Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has warned of the negative effect that presumptive GOP 2024 nominee Donald Trump will have on down-ballot Republican candidates.
“I think we’re going to lose more seats than we otherwise would with Trump because there are just too many suburban swing voters that just don’t like him, that therefore vote against Republicans,” Ryan said in an interview with Southern Methodist University’s student-run Daily Campus on Tuesday.
Former GOP hopeful Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the Republican primary race after Super Tuesday, would have been a more unifying presidential candidate, he suggested.
Ryan said he didn’t subscribe to the nationalist populism of Trump, which is where “the bulk” of Republicans are right now, and also called the current GOP a cult of personality tied to Trump rather than based on a set of principles.
Fmr. GOP Speaker Ryan: I think we’re going to lose more seats than we otherwise would have with Trump because there are just too many swing voters that don’t like him, that therefore vote against Republicans pic.twitter.com/WO0rJsnlDv
— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) March 27, 2024
Ryan was a fierce critic of Trump before his surprise 2016 election win over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
As House speaker, Ryan worked with the then-president and passed major tax cuts before announcing his retirement from Congress in 2018 and joining the board of Fox Corp.
Watch the full interview here:
