Advertisement US Rep. Tim Ryan, self-described champion for middle-class workers, drops out of presidential race Ohio Democrat who attended law school in NH says in video his campaign tried to ‘give voice to forgotten people of this country' Share Shares Copy Link Copy

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan ended his longshot bid for president Thursday, saying the seven months he spent pursuing the Democratic nomination succeeded achieved his goal to “give voice to the forgotten people of this country.”Ryan said in a video that rather than continue a run for president, he will run for a tenth term representing his U.S. House District in Ohio, which includes Youngstown and Akron.During his campaign, Ryan presented himself as a champion for middle-class working Americans – those who “take a shower after work,” he often said -- calling for policies that are progressive yet more moderate on several fronts than Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.Ryan also portrayed himself as a candidate who, as the party’s nominee, would appeal to voters in his own state of Ohio as well as Pennsylvania and several Midwestern states won by President Donald Trump in 2016.Ryan came to New Hampshire often in the lead-up to his campaign and after he announced his candidacy in the spring. But those visits tapered off since the summer, spurring speculation that he was about to drop out.Ryan's campaign, in New Hampshire and nationally, simply failed to attract the level of dollars and grassroots support necessary to allow him to become a viable contender. Ryan raised $1.3 million since announcing his candidacy in April, and $425,731 of that total was raised in the third quarter, according to financial information on file with the Federal Election Commission. Polling in the 1 percent or less range, Ryan failed to qualify for recent Democratic National Committee presidential debates.He still has many friends in the Granite State. Some of those friendships began when Ryan attended the Franklin Pierce Law School, which is now the University of New Hampshire School of Law. He is a 2000 graduate of the school.Ryan's most high-profile New Hampshire endorsements were by Manchester aldermen Dan O'Neil, Tim Baines and Bill Barry.In his two minute video released Thursday, Ryan said he entered the race “to give voice to the forgotten people of our country – the workers who have been left behind, the businesses who have been left behind, the people who need health care or getting a quality education or (who are) saddled by tremendous debt.“I wanted to give voice to the forgotten communities that have been left behind by globalization and automation,” Ryan says in the video.He said he succeeded in that effort, “and even though it didn’t work out quite the way we planned, this voice will not be stifled."I will continue to advocate and fight for the working people of this country -- white, black, brown, men, women," Ryan said. "There's people who get up every day, take a shower after work sometimes, that are working really hard. And we're going to continue to fight for making sure that those workers are treated fairly, and that they have access to good health care, that they have a solid pension to retire on."Ryan is the sixth Democrat to drop out of the presisdential nomination race, following New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts.