Ryan says he will return to Congress

BOSTON (AP) — Paul Ryan said Wednesday that he will return to Congress, but will spend some time with his family first.

Ryan was re-elected Tuesday to his House seat from southeastern Wisconsin on the same night he and Mitt Romney came up short in their bid to unseat President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

State law allowed him to run for both offices simultaneously. He would have had to resign from Congress had he won both.

In a written statement released from Boston, Ryan said he was grateful for the chance to be part of a national campaign.

“I am immensely proud of the campaign we ran, and I remain grateful to Gov. Romney for the honor of being his running mate,” he said. “I look forward to spending some time with my family in the coming days and then continuing my responsibilities as chairman of the House Budget Committee and representative of Wisconsin’s First Congressional District.”

Ryan and his family spent the night in Boston after attending what they had hoped would be a victory celebration after the presidential election was decided. They were scheduled to return to their home in Janesville, Wis., later in the day.

Advisers had been weighing whether Ryan would be best served by returning to Congress for an eighth term if he were planning to run for president in 2016.

Even before he was tapped to be Romney’s running mate, the 42-year-old father of three was seen as a rising star within the Republican Party. As chairman of the powerful Budget Committee, Ryan gained national prominence when he drew up an austere budget blueprint that would reshape Medicare and retain tax breaks set to expire at year’s end.

___

Associated Press writer Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee contributed to this report.