“ You're not even your Mom's favorite Jonah, Jonah. ” – Amy

Jonah Joy Ryan (born June 12, 1982) is an American politician who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 until his impeachment partway through his term. He was the first and only vice president to be impeached.

Ryan grew up in New Hampshire and attended Granite State College. He worked as the White House liaison under President Stuart Hughes and later President Selina Meyer. In 2016, Ryan was chosen to be the party nominee in a special congressional election in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district following the death of Congressman Harry Sherman. Ryan won the election and served in the 115th United States Congress.

During his tenure representing New Hampshire's 2nd district, Ryan was credited with forming a coalition of congresspeople known as the Jeffersons, who were able to torpedo a debt-ceiling bill, resulting in the 2018 government shutdown. He also led efforts to dismantle Daylight Savings Time, efforts which proved to be unsuccessful. In 2018, Ryan was removed from the ballot and replaced with his cousin Ezra Kane.

In January 2019, Ryan announced he was running for the party nomination for president of the United States. His campaign has drawn significant controversy due to Ryan's outspoken language and targeting of what he considers "muslim math". Despite coming in third in the primaries overall, Ryan was selected to be the running mate to Selina Meyer. The Meyer-Ryan ticket would go on to win the election, and Ryan was sworn in as vice president on January 20, 2021.

Partway through Ryan's term as vice president, he was impeached and removed from office. His impeachment gravely injured his public image and ended his career in politics.

Ryan was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, but grew up in New Hampshire. His mother Nancy Ryan raised him as a single mother, and hid the fact that Lloyd Hennick was his true father, calling him only one of his three step-fathers. This was due to the fact that she and Herrick were second cousins, who had temporarily fled to Canada at the time of Ryan's birth due to stigma from their families.

In 2007, Ryan graduated from Granite State College with a degree in computer repair and public service management. In 2013, he joined the Hughes administration as an intern.

Early political career [ edit | edit source ]

In 2013, Ryan worked as the White House liaison between the West Wing and the vice president's office. He was disliked by everyone in Selina Meyer's office, and it was later revealed that everyone in the West Wing hates him too. In September 2013, Hughes came down with a sickness in Africa, leading to a temporary incapacitation. Following this, Ryan began acting respectful towards Meyer, fearing she could soon be his boss.

Ryan continued to ingratiate himself more in the VP's office, including going with Meyer to various events, such as her daughter's 21st birthday party and a North Carolina pig roast. After learning Meyer would be running for president in the 2016 presidential election, Ryan offered to be of use to the campaign.

In 2015, Ryan acted as the author of a political gossip blog known as "West Wing Man", posting menial information from his position in the Hughes administration. At Mike McLintock's wedding, Ryan posted a picture of the vice president's staff discovering that George Maddox would be resigning, arousing suspicions that Maddox would be potentially challenging Meyer in a hypothetical primary. As a result, Kent Davison pushed up Hughes' announcement to that day. Davison also fired Ryan from the West Wing.

Expressing distain towards the White House and the VP's office, Ryan began a news site called Ryantology in July 2015. One of his first stories was Hughes reversing his stance on abortion and Meyer's inability to come up with her own stance. He was invited to go on MSNBC, but was threatened by Dan Egan to not say a word about the VP's office. In October 2015, Ryan was invited to Meyer's campaign launch as a member of the press. Weeks later, with tension between Meyer and Danny Chung building, Egan fooled Ryan into believing that Chung tortured people in Iraq. In the midst of this, Ryan discovered that Clovis wants to buy Ryantology, offering $4-6 million. However, after Chung's stories are discredited, Clovis withdrew their offer. Ryantology was subsequently shut down.

In November 2015, Ryan began working for Maddox, considering challenging Meyer in the primaries. Ryan served as Maddox's bagman. Ryan orchestrated a handshake between Maddox and Meyer that acted as a blunder for Meyer. In December 2015, Ryan was able to unearth the online beliefs of Ray Whelans, a new Meyer staffer. These rumors contributed to Egan suffering a panic attack and losing his position as campaign manager. After Maddox bombed at the primary debate, Ryan began looking for a position with either Chung or Thornhill. However, after Meyer ascended to the presidency on January 24, 2016, Ryan was invited by Egan to return, in exchange for his silent regarding Chung's torture rumors. Ryan is able to use his leverage with Chung's torture rumors to demand a higher position.

Ryan returned to his old job as White House liaison, communicating between President Selina Meyer and Vice President Andrew Doyle. Richard Splett became Ryan's personal assistant in February 2016. During this time, Ryan was sexually harassed by Doyle's Chief of Staff Teddy Sykes. Sykes was fired at the 2016 National Convention. After Sykes' abuse was revealed during an October 2016 congressional hearing, Ryan used his position to advocate for male sexual assault victims.

Ryan would keep a close relationship working for VP Doyle. After Doyle announced he would be leaving the ticket in July 2016, Ryan and Splett tried to ingratiate themselves with Tom James. In October 2016, White House Chief of Staff Ben Cafferty sent Ryan and Splett to lobby in favor of the Families First Bill, knowing their incompetence would encourage congresspeople to vote against it. Ryan and Splett testified before congress once the actions of Meyer's administration were suspected by Congressman Moyes.

On November 8, 2016, the election ended in an electoral tie. With his vast knowledge in the field of recounts, Meyer appointed Splett to be Meyer's Nevada recount specialist, with Ryan working for Splett. Ryan hired Cliff to act as his personal assistant in order to have someone to command around. Ryan and Splett led a "count the votes" protest as the recount deadline approached. However, after Bill O'Brien took the lead in the state, they unknowingly continued protesting when Meyer wanted them to stop demanding the vote be counted.

2016 congressional campaign [ edit | edit source ]

On November 24, 2016, Congressman Harry Sherman died from salmonella poisoning. New Hampshire officials announced that a special election would be held on December 21. Sherman was an avid O'Brien supporter. Meyer's team believed that flipping the seat could give them an edge in the congressional vote to decide the presidency. New Hampshire kingmaker Jeff Kane contacted Ryan to run and occupy the seat until war hero Ezra Kane returns from the middle east.

Ryan's congressional campaign was marked with repeated setbacks, including his abrasive interactions with the public, which were often videotaped and sent to the media. Ryan hit on a winning strategy of insulting President Meyer. This tactic leads to an increase in popularity.

On December 19, while going hunting during a campaign event, Ryan shot himself in the foot. In response, his opponent Judy Sherman made a patronizing comment about how unsafe guns can be. This comment resulted in the NRA launching a series of last minute attack ads against Sherman, enabling Ryan to win the election and take his place in the 115th United States Congress. During his victory speech, Ryan congratulated himself and claimed nobody took him seriously.

U.S. House of Representatives (2017–2019) [ edit | edit source ]

On January 2, 2017, Jonah Ryan was sworn in as U.S. Representative from New Hampshire's second congressional district in the 115th United States Congress.

The morning of the congressional vote for the presidency on January 3, Ryan woke up late, in the home of a high school student after having a one-night stand. Though he is ultimately able to get to Congress and vote for Meyer to become president, by that time her plan had changed and she wanted him to vote for O'Brien.

In what was deemed to be a mistake by Roger Furlong, Ryan hired a staff of male interns that are much more attractive than he is. Instead of acting professional in his position of power, Ryan acted like one of the "bros". After a game of office basketball led to an intense pain in his crotch, Ryan was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He later underwent six weeks of chemotherapy and had one of his cancerous testicles removed.

On January 3, 2018, Ryan spoke out in opposition to the "Healthy School Lunch Act", believing kids should be able to eat unhealthy junk food if they want.

Ryan found himself at odds with Minority Leader Furlong regarding a vacant position on the Ways and Means committee. Furlong insisted that Ryan stay on the Ethics committee along with other less respected congresspeople. According to Ryan's two advisers Ben Cafferty and Kent Davison, Furlong hosts weekend dinners but only for married couples.

In March 2018, after being impressed with Ryan's remarks concerning daylight savings, private prison magnate Sherman Tanz decided to invest $5 million into Ryan, providing him with a quality staff who aided Ryan in writing legislation. In June 2018, Ryan became engaged to Shawnee Tanz, daughter of Sherman Tanz. Ryan was able to ingratiate himself at Furlong's weekend paella dinners, maneuvering himself to get a better office.

In June 2018, Ryan formed an alliance with several congresspeople, branding themselves as 'the Jeffersons'. After discovering he was not invited to Meyer's portrait unveiling at the White House, he and the Jeffersons voted against a bill to raise the debt ceiling, leading to a government shutdown. The shutdown lasted for 25 days, and ultimately hurt Ryan in the polls. The Jeffersons disbanded in August 2018 with the formation of Clarence Clark's "Libertonians", a group Ryan was not invited to join.

Ryan's role in the government shutdown became largely unpopular with the people of New Hampshire. While preparing for an uphill re-election battle in the 2018 midterms against Di Vicentis, Ryan discovered from his uncle Jeff Kane that he is being replaced on the ballot with Ezra. After discovering that Ryan is a lame duck, Shawnee Tanz called off their engagement.

2020 presidential campaign [ edit | edit source ]

See also: Jonah Ryan 2020 presidential campaign

On January 3, 2019, Ryan was succeeded in the House of Representatives by his cousin Ezra Kane.

In a desperate attempt to secure his place in politics, Ryan met with Sherman Tanz, who told him that despite his fondness for Ryan he is now only buying Senators and presidents to create "reasonable change". This spurred Ryan to announce his candidacy for president in the 2020 presidential election at a campaign rally in New Hampshire. Members of his campaign team included Teddy Sykes and Bill Ericsson, with Tanz acting as a major investor.

Sometime after the campaign announcement, his grandfather passed away, where he met his former stepsister and (unbeknownst to him) half-sister Beth Hennick. The two would reconnect and get married months later.

Ryan's presidential campaign was marked by repeated blunders. In March 2019, at a campaign event in New Hampshire, Ryan introduced Beth. It would later be revealed that they were step-siblings. Ryan attempted to use a CBS interview with Jane McCabe to clarify their relationship. However, after Beth's father Lloyd Hennick appeared, they quarreled on camera. In April 2019, Ryan was involved in the "#NotMe" scandal after he claimed to at one point be in a sexual relationship with several women he had minimal engagement with. In May 2019, Ryan used the word "retard" multiple times to a reporter. Sykes urged him to undergo PR training, which went so poorly that the arrangement ended in a lawsuit from the PR coaches.

Due to his inability to reach the 5% threshold in the polls, Ryan attended the undercard primary debate on May 18, 2019. At the debate, Ryan faced off against Clarence Clark and Lord Wolfsbane, among others. During the debate, Ryan drew widespread condemnation after photographs caught him with slurs written on his hands--slurs he wrote down so he "wouldn't say them". The day after the debate, Meyer aide Amy Brookheimer joined the Ryan campaign as campaign manager.

On February 18, 2020, Ryan came in sixth place in the New Hampshire primary, raking in 3% of the vote. With his campaign ailing, Ryan discovered that Tanz all along had no confidence in Ryan's ability to win the nomination and had just been using his candidacy to court delegates to make changes to the party platform at the convention. During a campaign spot in South Carolina, Ryan used his platform to attack Muslims for inventing math. Seeing the situation as unsalvageable, both Sykes and Ericsson left the campaign, as Brookheimer sensed a possible path to the nomination by pandering to racists and xenophobes. Ryan came in third place in the South Carolina primary on February 23.

During Ryan's campaign in Florida, Ryan would escalate attacks on Selina Meyer, demanding that she release her birth certificate to reveal her real age. During this, Ryan would release his own birth certificate, revealing that Lloyd Hennick, his wife's father, is his own father too. Ryan won the Florida primary on March 3. During his campaign in Pennsylvania, Ryan contracted measles and accidentally killed his own father.

At the 2020 National Convention, Ryan's candidacy was given more legitimacy after a bombing suspect was revealed to be an algebra teacher--something Ryan was vehemently opposed to (math). He was selected to be Selina Meyer's running mate on the eleventh ballot of the final night of the convention. Both were officially nominated by the convention on the eleventh ballot on July 26, 2020.

The Meyer-Ryan ticket won the general election against Laura Montez on November 3, 2020.

Vice presidency [ edit | edit source ]

Jonah Ryan's tenure as vice president began on January 20, 2021. In his first few days as vice president, Meyer gave Ryan the treatment Hughes gave her by preventing his access to the oval office and setting him up with an office in the Eisenhower Building. Because they quarreled at the convention months earlier, Meyer assigned Amy Brookheimer to work as Ryan's Chief of Staff.

See also: Impeachment of Jonah Ryan

Sometime during his vice presidency, Ryan was impeached and either was removed or resigned from office. Actor Timothy Simons said he had no idea what Ryan would have been impeached for, but that Meyer probably would have been actively encouraging his impeachment behind closed doors.[1]

According to a Vulture article written by showrunner David Mandel tying in with COVID-19 pandemic, Ryan was presented with a tip about the stocks regarding the airline industry and bought securities. It turned out that Ryan misread the tip and went personally bankrupt. This may have been a factor leading to his impeachment.[2]

In the decades following his impeachment, Ryan would continue to be married to Beth and live in his mother's house in New Hampshire. In 2045, Ryan was not among those invited to attend the funeral of Selina Meyer, officially due to his fractured public image following his impeachment.