The current Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, will not be seeking re-election to the house this year. He will formally leave the office next January, when the successor to the Wisconsin congressman is sworn in. I have gone back and forth on this issue for the past week, and in many ways, I am torn about this revelation. Ryan has been at the forefront for fiscal conservatism and the overhaul of entitlements like Medicare and Social Security. This was a noble and important goal to have, and no lawmaker on the hill had the passion and drive to accomplish this that Paul Ryan did when he first came to Washington nearly two decades ago. Ryan was one of the few in the House, after Speaker John Boehner had retired in 2015, who could be a unifying force for the party establishment and the far right wing, and a strong legislative mind at the helm going into a promising 2016 election with the likes of Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, and Marco Rubio leading the party in public eye.

Enter candidate Donald Trump. Trump took establishment GOP traditions and ideals that Ryan strongly associated with, such as free trade, open borders and amnesty, and strict political correctness and turned it upside down. He forced the party to go in a new, forward thinking direction that would not be plagued by the same problems that the likes of Mitt Romney and John McCain had when vying for the Presidency. He awakened the ‘silent majority’ of voters that had never paid attention to politics due to the elitist and corrupt nature of the system. Trump was a breath of fresh air, an outsider and billionaire who would not be beholden to special interests and establishment Republicans in Congress. We all know how the historic 2016 election ended up.

Yet somehow, Paul Ryan could never truly get on the ‘Trump train.’ He was always worried about the long-term success of the administration’s hard-line agenda, and Trump’s overblown, media fabricated scandals that the public saw right through led Ryan to be timid about embracing Trump to the fullest extent. While he knew that the American people had spoken, and chosen Donald Trump and his agenda to be our President, he could not move with the party away from the establishment ideals and into the new era of strong borders, and fair trade. This ultimately led to his downfall and soon to be departure from the speakership and Congress.

Looking back at Ryan’s list of accomplishments under a completely Republican government (Presidency, House, and Senate), one can see the frustration that conservatives have with our current speaker. From the botched rollout of the first failed Obamacare replacement, to the lack of activity on important Trump agenda items such as the border wall and trade, Paul Ryan has not done his job effectively, and will not be missed by those that support the agenda with which Trump won the presidency. I do sincerely hope as well that the house engages in a bona fide race for speakership, not simply a passing of the gavel to the next in line.