Cathy Myers, a Democrat Vying for Paul Ryan’s House Seat, Says the Speaker Is “Running Scared”

Cathy Myers, a Democrat and former teacher running to take over Paul Ryan’s congressional seat, was at home in Janesville, Wisconsin, on Wednesday morning (she lives about half a mile from Ryan), sipping her coffee and reading the paper, when her phone started “going off.” The news had broken that the Republican Speaker of the House would not be seeking reelection in November in Wisconsin’s First Congressional District, where Ryan has held office for the last 20 years. Ryan said in a press conference that he is stepping down to spend more time with his family; that he doesn’t want to be a “weekend dad” to his three teenage children. But Myers has another theory.

“The reality on the ground is, he was running scared,” Myers told Vogue by phone. “I think that he knew he was going to have a huge battle ahead of him, and that the momentum is on our side. He knew that people felt unserved and that they were tired of it. He’s getting out while the getting is good.”

Myers, a current Janesville School Board member running against fellow Democrat Randy “Iron Stache” Bryce in the Democratic primary, said that Ryan’s departure after his term is up later this year will add to the momentum of Democrats flipping red seats blue in hotly contested races across the country, including Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania and Doug Jones in Alabama: “I think that Democrats really wanted to take this city back for a very long time, and I think this is just going to energize them.”

Moments after Ryan’s announcement in Washington, D.C., Myers was reassessing her own race: If she wins the Democratic nomination, she’ll no longer have to topple the Speaker of the House (and his hefty war chest), but a TBD Republican. (There have been murmurs about self-described “pro-white” Republican Paul Nehlen, who tweeted a photo of Meghan Markle in February that got him banned from Twitter for racism.)

“I suppose a case could be made that it could be easier [to win], but I still think that whether it’s Paul Ryan or someone else, the Republicans will want to do, and will do, whatever they can to keep the seat. We’re going to work just as hard as we were going to work against Paul Ryan,” Myers said. “[My campaign] was only about Paul Ryan to a certain extent. It’s more about changing the direction of this country and countering the chaos and corruption of the Trump administration, in which Paul Ryan was complicit.”

In a final bit of campaign mojo against Ryan, Myers couldn’t resist noting that the Speaker’s claim that “he’s got these great accomplishments to rest his hat on,” says Myers, don’t quite hold up against some critics in their shared hometown: “He was only interested in special interests and large donors and what he could do for them,” she said. “Before 2015, he had only authored two bills that became law, and one of them was naming a post office, so . . . What he got done was giving a huge tax break to billionaires and corporations. He knows he can’t stand on that record.”

Myers said she plans to continue her grassroots campaign, pitching herself to voters as a teacher who will stand up to the likes of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. “I’m still the best candidate to serve the people of this district,” she said, “no matter what Republican I’m up against.”

As for Ryan’s post-congressional future, “I can see him doing the Fox News route,” Myers added. “I’m sure that Paul Ryan is going to land on his feet no matter what. He’ll be just fine. And I certainly hope he enjoys his family time.”