Librarian note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name Paul Davis Ryan Jr. is a retired American politician who served as the 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from October 2015 to January 2019. Ryan was first elected to the House in 1998. He was reelected eight times. He was also the 2012 vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party, running alongside Mitt Romney.