The 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee says encouragement to run has been ‘amazing’ but he feels he is already positioned ‘to make a big difference’

Paul Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee and congressman from Wisconsin, has ruled out a run for the White House in 2016.

“I have decided that I am not going to run for president in 2016,” Ryan said in an interview with NBC News. “It is amazing the amount of encouragement I have gotten from people – from friends and supporters – but I feel like I am in a position to make a big difference where I am and I want to do that,” he said.

Calls to Ryan’s Washington and Wisconsin offices to confirm the news were not picked up – due, a recorded message said, to an overwhelming number of calls.

Ryan, who is beginning his ninth term in the House of Representatives, is his party’s leader in Congress on budget issues. He is the current chairman of the House budget committee and the co-author, with Democrat Patty Murray, of a major 2013 spending deal.

Ryan’s announcement that he would not run followed news that Mitt Romney, the top of the 2012 ticket, had not ruled out a 2016 run, which would be his third.

Ryan said in September of last year that he would not run if Romney does. “I wouldn’t if he were. I would support Mitt. If he were to run, I would not,” Ryan said. “But I don’t even know if I’m going to either myself. That’s something I’m going to decide in 2015.”

In November, Ryan said he did not want to spend his “adult life” in Congress. “I’ve already been there 16 years. I don’t want to be a career guy. Even though I’ve been there a long time, where you could already say that,” Ryan told the National Journal. “It’s just, I don’t want to spend my adult life in Congress.”

Ryan’s national favourability rating is about even. He won re-election in 2014 in Wisconsin’s first district with 63% of the vote.