Tim Ryan to decide shortly on presidential bid

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan said he’s going to make a decision shortly on whether he’ll run for president.

“In the next few weeks definitely got to pull the trigger one way or the other, got to make a decision,” Ryan told The Vindicator on Monday before speaking at the Rotary Club of Youngstown luncheon.

Asked if he has leaning either way, Ryan of Howland, D-13th, said with a laugh: “I am passionately in the middle.”

But Ryan gave somewhat of an indication when he said he’s “listening to what the other candidates are saying. I’m a little concerned that I’m not hearing about jobs and health care and pensions. We’re not hearing a lot about that. I think those are the most important messages. I’m also not hearing a lot about how we’re going to be competitive as a country. We’re so divided right now that the challenges are unbelievable coming from Russia, coming from China, economic challenges.”

While the stock market is soaring and the unemployment rate is low, Ryan said, “Most people are struggling to make ends meet. I think it’s an indication that we’ve not figure out how to plug a vast majority of the country into a global economy and automation and we’ve got to figure [that] out so that’s kind of what I’m weighing now. Is anybody really talking about the main issues that need to be addressed?”

Ryan said he’ll be in Iowa, the first state with a presidential caucus, this weekend. He’s already been there as well as other key presidential primary states such as New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Ryan first told The Vindicator in July 2018 that he was interested in running for president in 2020, but was in no rush to make a final decision. He told the newspaper last month that he was giving strong consideration to a run because “I have a voice that needs to be heard.”

He added that he “won’t run if I don’t think I can win. I’m not in this for therapy or a vanity project. I’d run to make a difference in people’s lives.”

Ryan, a nine-term congressman, has considered over the years runs for governor and senator, but has always opted to seek re-election to the House.

If Ryan runs for the president, he said he would also run for another term to his current position.

Also Monday, Ryan said he was hesitant to comment on a summary by Attorney General William Barr of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that didn’t find any evidence that President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. Mueller reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice, Barr said.

“Sometimes the summary doesn’t always include important things so I don’t want to comment too much on it,” he said. “I’ll wait until I look [at the full report when it’s released]. But again we’ve got to get back on message and the agenda of jobs and wages and pensions.”

People in the district, Ryan said, are concerned with those issues and not the Mueller report.