Ryan, who represents a district in northeastern Ohio that includes Youngstown and part of Akron, is perhaps best known at the national level for his criticism of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and his accompanying argument that Democrats have stopped connecting with working-class voters, especially in the Midwest. He challenged Pelosi for the minority leader position in 2016 and, two years later, was again a leader of a push to elect someone else.
He began his presidential campaign with a TV appearance Thursday morning on “The View,” in which he emphasized jobs and the economy. “I’m a progressive who knows how to talk to working-class people,” he said. “At the end of the day, the progressive agenda is what’s best for working families.”
In an interview with The New York Times a few hours later, Ryan argued that he was better positioned than any other candidate to address “economic disorientation” in places like Youngstown and Akron. He spoke in particular about the potential of electric vehicles and other renewable energy industries to create jobs for people displaced by the decline in manufacturing.
“I want a businessperson in Michigan to say, ‘I think Tim Ryan really understands what we need to do around electric vehicles,’” he said, “and I want a worker in Michigan going: ‘Yeah, we just lost our job. Let’s make electric. That seems like it’s the future.’”
Ryan’s path to the nomination is steep, and not just because the field is so crowded. The last — and only — sitting House member to be elected president was James Garfield in 1880.
But Ryan believes there is an opening in the race for a Midwesterner who can focus on winning back the voters who flipped to President Donald Trump in 2016.
“I think somebody from the Midwest could be a healing candidate in the sense that we’re so divided,” he said. “You can have a great 10-point plan, but if we don’t figure out how to come together, then we’re not going anywhere.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.