GM closure incites presidential run
Ohio lawmaker dives into packed Democratic pool
Tim Ryan is in.
The Ohio representative has long flirted with a run at higher office, and Thursday, the Democrat announced he launched a campaign for president.
Ryan, 45, said he felt prompted to join the race after General Motors closed its Lordstown Assembly plant last month in his district. His daughter called him in tears because her friend’s dad was being transferred out of state. “She said you’ve got to do something, and I said I’m going to do something,” Ryan said on ABC’s “The View.” “I’m going to run for president of the United States.”
Ryan joins a crowded field of 16 Democrats seeking to challenge President Donald Trump next year. A few others, including former Vice President Joe Biden, are still feeling out candidacies.
Ryan hails from the Mahoning Valley in the northeastern part of the state, a reliably Democratic region that swung hard toward Trump in 2016.
Ryan was first elected to Congress in 2002 as an underdog candidate facing a well-known Ohio political veteran.
Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras said that underdog quality is a badge of honor. Betras said 77,000 people in four states made Trump president and Ryan, a Midwestern moderate, can reach those voters in a way candidates from the coasts cannot. “Tim has a way of connecting with voters,” Betras said. “He has the ‘it’ factor. He has ‘it.’ ”
Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens called Ryan a “backbencher who has no chance of becoming president.”
“You can just add him to the long list of liberal candidates demanding government-run health care, and it underscores how radical and out-of-touch this Democratic field truly is,” Ahrens said in a statement.
Ryan planned a campaign kickoff rally in Youngstown on Saturday and to campaign in Iowa on Sunday.
Ryan is a native Ohioan who has the support of labor unions and has been critical of the North American Free Trade Agreement. He has a key issue on which to debate Trump: the closure of the GM plant in his district.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown opted not to run, so there’s room for Ryan to carry the message of working people.
“We need to immediately get back on an economic message of how we’re going to help working-class people with their health care, environmental issues, jobs, jobs, jobs, wages, wages, wages,” Ryan said Thursday.
Chris Redfern, a friend of Ryan’s and former Ohio Democratic Party chairman, said Democrats need to win Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in 2020 and Ryan’s message will work there. “Running for president for Tim is a natural succession because he served so ably in Congress and has become the point person on the issues that matter the most in the Midwest and upper Midwest,” Redfern said. “Why not take those issues to a broader stage?”
Ryan has little name recognition in his own state, let alone nationwide.
Betras said that if Ryan can get to the debate stage in June, he might have a breakthrough moment. The first Democratic debate will not relegate lesser-known candidates to a second-tier debate but instead choose up to 10 for a pair of prime-time debates.
Ryan will need money from 65,000 individual donors in 20 states to get there. He raised about $1.6 million for the 2018 election – less than the average House candidate last year. Most came from political action committees and large individual contributions, but he received contributions from nearly all 50 states.
He used to be anti-abortion and belong to the National Rifle Association.