Tim Ryan

Timothy John Ryan (born July 16, 1973) is an American politician who served as a U.S. representative for Ohio from 2003 to 2023.

Ryan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Bowling Green in 1995 and was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity.

After college, he joined the staff of Ohio Congressman Jim Traficant.

In 2000, Ryan earned a Juris Doctor degree from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire.

From 2000 to 2002 he served half a term in the Ohio State Senate.

As the result of redistricting following the 2000 census, the 17th, which had long been based in Youngstown, had been pushed west and included much of Portage County and part of Akron.

The 14th had been eliminated in 2000; most of it was drawn into the 13th district of fellow Democrat Sherrod Brown, but Sawyer's home was drawn into the 17th.

Ryan was initially seen as an underdog in a six-way Democratic primary that included Sawyer.

He served in the Ohio Senate from 2001 to 2002 before winning the election to succeed Traficant.

After Jim Traficant was convicted on criminal charges in 2002, Ryan declared his candidacy for the 17th district.

In the 2002 Democratic primary, Ryan defeated Sawyer, who was seen as insufficiently labor-friendly in the newly drawn district.

In the November 2002 general election, he faced Republican Insurance Commissioner Ann Womer Benjamin as well as Traficant, who ran as an independent from his prison cell.

Ryan won with 51% of the vote to Benjamin's 37%.

When he took office in January 2003, he was the youngest Democrat in the House, at 29 years of age.

In his first year in office in 2003, Ryan was one of seven members of Congress to vote against the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act, and one of eight to oppose ratification of the Federal Trade Commission's establishment of a National Do Not Call Registry.

In 2010, he was held to 53% of the vote; Traficant, running as an independent, took 16%.

In 2010, Ryan voted for the Stupak Amendment restricting federal funding for abortions, but in January 2015, he announced that having "gained a deeper understanding of the complexities and emotions that accompany the difficult decisions [about whether to end a pregnancy]" over his time in public office, he had reversed his position on abortion and now identified as pro-choice.

In 2010, Ryan introduced the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act, which sought punitive trade tariffs on countries, notably China, that were engaging in currency manipulation.

It passed the House overwhelmingly but never made it to the floor in the Senate.

In an October 2010 interview with conservative magazine Human Events, Ryan said tax increases on small businesses were necessary "because we have huge deficits. We gotta shore up Social Security. We gotta shrink our deficits."

Since redistricting in 2012, he has served five terms as the U.S. representative for the 13th district.

A member of the Democratic Party, he represented OH's 13th congressional district from 2013 to 2023, having previously represented OH's 17th congressional district from 2003 to 2013.

Ryan's district included a large swath of northeastern Ohio, from Youngstown to Akron.

He was the Democratic nominee in the 2022 United States Senate election in Ohio.

Born in Niles, Ohio, Ryan worked as an aide to U.S. Representative Jim Traficant after studying political science at Bowling Green State University, and earned a Juris Doctor from the University of New Hampshire School of Law.

Before the redistricting, all of Akron had been part of the 14th district, represented by eight-term Democrat Tom Sawyer.

In November 2016, Ryan launched an unsuccessful challenge to unseat Nancy Pelosi as party leader of the House Democrats.

Ryan initiated a bid to replace Pelosi as House Minority Leader on November 17, 2016, prompted by colleagues after the 2016 presidential election.

After Pelosi agreed to give more leadership opportunities to junior members, she defeated Ryan by a vote of 134–63 on November 30.

Ryan supported the Iran nuclear deal to prevent Iran from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

In April 2016, he tweeted, "I was in Jerusalem a few weeks ago & saw firsthand the dangerous threat Israelis face. Israel has the right to defend itself from terror."

He was reelected to represent the 17th district five times, only once facing a contest nearly as close as his first.

He was also a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination before ending his campaign in 2019 to run for reelection to the House.

Ryan was reelected to his tenth term in 2020.

In 2021, Ryan announced his candidacy for Ohio's Senate seat and won the Democratic nomination with 70% of the vote.

He lost to Republican nominee J. D. Vance in the November 8, 2022, general election.

Ryan was born in Niles, Ohio, the son of Rochelle Maria (Rizzi) and Allen Leroy Ryan; he is of Irish and Italian ancestry.

Ryan's parents divorced when he was seven years old, and Ryan was raised by his mother.

Ryan graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, where he played football as a quarterback and coached junior high basketball.

He was recruited to play football at Youngstown State University, but a knee injury ended his playing career and he transferred to Bowling Green State University.