Former House Speaker Paul Ryan weighed in on the current struggle for the Republican conference to elect a new speaker of the House following the historic ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
Of the publicly fractured House Republicans, he said the conference is "basically a bifurcated coalition government,” referencing the growing division and significantly differing factions within the party.
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“This is a political-leaning conference right now, not a policy-leaning conference,” he said in an interview with Politico. He explained this resulted because “our party is a populist-leaning party right now, not a policy-leaning party.”
During his time in office, Ryan was known for his conservative budget framework and was particularly focused on the rising national debt. He was known as a fiscal hawk throughout his tenure, and while voting with Republicans on cultural issues, he was less vocal on them. However, cultural issues have increasingly moved to the forefront of the GOP.
Former President Donald Trump, who boasts the support of most Republican voters going into the 2024 primary elections, oversaw the national debt's rise by several trillion without losing significant support. As Trump's prominence in the party remains, attitudes among members have shifted away from intervention and toward isolationism when it comes to foreign policy. Concerns about the debt have subsided to an extent as Trump's plans for immigration and China policies have taken precedence. The issues of transgenderism and LGBT presence in schools have also climbed in importance. The party has subsequently seen shifts in its base, with a larger share of non-college-educated and working-class voters making it up.
Ryan has previously lamented Republicans' focus on "culture war[s]" and urged them to focus on the debt. "I’m worried about a debt crisis. I'm worried about the future of our country and China," he said in June. He additionally claimed that the "anti-woke" movement was having a polarizing effect on the country.
The turn of the GOP toward populism isn't decried solely by Ryan. In fact, presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence has made his fight against the ideology central to his 2024 campaign.
"Will we be the party of conservatism, or will our party follow the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principles?" the Indiana Republican has repeatedly asked on the campaign trail. However, Pence has failed to make much headway with this message, as his poll numbers have fallen in recent months.
Trump's continued influence on the party and its players has coincided with significant conflict developing within the House Republican Conference. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a top Trump ally, is currently struggling to garner enough support to win the speaker's gavel.
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Of the Ohio Republican, Ryan said, "He is the star of the conservative media industrial complex, he is their darling."
But despite his prominence in conservative media, the influences of Trump and populism haven't been able to reach Congress members as effectively as Republican voters on the ground. In turn, Jordan has failed two votes already to become speaker and temporarily put his bid for the gavel on hold, even with the former president's seal of approval.