Randy 'Ironstache' Bryce on His Sudden Change of Fortune

It started as a typical April morning in Caledonia, Wisconsin – 40 degrees, partly cloudy, rain in the forecast. Randy Bryce rolled out of bed and flicked on his TV.

"I was getting ready to go in the bathroom and take a shower and then I saw the caption: 'Insiders Say Paul Ryan Is Going To Announce He’s Not Running Again.'" The 53-year old ironworker – and, up until that moment, Paul Ryan’s challenger – didn’t have an inkling this was coming.

"It’s hard to describe the feeling, but it was a lot of happiness," Bryce tells Rolling Stone by phone as the news is still sinking in. "It was great knowing that we had something to do with pushing him out."

Ryan’s allies have tried to tamp down speculation that a midterm challenge from the single-payer-supporting union member from Milwaukee had anything to do with the Speaker’s decision not to seek re-election. One went so far as to email a reporter internal poll on Wednesday showing Ryan leading Bryce 55 to 34 percent.

The day before Ryan’s surprise announcement, Bryce’s campaign announced it had out-raised Ryan’s by $1.75 million in the first quarter of this year. That number would have been a significant feat for any candidate, but for one who’s never held elected office before – and, in fact, has lost every other race he’s run (for school board, state senate, and state assembly) – the seven-figure sum was especially eyebrow-raising.

"The goal was always to repeal and replace Paul Ryan with a working person," Bryce says. "When we took it on, it was something we were very serious about doing, we were very optimistic that it was something that could be done with a lot of hard work. To see half of that mission take place, with him quitting, it said a lot, but it doesn’t mean that its by any means over."

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/randy-bryce-paul-ryan-w519010?utm_source=rsnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=041218_16