Paul Ryan on why he didn’t run for president: ‘I just didn’t have it in the gut.’

Chris Moody
·Political Reporter

Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman who faced pressure to run for president, explained Thursday why he he decided not jump in the race this year.

"I just like myself too much, I think," Ryan, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin, said at the Washington Ideas Festival in the nation's capital. "When other people want you to run a lot more badly than you yourself do, don't run. You have to want this so badly to go out and run for it."

"I love being a policy maker. I don't have this burning desire," he continued. "I'm 41, our kids are 6,8, and 9. We like our life. I just didn't have it in the gut."