Paul Ryan Is Leaving Office. Now What?

In a surprise announcement Wednesday morning, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan told colleagues he will not seek re-election in November. The decision saves Ryan from a potentially humiliating re-election battle in Wisconsin, where recent special election results had Gov. Scott Walker sounding the alarm about a "Blue Wave." The retirement sends a powerful signal that GOP efforts to hold the House majority could be doomed, and Ryan’s decision may set off a new rush of Republican incumbents for the exits.

Here’s what you need to know.

What’s Ryan’s spin on his retirement?

In a press conference Wednesday morning, Ryan said he was retiring at the end of his current term for three reasons.

1) He wants to spend more time with family, particularly his teenagers: "If I am here for one more term, my kids will only have ever known me as a weekend dad," Ryan said. "I just can’t let that happen."

2) He’s accomplished what he came to Washington to do: "I think we’ve achieved a heck of a lot," he said, including "the major reform of our tax code" and the recent larding of the Pentagon.

3) He never wanted this lousy job anyway: "You all know that I did not seek this job. I took it reluctantly," the Speaker said, adding, for emphasis: "I didn’t want this job at first … I really, actually didn’t."

What are the (likely) real reasons?


1) He was facing a bitter re-election battle against Democrat Randy "Iron Stache" Bryce. Ryan’s southern Wisconsin district, stretching from the Milwaukee 'burbs to the state line and greater Chicagoland, is traditionally GOP territory, leaning five points more Republican than the average district. But as 2018 is shaping up, that’s not much of a firewall; by comparison the suburban Pittsburgh district the GOP lost in a special election a month ago was R+11. Democrats had already nationalized the race against Ryan. Bryce, a former Army sergeant who sports a bushy mustache and is an ironworker near Racine, caught fire as a grassroots populist last year. (He’s a union man.) In the first quarter of 2018, his campaign announced on Tuesday, Bryce out-raised the Republican Speaker of the House by $1.75 million.

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