Republican Congressman Paul Ryan was born on January 29, 1970, in Janesville, Wisconsin. Ryan has been serving as the U.S. representative of Wisconsin's Congressional District 1 since 1999, and became the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee in January 2015. He was the chairman of the House Budget Committee from 2011 to 2015, and is considered a fiscally conservative voice in his party. In the 2012 presidential election, Ryan was the vice-presidential running mate of Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who ultimately lost the election to Democratic President Barack Obama. Ryan was reelected to his Congressional seat in 2014 and the following year he was voted speaker of the House, becoming the youngest to hold the role in nearly 150 years.