NORFOLK, Va. – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has picked Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan to be his running mate, according to a Republican with knowledge of the development. The newly minted GOP ticket will appear together Saturday in Norfolk, Va., at the start of a four-state bus tour to introduce the GOP ticket to the nation.
The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to disclose the decision.
In a statement issued Friday night, Romney’s campaign would say only that the running mate would be revealed at 9 a.m. EDT at the Nauticus Museum. Berthed at the museum is the USS Wisconsin – which offered a hint about Romney’s choice.
In the final hours before Romney’s team issued the statement, all signs seemed to point to Ryan, the seven-term Wisconsin congressman whose nomination could help assuage the conservative base of the party that has been reluctant to fully embrace Romney.
In recent days, conservative pundits have been urging Romney to choose Ryan in large part because of his authorship of a House-backed budget plan that seeks to curb overall entitlement spending and changes Medicaid into a voucher-like system to save costs.
On Thursday, Romney fueled the buzz around Ryan, telling NBC that he wants a vice president with “a vision for the country, that adds something to the political discourse about the direction of the country.”
Several Republicans took that as an indication that Ryan had shot to the top of a shortlist said to include Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Neither of those Republicans had plans to be in Virginia on Saturday.
Romney’s completion of the GOP ticket comes as he tries to repair an image damaged by negative Democratic advertising and shift the trajectory of a campaign that’s seen him lose ground to President Barack Obama. The vice presidential selection will dominate headlines, and Romney’s team has been relentlessly teasing the announcement for weeks.
Ryan, 42, is viewed by some in the Republican Party as a bridge between the buttoned-up GOP establishment and a riled-up tea party movement that has never warmed to Romney.
As the chairman of the House Budget Committee, Ryan could help Romney make the argument that only the GOP ticket knows how to turn around a nation in the midst of a sluggish economic recovery. As talk about Ryan swirled this week, Democrats have been castigating Romney for embracing the Ryan-sponsored budget proposal that critics say is painful to the poor and elderly. It was a sign of the line of attack to come.
The move also now links Romney directly with House Republicans, including no-compromise tea partyers who have pressed for deep spending cuts. Obama has been casting House Republicans as an impediment to progress in the often-gridlocked Washington.
Adding fuel to the speculation, Romney’s son Tagg also joined Ryan at a funeral for victims of the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting with Ryan on Friday, though the younger Romney said he is planning to campaign in New Hampshire over the weekend and is not attending the bus tour. And a plane was tracked Friday on a flight from Boston to Janesville, Wis., where Ryan lives.
The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial on Thursday, praised Ryan as a strong choice for Romney.
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