Q&A with 2020 candidate Tim Ryan: Democrats are out of touch with the working class

Interview

President Donald Trump's path to victory in 2016 went straight through the industrial Midwest. Rep. Tim Ryan, who represents Northeast Ohio in the House of Representatives, hopes to win the Democratic presidential nomination by portraying himself as the candidate who could best compete in those battleground states. Ryan, 45, sat down this week with USA TODAY's Editorial Board to discuss his long-shot candidacy and other timely issues. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity:

Q. Why are you running?

A. It's important for Democrats to nominate somebody who understands what the American people are going through day to day. I come from an area where I've lived in the epicenter of deindustrialization, the opioid crisis, the mental health crisis and the infant mortality crisis.

Q. President Trump thinks the strong economy will carry him to reelection.

A. I know that the president wants a campaign on the economy. But I'm going to campaign on the economy because it's not working for the vast majority of the people in the country. Seventy-five percent of the people are still living paycheck to paycheck.

Q. What's your pitch to someone who voted for Trump in 2016?

A. I think you say, look, I understand why you voted for Donald Trump. I get it. You wanted him to come down and blow things up. You know, it kind of looks like he did. Now it's time to put things back together and in a new way for the new economy.

Q. He says the current economy is the envy of the world.

A. Those commercials write themselves. It's going to be an Achilles' heel for him, and we've got to take advantage of it by nominating somebody who can go speak to the working-class people in those areas: white, black, brown, gay, straight, people who, you know, take a shower after work.

Q. How would you help revive the industrial Midwest?

A. Eighty percent of venture capital goes to three states: California, New York and Massachusetts. (We have to get) creative with how we connect venture capital to these ideas that are happening in the Midwest.

Q. Should the House move ahead with impeachment proceedings against Trump?

A: Trump committed crimes. It's pretty clear. Although I'm not sure how it plays out politically, I do think you have a responsibility to act when you think -- and there's ample evidence to show -- that the president has been engaged in criminal conduct.

Q. Is Trump daring you to impeach him?

A. Quite frankly, I think Trump wants this to be the conversation. He likes to be in battle mode. He likes to be in a fight, he likes to be in the news and he likes to keep his base very energized. I think he welcomes it, which is an odd thing. This would be the first time in American history where a president actually thinks an impeachment would be good for him politically. I think it shows how bizarre the times are that we're living in.

Q. Is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doing a disservice by standing in the way of impeachment?

A. My personal opinion is: We need to do it. But she has a job to do, and that means corralling enough votes to impeach.

Q. Why not focus on removing him at the ballot box in 2020?

A. You've got to do it because the president is engaged in criminal activity. So you have to do it. This is not fun. But it has to be done, because if the president was an autoworker in Youngstown, Ohio, he would be charged with these criminal activities. If he was a waitress in New York City, he would be charged or she would be charged. So the ultimate question is: Is the president above the law?

Q. How are you going to fix what you've called a broken education system?

A. We start with the understanding that our kids are coming to our schools traumatized, and until you understand that then we're not going to see movement. And so we need trauma-based care. We need mental health counselors in every school that needs one. We need social and emotional learning in our in our schools. I think we also need to get good food in the schools. We can't be feeding our kids Pop-Tarts and chocolate milk. A lot of these kids end up being diabetics.

Q. Your district and state have been hard hit by the opioid epidemic. How would you grade the Trump administration's response?

A. C-minus. There's been a lack of investment into the prevention side and into the treatment side. So that's something that is lacking.

Q. What would you do differently?

A. Most Medicaid systems will cover 30 days (of treatment). What we've seen in Ohio is that 30 days isn't nearly long enough for someone to get treatment for drugs as potent as heroin or opiates or fentanyl or carfentanil. So I think part of what we need to do is say OK, we need to move this to 90 days or maybe even 120 days.

Q. As somebody who used to be pro-life, do you think that taxpayers should be funding abortions?

A. It's a constitutional right, and I think if it's a constitutional right it should be available to everybody even if you're on the Medicaid program. I do.

Q. Turning to foreign policy, are you worried about rising tensions with Iran?

A: We're watching this thing spin out of control. This is because the president has recklessly got us out of the nuclear deal. We watched Sen. (John) Kerry and President (Barack) Obama go through very tedious negotiations with our European allies and Russia to get that deal done. And now all of a sudden we're getting more and more pulled into what's happening in the Persian Gulf. And so you've got to be engaged, and you've got to make friends, and I think it starts with getting back into the Iran deal and being engaged in the Middle East. It's obviously a mess.

Q: Does the Democratic Party have a problem with working-class voters?

A. We have a perception problem with the party. We are perceived as being a coastal elite, Ivy League party that does not connect to working-class people. The waitress, the teacher, the construction worker, we've lost our connection to them.

Q. What do you hope to accomplish at the first Democratic debate?

A. My debate strategy is to make sure those people know that if they nominate Tim Ryan, those people come back into the fold and we can win the industrial Midwest, we can send Trump packing, and then we can also make a good run in the Senate.

Q. Realistically, can you break out of the pack?

A. I think once people hear my message that there's going to be a breakthrough. I'm not here on an ego trip. I'm not here because it's fun. I miss being with my family, I've got three kids and two dogs and a great wife. But I think this is important. And I do, I feel like I can best represent these forgotten people, because it's been going on my whole life. I've literally watched this train wreck my whole life.

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