House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will tell his colleagues Wednesday afternoon that he won’t run for his House seat again, the Washington Examiner has confirmed.
Ryan is expected to serve out his remaining term as speaker, but then not run again, sources said.
Speculation has swirled for months that Ryan wants to leave the House to spend more time with his family. A decision to leave would send House Republicans scrambling to find a new leader at a time when they’re at risk of losing control of the House after the midterm elections.
Among the top contenders to replace Ryan are House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.
Scalise declined to talk about Ryan’s pending announcement during a Fox News interview Wednesday.
“I don’t want to get into speculation, I want to stay focused on our job,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do working with President Trump to get good things done for the economy, and we’ve got to make sure we keep the majority,” Scalise added. “It really becomes irrelevant if Nancy Pelosi is speaker of the House.”
Scalise acknowledged, however, that Ryan was addressing Republicans Wednesday morning.
“Ultimately, the speaker’s going to be giving some comments later today, and I think that’s his prerogative,” he said.
