Freedom Caucus Chair Says ‘Group Would Look Favorably’ on Ryan Speakership Run

A member of the House Freedom Caucus said Sunday that the group of ardent conservatives would consider Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, for House speaker if he can convince them he’ll change the way the House governs.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Utah), chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he remains a candidate for speaker but also would support Ryan if he entered the race.

The public courting of Ryan spotlighted the search by House Republicans to regain their footing after Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., unexpectedly withdrew his name from contention at a session that was expected to choose him to succeed Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

“I think we Republicans in the Senate need to have more of a dialogue with the members of the House”, McCain said.

“No more business as usual”, said Jordan, whose group wants to see more bills from rank-and-file members get full floor votes and House leaders awarding committee chairmanships to a wider range of members. “He’s been very good to me the last five years that I’ve been in Congress”.

“Whoever is the next speaker, whether it is Paul Ryan or anyone else, has to go to that kind of model because that is the environment that is going to be most conducive to producing the results we told the voters we were going to do, to fighting for those Republican principles that we were elected to fight for”, Jordan told Wallace.

“(Congressman) Ryan would certainly have my vote, but I’m not committing to any individual because we don’t have all the candidates that are likely to announce”, Jenkins said. “You don’t pick a candidate until you know who all of the players are”, Farenthold said.

House Republicans have coalesced around trying to push a reluctant Ryan to run for speaker, believing he is the only member who can unite a disparate conference. According to several reports, though, Boehner called Ryan after the announcement to ask him to run. But Allen said a Speaker Ryan would face stiff resistance from his conservative flank. Kristi Noem of South Dakota and Adrian Smith of Nebraska, are watching the process as they seek to make a decision.

“We need to bring this caucus back together”, Issa said. They want to permanently transform the power structure of the House GOP so that the (more conservative) rank and file can have greater authority, thus upending a decades-long strengthening of the office.

And Rep Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., a member of the Freedom Caucus, urged Ryan to accept the job.

SIOUX CITY | In a wildly fluctuating environment where a number of Republican lawmakers are being pushed to run for speaker of the House, Iowa 4th District Rep. Steve King is standing by the conservative he picked last week.

“We should all learn from the [2012] presidential election [and not pick the] presumptive frontrunner, no ‘Next in line, ‘” Horowitz said. The 2012 vice presidential nominee issued a statement Thursday saying he would rather stay on in his current position as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, shortly after McCarthy surprised the Capitol by dropping out of the speaker’s race, a race he had been expected to win.