Congressman Paul Ryan has announced he will run for speaker

District 14 U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Calhoun, said Thursday he will support U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., for speaker of the House of Representatives. "And I am ready and eager to be our speaker", said Ryan.

The current speaker, John Boehner, shocked his colleagues in late September when he announced he was resigning, saying that the constant turmoil inside the House GOP conference over his leadership was not good for the institution.

The approvals from the two House factions came less than 24 hours after the majority of members of the Freedom Caucus, which includes a few of the most conservative House members, said they, too, would support Ryan's bid.

"I'm grateful for the support of a supermajority of the House Freedom Caucus", Ryan said.

"We need to move from being an opposition party to being a proposition party".

Ryan is viewed by many as a unifying force after negotiating a two-year budget deal with Democrats in 2013.

"In a nutshell, this inability to support legal immigration and legality for immigrants is at the heart of the Republican Party's national problem and why they will be shut out of the White House for the foreseeable future", Gutierrez added. Offered multiple opportunity, the Wisconsin congressman demurred - he simply did not want the job. "We were elected to defend the constitution", he said. But since the majority of that caucus now supports Ryan, he has more than the 218 votes needed to become speaker.

As for how Ryan emerged as the unity candidate, Franklin attributes his rise to bringing a "certain pragmatism with his conservatism".

The G-O-P caucus will vote next Wednesday on a new speaker, and Ryan is assured of winning. Ryan said he wanted to scrap the vacate-the-chair motion; the Freedom Caucus said, "Nope"; and Ryan responded, "Well, we'll figure it out later".

In his letter, Ryan signaled to House conservatives, many of whom have raised questions about the way the House is managed, that he would work closely with them to revise internal rules: "We can make the House a more open and inclusive body - one where every member can contribute to the legislative process". A small core of conservative hard-liners, organized as the 40-member House Freedom Caucus, became impossible for Boehner to govern.

Breitbart News pointed out that the American Conservative Union gave Ryan a score of "58" while other representatives being touted fro speaker scored better.

Republicans will vote internally next Wednesday and the full House will vote next Thursday.

If Rep. Paul Ryan is going to have any success as the next House speaker, it will depend a lot on whether factions often at odds within the House GOP can see eye to eye. On Thursday, Ryan won endorsements from both the Republican Study Committee and the Tuesday Group.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, pledged to Florida Rep. Daniel Webster, and Rep. John Ratcliffe said he's holding out for Benghazi committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina.