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House Speaker Paul Ryan is not seeking re-election and will retire from Congress after this year, the Wisconsin Republican announced Wednesday. "You realize something when you take this job," Ryan told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning. "It's a big job with a lot riding on you ... but you also know this is not a job that does not last forever. ... You realize you hold the office for just a small part of our history. So you better make the most of it." He reminded reporters that he took the job "reluctantly" in 2015, when he took...

Speaker Paul D. Ryan announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election in November, ending a brief stint atop the House and signaling the peril that the Republican majority faces in the midterm elections.

Wow. Just wow.

Rumors have been swirling for months on Capitol Hill that Speaker Paul Ryan will either resign his seat or not serve as speaker if he returns to Congress next year. This has set off something of a scramble among top Republicans to position themselves to replace him if the speaker exits the stage. Two top members of Paul Ryan's leadership team, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise, have begun angling for his job in the event the speaker calls it quits after the election. They're closely monitoring the moves of the other and quietly courting Republicans who...

... Walker, who is up for re-election to a third term next fall, tweeted that the results were another sign that the GOP is in trouble. "Tonight's results show we are at risk of a #BlueWave in WI. The Far Left is driven by anger & hatred -- we must counter it with optimism & organization. Let's share our positive story with voters & win in November," he tweeted. In another tweet, Walker added, "Big government special interests flooded Wisconsin with distorted facts & misinformation. Next, they'll target me and work to undo our bold reforms. We need to keep...

Besides losing one in Wisconsin, what are the other 4 seats did we win last night? I know libs are going gaga over this but 4 out 5 does not look like blue wave so far to me.

“Who cares about a state election in Wisconsin?” you ask. Ah, well, Scott Walker does. He’s running for a third term as governor this year and the current he’s rowing against is getting stronger. A lot of data nerds, eyeing the trend in last night’s results in special elections in Wisconsin and elsewhere, care. And if something doesn’t happen to stop the Democrats’ momentum, we’re all going to care in November.Romney lost Wisconsin in 2012 but took Wisconsin’s 10th Senate District from Obama. Trump won the state narrowly in 2016 but crushed Hillary in the 10th. The last Republican...

A Wisconsin Democrat won a State Senate seat on Tuesday night that had been held by a Republican for 17 years, setting off a flurry of political predictions across a state that President Trump won. Republicans warned that it was a “wake up” call for their party as elections loom in the fall, while Democrats cheered the upset victory as a sign of hope that Wisconsin was back in contention. In the state’s first special election of 2018, Patty Schachtner, a Democrat and the St. Croix County medical examiner, beat Representative Adam Jarchow, a Republican member of the State Assembly,...

WASHINGTON ― Wisconsin Democrats scored a major upset victory Tuesday when they won a state Senate race in a district that Donald Trump easily carried in the 2016 presidential election. Top Wisconsin Republicans ― including House Speaker Paul Ryan ― acknowledged it was a blow to their party, and it could mean bad news for the GOP in the 2018 midterm elections. “I know this district fairly well. It’s not my district. It’s over in western Wisconsin. But typically, we’ve held this seat. And we lost this seat last night,” Ryan told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. “So yeah, I...

Wisconsin Democrats on Tuesday flipped a state Senate seat in a GOP-leaning district, prompting excitement among local party official Patty Schachtner (D) defeated state Rep. Adam Jarchow (R) in a special election to replace a senator who left for a job in Gov. Scott Walker's (R) administration, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Schachtner, the chief medical examiner in Wisconsin's St. Croix County, won in the state's 10th Senate district, which voted heavily for President Trump and Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the past two presidential elections. Despite Schachtner's win, Democrats remain in the minority in the state senate, according to...

MILWAUKEE — State firefighters union leader Mahlon Mitchell joined into a crowded Democratic field for Wisconsin governor on Monday, November 13th. In a kickoff event at Milwaukee Area Technical College's downtown campus, Mitchell criticized Gov. Scott Walker for seeking a third term totaling 12 years in office.

Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon has cut ties with Paul Nehlen, the far-right activist who is challenging Paul Ryan for his congressional seat and who has received extremely favorable coverage from Breitbart in the past. "Nehlen is dead to us," said Arthur Schwartz, an adviser of Bannon's who is familiar with the former White House chief strategist's thinking. Nehlen, who became a lightning rod for his anti-immigrant views, has escalated his rhetoric in recent days with a number of incendiary tweets. In one tweet, Nehlen proudly revealed that he is reading "The Culture of Critique," a book about Jewish culture...

A progressive, mustachioed Bernie Sanders supporter has shot to fame after announcing a challenge to Republican house speaker Paul Ryan. Democrat Randy Bryce, who goes by @IronStache on Twitter, is an ironworker, union organiser and veteran who launched his bid for Wisconsin’s first congressional district on Monday. Since then, his evocative campaign advert, which shows a denim- and boot-clad Bryce discussing healthcare with his mother and engaging in various forms of metalwork, has been watched more than 330,000 times, and the 52-year-old has attracted a level of internet acclaim rarely seen among political candidates. “I knew that we would have...

Paul Nehlen, a Republican businessman from Wisconsin’s first congressional district, has just launched his 2018 congressional campaign against the anti-Donald Trump House Speaker Paul Ryan. This is the second time Nehlen is challenging Ryan, after coming up short in the 2016 GOP primary in Wisconsin’s first congressional district. "Speaker Ryan didn’t help Mr. Trump defeat Hillary Clinton, and even pledged not to defend the president,” Nehlen said in his announcement. “But I have a message for Speaker Ryan: The American people are not done fighting for President Trump’s good agenda. That’s why I am announcing my second challenge to Paul...

National and state Republicans think 2018 is the year they will essentially wipe Democrats out of Wisconsin. After their historic 2016 wins, Sen. Tammy Baldwin is the last Democrat left holding statewide office in the Dairy State and the drive to drum her out of office is already pushing highway speeds. Recent history is on Republicans' side: in 2016, Trump became the first Republican to win Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan in 1984; and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson — whose 2010 victory was considered a fluke — beat former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold for the second time. After Republican Gov. Scott...