House Speaker Paul Ryan has recently briefed Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich on House Republicans’ ambitions this year via phone, according to his office.
Ryan explained House plans to “present a bold conservative policy agenda this year,” according to Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong.
On Wednesday, Kasich told a town hall audience in Palantine, Illinois, that he had spoken with the House speaker earlier in the day. The Ohio governor didn’t discuss details about the call but said the two discussed health care.
Ryan is also planning to chat soon with Marco Rubio, Strong said.
The new speaker has looked to offer a policy program that the GOP presidential ticket can embrace once one a nominee has been chosen.
Yet Ryan, the party’s vice presidential nominee in 2012, has tried to remain out of the presidential race, declining to endorse any candidate. He regularly cites his role as speaker as the chair of the party’s convention in July as the reason he won’t engage in the 2016 race. Instead, he has sought to unite House Republicans since taking over as speaker from John Boehner last year.
Ryan has made a few exceptions, such as criticizing Trump for not immediately disavowing the Ku Klux Klan in a recent CNN inteview and strongly rebuking a signature Trump policy proposal to temporarily suspend entry of Muslims to the United States.
The Trump and Cruz campaigns on Tuesday did not respond to requests from CNN to comment.
