YOUNGSTOWN - Days after announcing his candidacy for president on ABC's The View, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio held a kickoff rally on Saturday, emphasizing his aim to bring together “a divided country.”
“I'm Tim Ryan and I'm running for president of the United States of America,” he said to start the event, eliciting cheers from the crowd.
Ryan stressed throughout his speech in Youngstown, Ohio, that the U.S. had become split and claimed that there were some politicians who've sought “to divide us” and “want to put us in one box or the other.”
“I'm tired of having to choose,” he said. “I want us to come together as a country.”
He also touted himself as “a progressive who knows how to talk to working-class people.”
Ryan gained national prominence in 2016 when he launched an unsuccessful challenge to unseat Nancy Pelosi as Democratic House leader.