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 Ryan has raised more than $9 million through his "Team Ryan"
network since his first day as Speaker of the U.S. House of
Representatives on Oct. 30, 2015, through the end of January 2016, a
Reuters review of U.S. Federal Election Commission filings showed.
That haul helps House Republicans and party committees and compares
with about $6 million raised by his predecessor John Boehner over
the same three-month period in the 2014 campaign cycle and about $7
million in the 2012 presidential election cycle.
Ryan has delivered at least $8 million to the National Republican
Congressional Committee (NRCC), a party group that backs
congressional Republicans, again topping Boehner in 2014 and 2012,
according to FEC filings through Feb. 29.
That has helped put the NRCC in its best cash-on-hand position ever
entering an election year, and placed it $2 million ahead of the
rival Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
"I’ll put it this way, Paul Ryan is a finance chair’s dream in terms
of fund-raising," said Representative Ann Wagner, the NRCC's finance
chairman.
The uncertainty this election year about who will win both parties'
presidential nominations has also helped fundraising for
congressional candidates, she said.
Ryan has defied skeptics who doubted last year that he could match
Boehner on the cash front and still fulfill a pledge to be at home
with his family on weekends.
"I'M NOT THAT PERSON"
In U.S. politics, the ability to fundraise is a key test of
potential for higher office, but Ryan, who ran unsuccessfully for
vice president in 2012, has consistently denied he is interested in
entering the 2016 White House race.
"Get my name out of it ... I'm not that person," Ryan said on
Monday, speaking from Israel, where he is on a congressional visit,
in an interview with talk radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Nonetheless Ryan is the center of speculation that he could emerge
as a compromise nominee if the party's presidential nominating
convention dissolves in chaos in July.
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“I'm not running for president ... End of story,” Ryan said.
Despite his fundraising prowess, there are some signs of trouble
ahead for Ryan. The mere mention of his name produced boos from
supporters of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump at a
recent rally in Ryan's home district. And a Wisconsin conservative
has announced he will challenge Ryan in the Republican congressional
primary election scheduled for August.
On Capitol Hill, Ryan must also preserve a tentative peace he has
achieved among warring Republican factions in the Congress.
The first test will be to get Congress to pass a budget, and Ryan
risks infuriating conservatives if he is forced to compromise with
Democrats to avoid a government shutdown, as critics accused Boehner
of doing.
“The challenge for Ryan is similar to the challenge Boehner faced.
The Republican base, at this point, really doesn’t like its own
leadership," said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University
of Virginia Center for Politics.
"So just being speaker may eventually take a toll on Ryan’s
popularity among Republicans,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh
and Alistair Bell)
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