(CNN) — Conservative Wisconsin GOP Rep. Paul Ryan isn’t shutting any doors to 2016.
“I’m not closing my options,” the 2012 vice Republican presidential nominee told CNN Chief Washington Correspondent Jake Tapper in an interview appearing on “The Lead” Thursday. “But I’m just not focusing on that right now.”
Ryan brushed off a new national survey showing him leading a wide field of possible Republican White House hopefuls.
“I feel good that some people like me in a poll. That and $3 basically gets me a cup of coffee as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
“Right now, we’ve got things to do in this Congress, in 2014. So we shouldn’t be clouding our judgment as to how this helps us or what we’re going to do two years from now when Americans are hurting today.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who comes in slightly behind Ryan in the Washington Post/ABC News poll, hasn’t denied interest in launching a campaign either.
Bush told a CNN affiliate in Florida Wednesday that he’d make a call on 2016 later this year, and that his decision would be based on whether he could serve “joyfully” as a candidate.
“I wouldn’t do it if I couldn’t do it joyfully,” Ryan said when asked about Bush’s comments.
“I’m a believer in the Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp school of politics — which is inclusive, which is aspirational, appealing to people’s better selves — not so much praying on the emotions of fear, envy and anxiety like a lot people cynically do these days.”
