43
RYAN ANNOUNCEMENT | RNC criticizes Ryan presidential announcement
Gallery
Vindy Exclusive - Tim Ryan Presidential Announcement
Video Set
The Republican National Committee criticized U.S. Rep. Ryan moments after he announced his presidential bid.
“Tim Ryan is a congressional backbencher who has no chance of becoming president,” said Michael Ahrens, RNC spokesman. “You can just add him to the long list of liberal candidates demanding government-run health care, and it underscores how radical and out-of-touch this Democratic field truly is.”
The RNC described Ryan as being best known for losing to Nancy Pelosi for House Democratic leader, being a “perennial seeker of higher office that goes nowhere,” passing no legislation in more than 16 years except renaming two federal buildings, supporting a government takeover of health care, and has no support in 2020 polls.
11:39 a.m.
On “The View,” Ryan described himself as “a progressive who knows how to talk to working-class people.”
He added that Democrats “stopped going to rural America. We stopped going to working-class towns,” and he would be different in his presidential bid.
Ryan also said he’s a “reform-minded Democrat,” but is “for the free-enterprise system.”
11:08 a.m.
YOUNGSTOWN — U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan made it official today: he is running for president of the United States.
He announced on a new website - timryanforamerica.com - that he's "running for president to rebuild the American Dream and focus on what really matters: public education, affordable health care and an economy that works for all of us."
Ryan of Howland, D-13th, announced his decision to The Vindicator earlier in the week and on the ABC talk show “The View,” becoming the 16th Democrat to declare his candidacy for the 2020 primary.
“The No. 1 issue for most Democrats around the country is who can win,” Ryan, 45, told The Vindicator. “I think I provide a pretty good story for those who can put the blue wall back together, who can win Wisconsin, who can win Michigan, who can win Pennsylvania – especially western Pennsylvania – and who can win Ohio, at the very least put Ohio in play. I think I’ve got a pretty good argument given that [Republican President Donald] Trump did pretty well in my district, but I did well too.”
Trump won all the states Ryan mentioned in his 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“We’re going to need someone who can obviously put the Democratic coalition together, but it’s got to be much bigger than that,” he said. “Politics is about addition, not subtraction and pulling in some of those voters who didn’t see the economic benefits of the promises that were made, they didn’t like the division. I think you can go out there and win those voters.”
Ryan, a nine-term congressman, first told The Vindicator in July 2018 that he was interested in running for president, but was in no rush to make a final decision. He’s told the newspaper in February and last week that he was giving “strong consideration” to running and would have a decision shortly.
Word leaked from sources close to Ryan late Wednesday that he was expected to make his announcement today.
He did just that.
Ryan plans to have a rally at 2 p.m. Saturday in front of the Youngstown Business Incubator in the city’s downtown to kick off his campaign.
He will leave Sunday for Iowa, the first state with a presidential caucus and where he was last weekend. He plans to speak Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and campaign in New Hampshire, the first state with a presidential primary and where Ryan has visited several times, on that day and Thursday. He also will have a Thursday fundraiser in Florida.
Ryan said he will file for re-election to his House seat in 2020.