at 10 percent, behind former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
He said he was “at peace” with a decision made over the Christmas holidays, and that his move had nothing to do with Romney’s renewed interest in a third White House bid.
“It is no secret that I have always thought Mitt would make a great president,” Ryan told NBC News, adding:
There are a lot of talented people. I think it is critical that our party puts forward bold, conservative ideas and give people a choice. I think we have a number of capable leaders who can do that.
Ryan’s announcement was especially surprising coming as it did on the heels of the poke he gave to Christie on social media Sunday after the governor’s beloved Dallas Cowboys lost to the Green Bay Packers:
Remaining conservatives in the early, still-unannounced Republican field include another son of Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker, in addition to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, retired Maryland neurosurgeon Ben Carson and three senators—Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida.
