CLEVELAND – House Speaker Paul Ryan – a Wisconsin Republican who went to college at Miami University – walked into the Ohio delegation breakfast Wednesday morning and told the delegates something they had yet to hear from any breakfast speaker during this convention.
He told them that they have to go out this fall and vote for Donald Trump for president.
"I'm going to leave you with one thing,'' Ryan said as he wrapped up a brief speech to the delegates and guests. "Voting for anybody but Donald Trump means you are voting for Hillary Clinton."
It was one of the rare occasions this week at any Ohio delegation event where the name of the now-official nominee of the Republican party was spoken.
In fact, Wednesday morning, when speaker after speaker went to the podium to kill time until Ryan arrived, no one mentioned the fact that Trump, on the night before, had officially won the GOP nomination in the roll call of the states.
Matt Borges, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, told the delegates he was proud to have been the one at Quicken Loans Arena Tuesday night to cast all of Ohio's 66 votes for Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Last year, Ryan replaced West Chester's John Boehner as speaker after Boehner resigned, rather than continue to deal with a faction of the GOP House caucus that wanted him out.
Ironically, when Ryan was a freshman at Miami University in 1990, he worked as a campaign volunteer in Boehner's first race for Congress.
Ryan made it clear to the Ohio GOP Wednesday morning that voting for Trump is what they must do.
He compared the primary battle among Trump, Kasich and all the other GOP contenders to the battle for a Big 10 football championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl.
"Whether it's the Wisconsin Badgers or the Ohio State Buckeyes, when there is a Big 10 team going to the Rose Bowl, we all get behind the team,'' Ryan said. "That's what we must do now."
And he left them with a rousing version of the Ohio State Buckeyes chant.
"O-H," Ryan shouted.
The crowd shouted back: "I-O!"
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