Paul Ryan will seek House speaker post

Republican Representative Paul Ryan officially jumped into the race for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday after nailing down crucial endorsements from conservative and moderate factions.

Ryan earlier this week said he was open to replacing retiring House Speaker John Boehner, but only if he could win the unified backing of his divided party colleagues in the House. By Thursday afternoon he had gathered enough support to make him an overwhelming favorite in the contest.

Republicans are scheduled to nominate a new speaker on Oct. 28, with a vote by the full House on Oct. 29. Outgoing House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday he was hopeful there would be a new speaker next week. They hope to thus end what has been a crippling internal power struggle and return to pressing legislative business.

Awaiting him will be a mess of trouble: a Nov. 3 deadline to raise the federal borrowing limit or face unprecedented default, and a Dec. 11 deadline to act on must-pass spending legislation or court a government shutdown.

Despite initial reluctance, Ryan told colleagues he was excited for the opportunity at hand.

"I know you're willing to work hard and get it done, and I think this moment is ripe for real reform," he wrote. "I believe we are ready to move forward as a one, united team. And I am ready and eager to be our speaker."

In the letter, Ryan said he wanted to make the House more inclusive, and he laid out an ambitious policy agenda: "I know many of you want to show the country how to fix our tax code, how to rebuild our military, how to strengthen the safety net, and how to lift people out of poverty."

"And we can show the country what a commonsense conservative agenda looks like," Ryan said.

Republicans who met Thursday with Ryan, a Wisconsin lawmaker who ran for vice president in 2012, said they expected him to help smooth over party divisions.

"He can heal all these factional differences," said Florida Representative Carlos Curbelo after a meeting between Ryan and Republican moderates in a caucus known as the Tuesday Group.

The Tuesday Group issued a warm endorsement of Ryan, as did the largest group of House conservatives, the Republican Study Committee.

Ryan cleared the biggest challenge to his candidacy on Wednesday, when he gained the support of two-thirds of another Republican faction, the conservative Freedom Caucus that had repeatedly fought with Boehner and opposed his likely successor, Kevin McCarthy, forcing him to withdraw.

While Ryan appeared to have gathered sufficient support to win next week, he has no guarantees, as lawmakers have several days in which to change their minds and he may be on a short lease with the Freedom Caucus.

Coming votes on the debt limit and budget might be cases where Republican leaders would have to rely largely on Democratic votes to achieve their goals, a practice the Freedom Caucus strongly opposes and wants to see Ryan avoid.

"We can support him and we want him to be successful, but we want to make sure also that he understands that this is not about crowning a king," Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho, a Freedom Caucus member, said ahead of Ryan's announcement.

Wire services