POLL: 86% of Conservatives Reject Paul Ryan for House Speaker

Ryan Wins in Washington, But Rejected Overwhelmingly by Conservatives Voting in GOP Primaries

Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP’s Speaker-designate, has won majority support of Republicans in Washington (200 votes to Rep. Daniel Webster’s 43 votes).  But outside of the DC Beltway, among grassroots conservatives who’ll vote in upcoming Republican primary elections, the story is quite different.

According to a just released poll of 1,623 conservatives, Rep. Paul Ryan has the support of only 14 percent (222) of conservative activists.  Eighty-six percent (1,401) of respondents said they do not support Ryan.

The online poll was conducted by Revive America, a member of the Liberty Alliance network of conservative web sites, in the week prior to the vote for House Speaker.

On Thursday, when the final vote of approval will occur, Ryan will need the support of a majority of all House members participating in the election to become House Speaker— 218 if all members vote.

But Ryan’s inevitable win is not likely to be the end of the debate.

According to Richard Viguerie, a founding father who helped to launch the modern-era conservative movement, House Republicans voting for Paul Ryan to be House Speaker do so at their own risk.

In Conservative HQ, Viguerie writes, “Establishment Republicans who have rushed headlong to support Paul Ryan for Speaker of the House might want to consider exactly what the environment for their primary election will be, come February, March and April when Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz – who between them now hold about 70% of the Republican primary vote – are knocking on doors and are running millions of dollars of TV against the very policies that Ryan has advocated.”

“It will be a toxic environment for the reelection of any Member of Congress who can be labeled an establishment Republican, and for many who have relatively conservative voting records, but who have failed to fight for conservative principles.”

Viguerie concludes: “The only way we conservatives are going to be able to achieve our goal of governing America according to conservative principles is to first defeat the Republican establishment and replace establishment Republican leaders with principled limited government constitutional conservatives who will actually fight for our agenda.”