Tim Ryan announced Thursday that he is dropping out of the 2020 Democratic primary, making him the latest entry in the long list of House representatives who failed to leverage their congressional experience into successful presidential bids.
“I’m announcing today that I am withdrawing from the Presidential campaign,” the Ohio representative announced on social media.
He added, “I got into this race in April to really give voice to the forgotten people of our country. I look forward to continuing that fight. Thank you, to everyone who supported this campaign.”
I’m announcing today that I am withdrawing from the Presidential campaign.
I got into this race in April to really give voice to the forgotten people of our country. I look forward to continuing that fight.
Thank you, to everyone who supported this campaign. pic.twitter.com/BT4z3fQ205
— Tim Ryan (@TimRyan) October 24, 2019
It is a loss to Democrats that Ryan is dropping out of the race. After all, he is not insane, which cannot be said of many of the still-active 2020 primary candidates. But everyone could see that Ryan had no shot at the Democratic Party’s nomination. He never broke higher than 1% in surveys of potential primary voters, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average. He regularly failed to draw crowds, and he stopped qualifying for the primary debates a long time ago.
If nothing else, the congressman’s doomed from the start candidacy is a reminder the United States wastes a lot of time, effort, and cash on delusional presidential primary campaigns. As it turns out, the largest source of these ill-fated efforts is the U.S. House of Representatives, which has produced an abundance of presidential hopefuls despite the fact that only once in this country’s history has a sitting representative (James Garfield) been elected to the presidency. That was 139 years ago.
I am only half-joking when I say Congress ought to consider a constitutional amendment barring members of the House from running for president. It would save everyone a lot of time and money if we simply cut these no-hope candidates out of the process.
Since President Gerald Ford’s brief White House tenure, voters have endured more than a dozen failed presidential primary candidacies launched by members of the House, including the late Arizona Democratic Rep. Mo Udall, the late Ohio Democratic Rep. Wayne Hays, the late Illinois Republican Rep. John Anderson, the late Illinois Republican Rep. Phil Crane, former Missouri Democratic Rep. Dick Gephardt, the late Ohio Democratic Rep. James Traficant, former Ohio Democratic Rep. Doug Applegate, former New York Republican Rep. Jack Kemp, former California Republican Rep. Bob Dornan, former Ohio Republican Rep. John Kasich, Dick Gephardt again, former Ohio Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich, former Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, former California Republican Rep. Duncan Lee Hunter, former Colorado Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, Dennis Kucinich again, Ron Paul again, and former Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann.
In all that time, no sitting House representative on either side of the aisle has won their party’s nomination, let alone the White House. And remember: I am using the starting point of 1975. There are a lot more failed presidential bids from House lawmakers prior to Ford taking the Oval Office.
Speaking of which, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, former Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak, and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard are still running in the 2020 Democratic primary, and that is even after their apparently wiser House colleagues, Reps. Eric Swalwell of California and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, have dropped out already.
It is starting to stack up, the time that gets eaten up by no-hope presidential primary candidates.
