--- title: Paul Ryan: Here's What the GOP 2016 Candidates Had to Say description: Fresh off a contentious debate, some of the 2016 Republican candidates were able to find common ground: supporting Paul Ryan. canonical: https://time.com/4093147/paul-ryan-speaker-2016-candidates/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-29T17:52:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:01:05.953Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's What the GOP 2016 Candidates Had to Say to Paul Ryan og:description: The Wisconsin Republican was elected Speaker of the House on Thursday og:url: https://time.com/4093147/paul-ryan-speaker-2016-candidates/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What the GOP 2016 Candidates Had to Say to Paul Ryan twitter:description: The Wisconsin Republican was elected Speaker of the House on Thursday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Here's What the 2016 GOP Candidates Had to Say to Paul Ryan  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 29, 2015 5:52 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 29, 2015 5:52 PM UTC Fresh off a[ contentious debate](http://time.com/4092423/who-won-and-lost-at-the-debate), some of the 2016 Republican candidates were able to find common ground: supporting Paul Ryan. The Congressman from Wisconsin [was elected Speaker of the House](http://time.com/4092679/paul-ryan-54th-house-speaker/?xid=homepage) Thursday morning after a bruising battle to find a replacement for former Speaker John Boehner, and it wasn’t long before the Republican candidates began tweeting messages of congratulations to him. Here’s what they had to say: > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/659759194262798336) > [](https://twitter.com/JebBush/status/659757043629350913) > [](https://twitter.com/RealBenCarson/status/659766687626084356) > [](https://twitter.com/GrahamBlog/status/659741107174187009) > [](https://twitter.com/JohnKasich/status/659745832896458752) **Read Next:** [_The Four Biggest Challenges for Speaker Ryan_](http://time.com/4083989/paul-ryan-speaker-challenges/?xid=homepage) ### Highlights from the Career of House Speaker John Boehner in Pictures  John Boehner stands with then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich at a news conference in 1997. Scott J. Ferrell—Getty Images  Boehner and George W. Bush during a bill-signing ceremony in Hamilton, Ohio, in 2002. Tim Sloan—AFP/Getty Images  Boehner introduces George W. Bush during a rally in West Chester, Ohio, in 2004. Stephen Jaffe—AFP/Getty Images  Boehner after being elected as House Republican leader on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 2, 2006. Alex Wong—Getty Images  Newly elected as Speaker of the House, Boehner holds a gavel during the opening session of the 112th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 5, 2011. Tim Sloan—AFP/Getty Images  Boehner's desk as Speaker. Tim Davis for TIME  Boehner plays golf with President Obama at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland in 2011. Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images  Boehner walks out of a meeting at the U.S. Capitol ahead of a potential government shutdown, in Washington in April 2011. Andrew Cutraro for TIME  Boehner gestures toward President Obama as Joe Biden applauds during the president's State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 28, 2014. Charles Dharapak—AP  Boehner walks to the House Chamber for a vote on the debt ceiling on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 16, 2013. Alex Wong—Getty Images  Boehner kisses former Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the first session of the 114th Congress in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2015. Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images  Pope Francis waves to crowd from the balcony of the U.S. Capitol building, after his address to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in Washington on Sept. 24, 2015. Evy Mages—Getty Images  Boehner becomes emotional during his last weekly news conference as Speaker on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 27, 2015. Al Drago—CQ Roll Call/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4093147/paul-ryan-speaker-2016-candidates/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4093147/paul-ryan-speaker-2016-candidates/"},"headline":"Here's What the 2016 GOP Candidates Had to Say to Paul Ryan","datePublished":"2015-10-29T17:52:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:05.953Z","description":"The Wisconsin Republican was elected Speaker of the House on Thursday","url":"https://time.com/4093147/paul-ryan-speaker-2016-candidates/","keywords":["Congress","2016 Election topic","Paul Ryan"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4093147/paul-ryan-speaker-2016-candidates/","name":"Here's What the 2016 GOP Candidates Had to Say to Paul Ryan"}}]}] ```