(RNN) - Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will make an announcement that he will not run for reelection, according to multiple reports. Some are saying that he'll step down in January after the midterm elections. Ryan is up for re-election in his Wisconsin district this year.
Axios reports that Ryan is ready to step aside because of the passage of the tax reform bill, and is ready for a career in the private sector. Republicans are also facing a difficult midterm election season.
He's expected to announce his decision to a closed-door GOP conference meeting Wednesday morning, according to CNN.
The two likely candidates to replace him are House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, of California, and Steve Scalise, the Majority Whip.
Ryan faced a strong challenge for his re-election bid from Randy Bryce, a Democratic challenger for Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District seat, who boasted Wednesday that he outraised the incumbent by $1.75 million in the first three months of 2018.
We outraised @SpeakerRyan in the first 3 months of 2018 by $1.75 million! Incredible!
And unlike Ryan, we aren't taking corporate PAC money or cashing $500,000 checks from the Kochs.
Help beat Paul Ryan where it matters most - at the ballot box: https://t.co/tHrhXZkapN
— Randy Bryce (@IronStache) April 11, 2018
In March, a political website changed the rating for Ryan's district from "safely Republican" to "likely Republican," Wisconsin Public Radio reported. Two Democratic challengers are vying for the party's nomination, Bryce and Cathy Myers.
Ryan took over as Speaker in 2012 after John Boehner resigned his position, and Kevin McCarthy took himself out of consideration for the position.
Initially, Ryan said he did not want the position, but then said he would if certain conditions were met, including the different groups of the Republican Party uniting to support him. Three factions ended up supporting him, and he became the youngest speaker at age 45 to elected since 1869.
Born Jan. 29, 1970, Ryan rose to political notoriety when he was chosen by 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to be his vice presidential candidate. Ryan was chairman of the House Budget Committee and it was his experience in that area that was cited as the primary reason for his inclusion on the ticket.
Congress was mired in partisan budget talks at the time, approving limited spending appropriations as emergency measures rather than passing a full budget.
He served as the chairman of the House Budget Committee from 2011-15 and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee in 2015, which is primarily responsible for tax policy issues, but also oversees Medicare, Social Security and unemployment benefits.
Ryan was elected to Congress as a representative of Wisconsin's 1st District in 1999, becoming the second-youngest member of the House of Representatives.
His voting record was considered to be among the conservative in the House in decades and was rated as the most furthest from the political center to be nominated by either major political party.
Ryan graduated from Miami (OH) University with degrees in political science and economics and interned for a Wisconsin senator.
As a representative, Ryan sponsored many bills, but most failed to pass. The only successful ones were not of national significance and included the renaming of a post office in his district and a tax reduction on hunting equipment. Ryan was an avid hunter and fisherman.
Ryan ran for re-election in Congress and as vice president concurrently in 2012, winning re-election for his seat in Congress but he and Romney lost the White House bid. He accepted Romney's nomination on the deck of USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, VA.
After losing the election, Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) agreed on the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. Obama signed it into law later that year.
Ryan was tapped to succeed John Boehner as Speaker of the House in October 2015. Ryan initially said he was not interested and released a statement that said, "I will not be a candidate."
Boehner had encouraged Ryan to seek the position to help unify a fractured party that was threatening to remove Boehner from his position. Boehner resigned from Congress rather than face an ouster. Two weeks after declining to seek the position, Ryan reversed his decision at the encouragement of other Republicans in the House and he was elected.
Being elected as Speaker of the House put Ryan second in line to succeed the president, one position lower than had he been elected vice president.
Ryan's political positions placed him solidly in the conservative wing of the Republican Party. He was anti-abortion, voted against federal funding for Planned Parenthood, supported lower tax rates, opposed the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), opposed same-sex marriage, opposed restriction on gun ownership and favored a ban on flag-burning, which the Supreme Court had upheld as a protected form of speech under the First Amendment.
Ryan was both the first vice presidential candidate and first Speaker of the House from Wisconsin.
Ryan was noted for an intense workout routine, sleeping on a cot in his office in the U.S. Capitol and returning to his home in Janesville, WI, every weekend. Ryan and his wife, Janna, have three children.
Copyright 2018 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved.
