JANESVILLE When Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan to be his vice-presidential running mate in 2012, Janesville vaulted into the national spotlight.
National newspaper and television crews descended on the city of 63,000 people along the Rock River in south-central Wisconsin, to chronicle Ryans rise from 1988 graduate of Craig High School to his election to Congress in 1999 to his appointment as a high-level leader in the Republican Party.
The national media scrambled to explain how the Janesville native could have reached that height.
Representative Paul D. Ryan, a seven-term Wisconsin Republican who first won his seat at age 28, is not just a rising G.O.P. star; he may be the partys most important figure other than Mitt Romney, the New York Times reported.
The chairman of the House Budget Committee, he has become perhaps the most influential policy maker in the Republican Party, its de facto head of economic policy, intent on erasing deficits through a fundamental transformation of the federal government, the article continued, noting that Ryan has been lauded by members of both parties as serious and likable and has been a frequent surrogate for Mr. Romney, joining him often on the campaign trail.
Romney and Ryan lost the 2012 presidential election to Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden, capturing just 206 electoral votes compared to Obama and Bidens 332.
Who knows where Ryan might be now had they won that election?
Ryan chuckles at the thought, and at how far such a campaign was from his upbringing on Garfield Avenue in Janesville.
I went to Marshall (Middle School) and Craig. I never thought of any of this stuff, he said in a phone interview for The 69蹤獲s 19 People for 19 Decades series.
When I ran for Congress, I just wanted to be a policy guy working on economic policy, Ryan recalls.
I wasnt like a climber. Mitt told me later that he picked me because he didnt have to worry about me having a different agenda; that I was just going to be a policy guy focused on government work.
I had the experience that he didnt have, and I would complement his leadership skills.
Speaker of the House
Ryan was a veteran Congressman who had been serving in the U.S. House for 16 years when he became the 54th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2015, because the person in that role abruptly stepped down.
In a theme that Ryan often repeated in the interview with The 69蹤獲, he said the things Im most known for, running for vice president and being Speaker, are things I didnt seek. They came to me.
His predecessor, Speaker of the House John Boehner announced his resignation under pressure from the Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative Republicans.
The Republican Party was divided over what to do next. Congressman Kevin McCarthy of California, who had the support of both Boehner and Ryan, didnt have the majority of House Republican votes he needed for his appointment to move forward.
Boehner then turned to Ryan, who at first rejected the offer. But the Janesville native gained favor from both sides of the aisle and 236 votes in the 435-member chamber. At the age of 45, Ryan became the youngest Speaker of the House since James Gillespie Blaine, of Maine, who was 39 years old when he assumed the Speakership in 1869.
Frankly, it was not a job I was looking for, Ryan said.
I knew enough to know I didnt want that job, he continued. But I did it for two terms, and I did it gladly. It was a meaningful job, but it was not a job I sought.
Its funny. The things Im known for are things I didnt look for.
Grandfather and father were attorneys
Paul Davis Ryan was born on Jan. 29, 1970 to Paul Murray Ryan and Elizabeth Betty Ann. His father was an attorney, and his mother later became an interior decorator.
Ryans great-grandfather, Patrick William Ryan, founded P. W. Ryan and Sons, an earthmoving company in Janesville in 1884, now Ryan Incorporated Central.
Ryan's grandfather, Stanley M. Ryan, was a U.S. attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin.
Ryans first introduction to politics came when he was elected junior class president of the Craig High School Class of 1988. He would go on, his senior year, to serve as a student representative to the Janesville Board of Education.
In the midst of that, at age 16, his life changed dramatically when his father died of a heart attack. That knocked Ryan back several steps. Fortunately, he had people ready to catch him and help him stay on his feet.
One of his fathers best friends, Hank Levihn, a local orthodontist who would die years later at the age of 92 in 2022, was one of those people. So, too, did Bob Agard, a Janesville dentist who would later die at the age 69 in 1992, and James Berger, take over as father figures.
Local banker Ray Lewis, who would later die in 2009, also guided Ryan through that rough stretch of his life.
They took me under their wings, Ryan said. They taught me how to hunt and fish. They filled the void. My dad had friends who took it upon themselves to play a fatherly role in my life. They did a great job of that.
Ryan also credits his uncles Don Ryan and the late Bill Ryan as making a huge impact on my life. And Craig civics teacher Sam Loizzo was a dear friend, he said.
They were mentors and made a big difference in my life, Ryan said. Janesville is a place where people come together when someone has a problem. My family had a problem, and the community came together.
National vs. local issues
In his 20 years as a congressman, Ryan often had to toggle his attention between national interests and the needs of his six-county 1st Congressional District in southern Wisconsin. Ryan said he always made clear the principles that he espoused: balancing the national budget and supply-side economics.
Ryan was a conservative and managed to get re-elected nine times despite being from a community that was dominated by the union-fueled workforce at the Janesville General Motors assembly plant. He never received less than 55% of the vote.
His popularity was the result of his steady personality as he became a national figure. It was not uncommon for Janesville residents to see him out in the community, at local grocery and hardware stores.
Ryan says he never had a problem balancing his love for the people who voted him into Congress with what was right for the nation.
Very rarely do you have a conflict between your district and the nation, he said. It really doesnt work that way.
Among the major Janesville projects Ryan championed were funding for a runway extension at the Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport that benefitted GM, and equipment for the Janesville Fire Department. He secured $1.38 million to develop the Ice Age Trail and in 2012 backed a $3.8 million request to the U.S.Department of Transportation for the 43,000-square foot bus transit center on Black Bridge Road.
Ryan said members of Congress are in a unique position to help people in their home district when they encounter a problem with the federal government.
A veteran didnt get his benefits, or someone needs documents from another country, Ryan said, as typical examples of serving 1st District constituents. Social Security disability. I remember one family that had a destination wedding in Mexico and they didnt have their visas or passports, so we had to scramble to make sure they got those for their wedding.
Those things dont make the news, but they make a big difference in a persons life, he said. I took a lot of pride in that. I really enjoyed that.
Ryan credits the staff he hadmany of whom remain working for his successor, Congressman Bryan Steil, also of Janesville with handling constituents problems. His staff took on a larger role in that capacity when Ryan became Speaker of the House in 2015.
GM
One of the projects Ryan could not complete in his time in Washington was keeping Janesvilles GM plant open. GM closed the assembly plant in April 2009. It had been operating in Janesville since 1919 and was the oldest GM plant in the nation at the time.
Ryan personally contacted GM executives to try to convince them to save or retool the plant, offering GM hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded incentives.
In the end, GM executives rejected those offers.
I tried to get other (companies) to take over the plant, Ryan said. I tried Lockheed-Martin. I tried Oshkosh Truck. No one wanted to buy an 85-year-old factory with soil problems.
Ryan then worked with city officials to map out a recovery plan.
Our theory at the time, which proved to be true, was that we needed to decentralize the economy, Ryan said. We had to bring in medium-sized employers that could grow.
Ryan said SHINE, Prent Corporation and GOEX Corporation are prime examples of companies that have since grown and now collectively fill a local base once overly-dominated by General Motors.
Seneca Foods expanded, Ryan said. We got the Dollar General, distribution center.
Singles and doubles, Ryan said. We knew we werent going to replace this massive employer with another massive employer. We concluded that instead of going for a grand slam, lets just go for a bunch of singles and doubles and make a more durable economy where the citys economy is not dependent on one massive employer.
The latter, as Janesville found out in 2009, can be very volatile and risky, he said.
Today, theres evidence that the plan to diversify the local economy is working.
Ryans sister-in-law, Oakleigh Ryan, has played an outsized role in Janesvilles recovery since the closure of GM, as a past chair and interim CEO of Forward Janesville.
There are just tons of people who have promoted the town and recruited businesses, Paul Ryan said. Now we have a diversified economy that is very durable.
Political departure
Ryan, who has always been a proponent of term limits, left national politics in 2019. His three children were entering high school, and Ryan wanted to be there for them.
I wanted to get out in time to be a real dad, he said. I did not want my children to have an absentee father their entire childhood.
I always knew there was going to be a shelf life to my political career. I didnt want to be in it for 40 years like a lot of people I knew. I did 20, Ryan reflected. I looked at my counterparts, who at the time were Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell who were like 40-year politicians. I just didnt want my life to look like that.
I dont think its good for the country, Ryan continued. I dont think our founders ever intended that.
With the present state of national politics, Ryan has no regrets about bowing out when he did.
When Donald Trump entered the national political scene as president beginning in 2016, he and Ryan butted heads on several issues, which helped make Ryans decision to leave politics even easier.
Its not my style of politics, Ryan said of the current divisiveness that permeates Washington. I believe you have to work with people and be bipartisan. You have to work with people who dont agree with you to make this country work.
Thats the beautiful thing about our country, Ryan said. But its not todays attitude on things.
Continued public service
The now 55-year-old has continued in public service locally with his American Idea Foundation that helps people in poverty. Among his other projects is teaching economics and being on a poverty economics board at the University of Notre Dame, and serving on several board of directors, including SHINE Medical Technologies.
My vocational stuff is my poverty work and my think tank work and teaching, Ryan said. On the business side of things, I am a partner in a private equity fund that Mitt Romney founded 20 years ago that invests in founder-owned businesses to help grow those businesses, which takes me around the country.
He also is a vice chair in Teneo, a global Fortune 500 CEO-consulting firm.
I go with what I call a portfolio approach, Ryan said of his present job status. I dont have one thing.
Im a busy-body person, Ryan continued. My mind is always racing. I just want to set my life to work on the causes I believe in. Where I find it most interesting is helping founders grow their businesses. I find that super interesting.
An absolute gift
Ryan is a workout fanatic. Staying in shape has helped him maintain his busy schedule with no signs of burnout. He doesnt plan to curtail that pace.
Im not the retirement type, Ryan said. That is not how my mind works. I love keeping busy and learning new things.
Ryan and his wife, Janna, live in a house on the Rock River in the town of Janesville from May until November, and then reside in a house in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. Janna is a native of Oklahoma who works as a tax attorney.
We live in Janesville the bulk of the year, Ryan said. Janna is not a fan of our winters.
They married after Ryan was elected to Congress and have three children: Elizabeth "Liza" Anne, 23, Charles Wilson, 21, and Samuel Lowery, 20. Liza graduated from Southern Methodist University and is working in Chicago in sports broadcasting. Charlie is a senior at Harvard University studying applied mathematics. Sam is a junior at Purdue University studying agricultural economics.
Ryan said returning to Janesville on weekends while serving in Washington D.C. helped keep his national stature from changing him, and that continues in the months when he and Janna are living locally.
I have a lot of family in Janesville, and a lot of life-long friends, he said.
He said those friends never asked for favors from their politically powerful friend.
I did give a lot of tours for my friends from Janesville, he said. Thats all they ever asked.
Ryan spends his winters near Washington D.C., but Janesville blood still runs through him.
I represented my town in Congress for 20 years, he said. It was an absolute gift. It was the honor of my life to do it.
