Washington, Apr 11 (EFE).- Paul Ryan, speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2015, will not be seeking re-election in November, an aide confirmed on Wednesday.
“This morning speaker Ryan shared with his colleagues that this will be his last year as a member of the House,” Brendan Buck said in a statement.
According to Buck, after serving almost 20 years in the House, Ryan “is ready to devote more of his time to being a husband and a father,” and while he did not seek re-election, he had told his colleagues “that serving as speaker has been the professional honor of his life.”
“He will serve out his full term, run through the tape, and then retire in January,” his aide said.
Ryan has been the representative for Wisconsin’s 1st congressional district since 1999 and became Mitt Romney’s choice for vice-presidential candidate in 2012, when he was just 42 years old.
Two possible candidates to be the next speaker of the House, where the Republican Party holds a 237-seat majority against the Democrat’s 192 seats, are majority whip Steve Scalise and House majority leader Kevin McCarthy.
Despite his differences with Donald Trump, Ryan took on the task of rallying votes for some of the president’s key bills, including his tax and health care reforms.
In fact, one of Ryan’s biggest achievements since becoming speaker of the House in 2015 was gathering the votes to pass the tax reform last December, which is particularly controversial as it includes large tax cuts for businesses and individuals.