After initially indicating that he wasn’t interested in the job, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan said Thursday evening that he will seek to become the speaker of the House of Representatives.
Ryan announced his decision in a letter to members of the House Republican Conference.
“After talking to so many of you, and hearing your words of encouragement, I believe we are ready to move forward as a one, united team,” the letter reads. “And I am ready and eager to be our speaker.”
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Ryan, a Republican from Janesville, has been under intense pressure from members of his party’s caucus to run for the speakership after Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he wouldn’t pursue the job. Ryan had initially said he wouldn’t run for speaker, but this Tuesday, he told other GOP lawmakers he was reconsidering and that he would run for speaker if members of the caucus were to embrace him as a consensus candidate.
“I never thought I’d be a speaker. But I pledged to you that if I could be a unifying figure, then I would serve — I would go all in,” Ryan wrote in his letter.
Ryan, a politician with a reputation for being a fiscal conservative and a “policy wonk,” ran for vice president in 2012 and has been eyed as a possible future presidential candidate. According to some analysts, accepting the taxing and divisive role of speaker could put those presidential ambitions at risk.
The House is expected to vote on the speakership next week.
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