Rep. Tim Ryan drops out of 2020 Democratic primary
October 24, 2019
Rep. Tim Ryan dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race on Thursday, after his campaign failed to gain any significant traction.
"While it didn’t work out quite the way we planned, this voice will not be stifled. I will continue to advocate and fight for the working people of this country — white, black, brown, men, women," Ryan said in a statement from his campaign announcing his withdrawal from the race. "There’s people who get up every day, take a shower after work sometimes, that are working really hard. And we’re going to continue to fight for making sure that those workers are treated fairly, and that they have access to good health care, that they have a solid pension to retire on."
Ryan qualified for the first two Democratic presidential debates, but failed to make the cut for subsequent ones. Ryan, a moderate from Ohio who gained national attention prior to his campaign for participating in an effort to unseat Nancy Pelosi as the Democratic leader in the House, struggled in both fundraising and polling.
In his push to oust Pelosi, Ryan, along with Rep. Seth Moulton, argued that their caucus needed a new generation of leaders at the head of their party. Both candidates made the same argument in running for president, but it didn't appear to resonate with voters.
Ryan only had a few notable debate moments, including a skirmish with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard over the war in Afghanistan.
In a short video Ryan posted online Thursday, he said he planned to run for reelection for his congressional seat in Ohio's 13th congressional district. Democrats have held control of the seat for decades.
Ryan tried to offer himself as a centrist and alternative to former Vice President Joe Biden. At one point his campaign rolled out endorsements from former Biden supporters in South Carolina. In a twist, though, early in his campaign his communications director, Julia Krieger, departed to serve as communications director for Biden's team in Iowa.
Ryan, like other Democratic candidates from the Midwest running for president, urged Democrats to focus more on winning back voters in that region that President Donald Trump won in the 2016 presidential election. He framed his campaign around the idea that he could rally support in the industrial Midwest and compete aggressively against Trump among the president’s supporters in the region.
"I'm proud of this campaign because I believe we’ve done that. We’ve given voice to the forgotten communities and the forgotten people in the United States," Ryan also said in his statement.
Source: https://www.politico.com/
