OH-SEN: Democrat Tim Ryan open to 2026 election run

Although he’s remained involved on the periphery of Democratic politics since losing a 2022 bid for the U.S. Senate, Tim Ryan publicly had ruled out running for office again in 2026.

He’s re-evaluating that position following last week’s election.

“I said I wasn’t,” Ryan said in an interview on Tuesday. “People have been calling me and saying, ‘Keep your options open.’ So I’m keeping my options open right now.”

The former Youngstown-area congressman gained currency among national Democrats when he ran for U.S. Senate two years ago against Republican JD Vance, who won and is now the vice president-elect. Ryan lost by 7 percentage points, not an especially close result. But thanks to energetic campaigning and his big “Ohio guy” energy – think Ohio State sweatshirts and football tossing – Ryan managed to raise tens of millions of dollars and get widespread media attention in a race that wasn’t expected to be competitive. A grandiose headline in the New York Times sums up the national perception of the race ahead of that year’s election: “Tim Ryan is Winning the War for the Soul of the Democratic Party.”


https://signalcleveland.org/democrat-tim-ryan-open-to-2026-election-run/