ADVERTISEMENT

Tim Ryan: 'There's Really Not Any Major Leader' of the Democratic Party

July 19, 2017

Rep. Tim Ryan (D., Ohio) said Wednesday on CSPAN that there are many factions in the Democratic Party, but there is not a major leader in the party.

Ryan said that many Republicans identify House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) as the leader of the Democrats in political ads, but he said that he does not believe there is a major leader.

"We're a Democratic group," Ryan said. "We got a lot of different factions to it and I would say right now there's really not any major leader of the party."

Ryan was asked whether he would like to run for leader in the next term.

"No, not really. I don't have really any interest in doing that," Ryan said. "I ran. I felt like somebody had to run, didn't necessarily want to run myself, but I felt like we needed a change obviously. But I have no real desire to run again and run for leadership."

Ryan said that he was going to use his voice to try to shape the national party by getting it to deliver an economic message that is critical for his constituents.

"It's not about just politics. It's not just about 'OK, how do we win elections?' You win elections because then you can implement your ideas, and in my estimation, ideas that will help people in Akron, Ohio," Ryan said.

Ryan ran an unsuccessful race against Pelosi after the 2016 elections for the House leader position. The election was conducted by secret ballot behind closed doors, resulting in Pelosi winning 134 votes to Ryan's 63 votes.