Election 2020: Tim Ryan runs on Trump message of jobs, free market
Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan announced he’s officially running for president in 2020 during an appearance on ABC’s The View.
On his campaign website, Ryan outlines his decision to run for president and specifically cites the closure of a General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, which is in the congressional district he represents.
“When our local GM factory was shut down last Thanksgiving, I got a call from my daughter who was consoling her friend whose father was an autoworker and was just laid off. My daughter said to me, with tears in her voice, ‘You have to do something,’” Ryan wrote.
“That’s why I am running for president,” he added. “It’s time to do something.”
Ryan is using the Donald Trump playbook of jobs, promising to save manufacturing jobs across America’s Rust Belt and Midwest, focusing on the key swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
Ryan said he was a candidate who could “not only advance a progressive agenda but also win. I can win western Pennsylvania. I can win Ohio. I can win Michigan. I can win Wisconsin, and that means Donald Trump is going back to Mar-a-Lago full time.”
Ryan says Trump’s rhetoric doesn’t match his actions.
Trump “is talking about the old steel mills and the old coal mines,” Ryan said. “I am saying, ‘Where are our kids going to work? And how to we come together — the best of government. The best of the workforce. The best of the free enterprise system. And dominate the electric vehicle market so we are creating jobs.”
He added, “I am against concentration of wealth. I am against inequality. I am against greed. But you can’t be against the free enterprise system.”
“It’s time for us to start building the America we deserve,” Ryan’s presidential website reads. “An America that invests in public education, affordable health care and an economy that works for all of us. An America united by a shared vision for our future.”
“As I travel through Ohio and the country, I’ve been inspired by the solutions that exist,” Ryan’s website reads. “On every issue, from manufacturing, to health care, to schools and education, to taking care of and healing our vets, I find brilliant Americans who are innovating and creating REAL solutions.”