--- title: Paul Ryan Releases Quasi-Campaign Ad description: House Speaker Paul Ryan released a video Friday promoting his unity strategy for the House GOP, but it plays like a campaign ad. canonical: https://time.com/4286802/paul-ryan-confident-america-ad/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-08T16:49:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:22.641Z article:section: Politics og:title: Paul Ryan, Who Isn't Running for President, Releases Quasi-Campaign Ad og:description: Ryan has repeatedly said he won't be the surprise Republican nominee og:url: https://time.com/4286802/paul-ryan-confident-america-ad/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta825e480db10836c/698875d9bc6cfc56653dae5b/paul-ryan1.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan talks to reporters following the weekly House GOP Conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol December 16, 2015 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paul Ryan, Who Isn't Running for President, Releases Quasi-Campaign Ad twitter:description: Ryan has repeatedly said he won't be the surprise Republican nominee twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta825e480db10836c/698875d9bc6cfc56653dae5b/paul-ryan1.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul Ryan, Who Isn't Running for President, Releases Quasi-Campaign Ad > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Apr 8, 2016 4:49 PM UTC  Speaker of the House Paul Ryan talks to reporters following the weekly House GOP Conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol December 16, 2015 in Washington, DC. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan talks to reporters following the weekly House GOP Conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol December 16, 2015 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Apr 8, 2016 4:49 PM UTC House Speaker Paul Ryan released a video Friday promoting his unity strategy for the House GOP. But the clip, which shows Ryan giving a speech to a rapt audience, plays like a campaign ad. The video, titled “Politics These Days,” is part of [Ryan’s agenda for House Republicans](http://www.speaker.gov/confidentamerica), which he is calling “#ConfidentAmerica,” according to the Speaker’s website. > [](https://twitter.com/SpeakerRyan/status/718400263296430081) “What really bothers me the most about politics these days is this notion of identity politics,” Ryan says in the clip. “That we’re going to win an election by dividing people, rather than inspiring people on our common humanity and our common ideals and our common culture on the things that should unify us.” Ryan has [repeatedly](http://time.com/4280619/paul-ryan-republican-nominee/) [dismissed](http://time.com/4263238/paul-ryan-presidential-nomination-contested-convention/) the idea that he will enter the Republican presidential race. He flat out denied Monday [that he would be the “fresh face” that the GOP was looking for](http://time.com/4280619/paul-ryan-republican-nominee/) to take the party’s nomination at a potentially contested convention in July. “I’m not that person. I’d like to think my face is somewhat fresh, but I’m not for this conversation,” Ryan said. “I think you need to run for President if you’re going to be President, and I’m not running for President. So period, end of story.” There are, however, [countless](http://time.com/4276086/rubio-delegates-contested-convention-trump/) [theories](http://time.com/4263238/paul-ryan-presidential-nomination-contested-convention/) about what could happen should a [contested convention](http://time.com/4254994/donald-trump-contested-convention-loyal-delegates/) take place and this quasi-campaign video from Ryan will only add fuel to the fire. On Twitter, [many](https://twitter.com/zthomasack/status/718471026749894656) [users](https://twitter.com/Boush27/status/718400883357282306) speculated that the Speaker may be planning a shadow run at the convention, despite his previous denials. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4286802/paul-ryan-confident-america-ad/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4286802/paul-ryan-confident-america-ad/"},"headline":"Paul Ryan, Who Isn't Running for President, Releases Quasi-Campaign Ad","datePublished":"2016-04-08T16:49:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:22.641Z","description":"Ryan has repeatedly said he won't be the surprise Republican nominee","url":"https://time.com/4286802/paul-ryan-confident-america-ad/","keywords":["2016 Election","republicans","2016 Election","Congress","Paul Ryan"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta825e480db10836c/698875d9bc6cfc56653dae5b/paul-ryan1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta825e480db10836c/698875d9bc6cfc56653dae5b/paul-ryan1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Speaker of the House Paul Ryan talks to reporters following the weekly House GOP Conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol December 16, 2015 in Washington, DC.","caption":"Speaker of the House Paul Ryan talks to reporters following the weekly House GOP Conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol December 16, 2015 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4286802/paul-ryan-confident-america-ad/","name":"Paul Ryan, Who Isn't Running for President, Releases Quasi-Campaign Ad"}}]}] ```