BOCA RATON, Fla., March 16 (UPI) — Former House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday he would support his successor, Rep. Paul Ryan, if the Republican presidential nomination remains unresolved headed into the party’s convention.
Boehner said if none of the three remaining GOP candidates for president can win the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination, none of them deserve to be the nominee. At that point, Boehner said, he would support the party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, Ryan.
“If we get to the convention and we don’t have a nominee that can win on the first ballot, I’m for none of the above,” Boehner said Wednesday in remarks to the Futures Industry Association conference in Boca Raton, Fla.
“They all ran, they all had a chance to win, none of them won, so I’m for none of the above. I’m for Paul Ryan to be our nominee.”
“Anybody can be nominated” at the convention, he added.
If the primary process does not provide enough delegates for a candidate to win on the first nominating ballot at July’s GOP convention in Cleveland, delegates are free to vote for anyone — whether they were a candidate before or not — in subsequent rounds of balloting until one candidate arrives at the magic number of 1,237.
While remaining candidates Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich slowly increase their delegate count in primaries, it is possible none may reach the threshold to assure the nomination on the first ballot.
Ryan, who as speaker is third in line for the presidency, did not rule out the possibility of accepting the nomination.
“People say, ‘What about the contested convention?’ I say, well, there are a lot of people running for president. We’ll see. Who knows,” Ryan told CNBC on Tuesday.
“I actually think you should run for president if you’re going to be president, if you want to be president. I’m not running for president. I made that decision, consciously, not to,” Ryan said in the interview.
