House Speaker Paul Ryan ruled out becoming the Republican presidential nominee in 2016 at a possible contested convention, but that doesn’t mean he won’t run in the future.
When asked in an interview with CNN if he has ruled out a run for president sometime in the future, Ryan left the door open.
“Well, no, but I don’t think that far down the road,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “I made a decision in this cycle for 2016 not to run for president.”
Ryan, who was the GOP’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, said he turned down a run because of his family and his job in the House.
“I thought I could make a huge difference and still have the kind of balanced life family that I enjoy at this stage in my life and that’s why I didn’t run for president,” Ryan said. “But also because there are a lot of good people running.”
When it comes to a contested convention at the Republican National Committee in Cleveland in July, Ryan said he hasn’t fully thought about how that would play out.
“It very well may be that somebody gets 1,237 delegates before the convention and then this whole open convention question is closed,” said Ryan, who also serves as the chairman of the convention. “But maybe we will have an open convention. If we do, we will deal with the situation as it arises.”
Ryan also rejected Trump’s calls that the candidate who wins the most delegates should be the nominee, even if they don’t reach the necessary threshold of 1,237.
“The rules are the rules,” Ryan said. “We’re just going to follow the rule book and let the delegates make their decisions on how this goes forward.”
