CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio-Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, a Youngstown area Democrat who  ran a grassroots campaign and highlighted the closing of the Lordstown General Motors plant in his 13th congressional district, and a fighter for the underdog who stood on the picket lines for GM strikers, has suspended his campaign for president, the federal lawmaker since 2003 also one of the first members in Congress to push for impeachment proceedings early on against President Trump.

Youngstown is on the Mahoning River and is some 65 miles southwest of Cleveland and 61 miles northwest of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, both Ohio and Pennsylvania pivotal states for presidential election, the 2020 election less than 13 months away.

"I’m announcing today that I am withdrawing from the Presidential campaign," said Congressman Ryan, who admits his campaign was low on cash "I got into this race in April to really give voice to the forgotten people of our country."

Ryan, 46, thanked his supporters and said he will focus on reelection to his 13th congressional district seat, a rust belt district and one of several congressional districts challenged in a 2018 lawsuit seeking to overturn Ohio's congressional map as an unconstitutional gerrymander, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately deciding it wasn't and that the current map will stay intact until it is redrawn in 2022 by the Ohio General Assembly.

Congressional Democrats, in Ohio namely Ryan, and Reps Marcia Fudge, Joyce Beatty and Marcy Kaptur, say the map drawn by Ohio Republican controlled state legislature in unconstitutional on its face, the 16 Congressional Republicans in Ohio, the majority via its 12-4 Democratic to Republican makeup, disagreeing, and obviously the Supreme Court too, the gerrymandering lawsuit at issue filed by the league of Women Voter and the Ohio ACLU.

He challenged fellow Democrat Nancy Pelosi, now the House Speaker, for her Minority Leader position in 2016, losing by a 2-to-1 margin.

President Trump quickly nitpicked, saying in a  tweet that Ryan polled at zero percent and did not qualify for the last debate held in his home state of Ohio, the qualification criteria a combination of individual donors and standing in national polls.

He had hoped to tap into support from the Midwestern states, battleground Ohio one of them

But his campaign never really took off, some 20 Democrats in the race at the height of the fight for the Democratic nomination and just 12 qualifying for the fourth debate held Oct 15 in suburban Columbus, Ohio.

Nonetheless,  he has still has energy and ambition, and he remains among the younger congress persons at 46, the average age 58.

Ryan has been a congressman since he was 31, and he is fighter for public policy matters that are dear to him.

He stood with workers on the GM picket line, the strike that impacted some 50,000 union members finally coming to a likely close, the Lordstown plant closing not a negotiating factor.

The union contract negotiated in 2015 expired Sept. 14, the month and a half long strike bringing some 33 manufacturing plants and 22 parts distribution warehouses to a halt, the largest strike since the GM strike of 2007.

In late 2018, General Motors announced it would layoff some 14,000 employees and cease production at five North American Plants this year, including some 1,400 workers at the Lordstown, Ohio plant

In joining striking UAW members on the picket line, Ryan told  reporters that he "unequivocally stands in solidarity with UAW workers."

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.