Ryan mulls 2016 bid, rules out Speaker’s gavel

Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), the 2012 Republican vice presidential candidate, says he will have a serious conversation with his wife next year about running for president in 2016.

Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, said in the meantime he will worry more about his duties in the House than positioning himself for the Oval Office.

“Janna and I are going to sit down in 2015 and give it a serious conversation, consideration that it requires. We’re keeping our options open,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“But right now, I have a responsibility in the majority in the House of Representatives that I feel I ought to attend to. And then I’ll worry about those things after the election,” he said.

Ryan finished with 3 percent of the vote in the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll Saturday.

Ryan, however, won a recent poll by the Des Moines Register assessing the popularity of various Republicans in the state that will host the first contest of the 2016 GOP primary.

He attributed the success to his Midwestern roots.

“I’m a friendly next-door neighbor in Wisconsin,” he said.

Some Republican strategists, however, think Ryan will likely not run for the presidency in two years because he would have to compete with popular Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who has the backing of the powerful Koch brothers.

Ryan said he’s not interested in running for the top leadership in the House. He praised Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) while acknowledging his difficulties with Tea Party-affiliated conservatives.

“I’ve already kind of ruled that one out,” he said. “I think there are other places that I’d rather be than that. John Boehner’s doing a fine job. I know he’s controversial but he’s doing a very, very good job.”

Ryan is vying with Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) to become the next chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over taxes, trade and entitlement programs.

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