In Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has picked a running mate who’s expected to drive enthusiasm among staunch conservatives to cut checks and potentially draw new donors to the presidential race.
While Romney has outraised President Barack Obama in the past three months, there’s little question that adding Ryan will help with conservatives who may not have been giving their all.
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(PHOTOS: Scenes from Romney's VP announcement)
“He’s got real strong ties into the Club for Growth and the National Review-type crowd, but he also has a huge following amongst the low-donor conservative base and I think that is really going to kick in the low dollar donor Internet and mail for Romney,” said Matt Keelen of the Keelen Group, who worked as a D.C.-based consultant on Ryan’s first congressional race.
Romney’s team has already scheduled a 10-stop fundraising tour for August.
The House Budget Chairman status in the Republican party went from House leader to national figure during the health care debate and fight over the future of medicare.
Over the past year, Ryan has gone toe-to-toe with President Barack Obama, trading barbs over Obama’s health care law and his budget plan. A growing recognition among GOP lawmakers that Ryan was the intellectual backbone for the future of the party and ability to spar with Obama drew major conservative backers.
“With energy and vision, Paul Ryan has become an intellectual leader of the Republican Party,” Romney said Saturday.
Over the past week, while the veep stakes intrigue reached new heights, Ryan’s darling status among the intellectual right was on full display.
“If Ryan’s budget is going to be a central part of the debate over the next three months, who better to explain and defend it than Paul Ryan?” wrote William Kristol and Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard.
In addition to Kristol, Ryan is known for speaking regularly with Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot.
Yesterday, in front of the  in Norfolk, Virginia, presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former Massachusetts  Mitt Romney selected Congressman  of Wisconsin as his .
Paul Ryan prepares to deliver his acceptance speech after Mitt Romney's introduction.
After an introduction from Virginia  , who himself had been considered a potential running mate, Romney officially made the announcement. He referred to Ryan as "an intellectual leader of the Republican Party" and initially labeled Ryan as the "next president of the United States" before correcting himself after Ryan reached the podium. 

Ryan, 42, has represented  since 1999 and serves as chairman of the . Last year, he authored the budget proposal, '''', which promotes reductions in federal spending of $6.2 trillion from the Obama plan through a repeal of the , a reformation of , and capping of federal . 

During his acceptance speech, Ryan said that his "record of getting things done in Congress will be a very helpful complement to Governor Romney's executive and private sector success outside of Washington." He added that the campaign "won't duck the tough issues—we will lead" and went after the record of President Barack Obama, arguing that his policies "didn't make things better."

On the announcement, senior Obama staffers explained that Ryan's selection "makes clear that Romney would be a rubber stamp for the congressional GOP" and that the choice provides the Obama campaign with "clear advantages".

According to '''', Romney made the decision on August 1 after returning from his international trip. Four days later, Ryan was secretly flown to , Massachusetts to meet Romney at the home of Beth Myers, who was running the vice presidential search. Ryan was supposed to be announced on Friday in New Hampshire, but he had to return to Wisconsin to attend a memorial for victims of the . 

Thereafter, the campaign decided to make the announcement in Virginia, and so Ryan was once again secretly flown, this time to , North Carolina near Norfolk, where he met with Romney and prepared his acceptance speech.

''NBC News'' first announced the decision, and the Romney campaign announced the news to supporters through a phone application at seven a.m., a couple of hours before the official announcement. 


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