Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wisconsin). became House speaker at the age of 45 on Oct. 29, 2015, 10 years ago Wednesday. The legislative turnover has been remarkable: Roughly 60 percent of the current House Republican Conference never served with Ryan, who retired in January 2019. Those few House Republicans who served under Ryan and remain in Congress have mostly sworn off their allegiances to that previous era. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) was a freshman lawmaker in spring 2016 when she warmly introduced Ryan as a “happy warrior” . By 2020, Stefanik had reinvented herself as a Trump loyalist who would.