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Ryan says he can appeal to all Democratic factions
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By DAVID SKOLNICK
skolnick@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan said he’s the best candidate for president because he’s a uniter who appeals to all Democratic factions and would help the party regain the Midwest, which it lost in the 2016 election.
Ryan of Howland, D-13th, ended the speculation Thursday with an interview with The Vindicator and then an announcement on the ABC talk show “The View” that he was running for president.
“Those people who voted for [Republican President Donald] Trump and wanted a change — and got chaos and no plan and instability — are going to be looking for someone who they can connect with,” Ryan told The Vindicator. “I’ve been to Wisconsin. I’ve been to Michigan. It’s Ohio. I’ve been to Iowa. It’s just like Ohio.”
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Ryan said of some of the president’s voters: “It’s not necessarily they were in love with Trump. He was talking about jobs and wages and steel mills and coal mines and he was going to open them all back up. I don’t know if they believed it, but he was the only one who was focused on those who were struggling and guess what? They’re still struggling today, if not worse and the economy is continuing to soften. I think I can be a pretty attractive candidate to bring them back in.”
That includes, Ryan said, getting “more white people to vote Democratic. That’s not a newsflash because those are the people that we lost. This idea you have to talk to specific groups; Democrats have made that mistake of not having a real big bold message that everybody can look at. We’ve got to stop pitting our workers against each other.”
On “The View,” Ryan said, “I am a progressive who knows how to talk to working class people and I know how to get elected in working class districts. Because at the end of the day the progressive agenda is what is best for working families.”
Vindy Exclusive - Tim Ryan Presidential Announcement
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Ryan on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” later Thursday repeated the themes that he voiced earlier on “The View,” including the need for the country to unite. “As long as we’re divided, we’re all gettin’ screwed,” he said. Ryan also discussed electric vehicles and his desire to have them made in the U.S. “We can solve these big problems, but we gotta come together first.”
Ryan, a nine-term congressman, was first elected in 2000 as a state senator. Two years later, he pulled a major upset in the 2002 Democratic primary for the then-17th District seat beating eight-term incumbent Thomas Sawyer, and has served in the House ever since.
He said he’ll file for re-election to his House seat in 2020 while running for president.
Vindy Exclusive - Tim Ryan Presidential Announcement
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Vindicator Exclusive - U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, told The Vindicator editorial board on Monday, April 1, 2019, that he would be running ...
Ryan, 45, has attracted national media attention since his unsuccessful challenge in November 2016 to Nancy Pelosi to be the House minority leader. Ryan lost 134 to 63 but raised his political profile.
He doesn’t have the national name recognition or the ability to raise money of several other Democratic candidates, however. Also, the last sitting House member to go directly to the presidency was James A. Garfield in 1880 when Republicans nominated him as a compromise candidate.
Ryan will have a 2 p.m. Saturday rally on West Federal Street in front of the Youngstown Business Incubator, with people lining up at about 1 p.m.
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 then campaign in New Hampshire, the first state with a presidential primary. He also will have a Thursday fundraiser in Florida.
“The No. 1 issue for most Democrats around the country is who can win,” Ryan told The Vindicator.
Regarding Trump, Ryan said: “There’s going to be a certain percentage who are going to be for President Trump no matter what and no Democrat – whether it be John Kennedy or Bill Clinton or Franklin Delano Roosevelt – they’re not getting those voters from the president.
“I think that’s 40 percent, possibly a bit more. So our job is to get 55 to 60 percent and I think we can do that. I think again the economy is still not working for people. People are still not getting the retirement and security they need.
He added: “Trump will have a record and that includes General Motors.”
Ryan said he “will be aggressive and firm [with Trump], but I don’t want to get in the mud. We’re going to talk about the issues. I don’t need to insult him. I just need to tell the truth.”
Ryan said the president “is trying to divide the country.
“Voters don’t like the division,” he added, noting that includes moderate Republicans. “I don’t like the division. It’s based on fear. It’s based on pitting us against each other.”
As far as raising money for a presidential bid, Ryan wouldn’t give a specific goal, but said he needs to raise millions of dollars.
“We’re going to need enough to have enough staff and to travel and get people in Iowa and New Hampshire to get our numbers to where we get on stage in June for the debates and have a moment. That’s the key.”
“If you have a moment you can raise those low-dollar donations around the country,” he added.
Ryan is referring to the first Democratic debate to be held in Miami on June 26 and 27 – because there are so many potential candidates the debate will be two days with the lineups for each chosen at random.
To qualify, a candidate needs to either have at least 1 percent support in three qualifying polls, or have at least 65,000 unique donors with a minimum of 200 different donors in at least 20 states.
If more than 20 candidates hit one of those two qualifications, the top 20 would be selected by a method that rewards candidates for meeting both thresholds, followed by highest polling averages and then the most unique donors, according to NBC News, which is co-hosting the first debate.
There are six Democratic presidential candidate debates this year and six more in 2020.
Mahoning County Democratic Chairman David Betras, a close confidant of Ryan, said the congressman can relate to progressives and the working class.
“He wants to focus on wages and a new economy and I think that’s going to be the centerpiece of his campaign,” he said.
Republicans were quick to dismiss Ryan.
Evan Machan, Ohio Republican Party spokesman, pointed to Ryan’s loss to Pelosi as well as a failed attempt to stop her from becoming speaker of the House this year, and that in more than 16 years, Ryan has two legislative accomplishments: renaming two federal buildings.
When asked by The Vindicator to name three or four key pieces of legislation he’s passed, Ryan said, “When you talk about the last seven to eight years, there hasn’t been a whole lot that has gotten done. I think the question is sitting on the Appropriations Committee, we carried these bills. My job is to fund programs that are important to the nation, that are important to the national interest and a lot of that is directed here. Look at what we’ve done with America Makes. You look at the program we’ve done here with the Air Force, what we’re doing with the Army to really streamline costs at the Department of Defense, make sure we’re competitive.”
Ryan, a former standout quarterback at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, used a football analogy to describe his campaign.
“I want the ball. Give me the ball. I don’t care what the score is, I think we can win. I think if we get in the game and we get to Iowa and we get to New Hampshire and we get to meet the voters, I think they’ll appreciate what we’ve done here as far as trying to build the global economy for the economy for the future and why we need to join together.”