Among many Iowa conservatives, there is a prevailing sense that Ryan did himself no long-term favors in the 2012 contest, and there is little palpable excitement over his return to the Hawkeye State. Meanwhile, a host of other prospective 2016 White House GOP hopefuls seemed to be generating more traction there.

“I agree with that assessment that he’s — I don’t know how you would say it politely — but diminished from what he would’ve been a couple years ago,” said Chuck Laudner, a well-connected conservative activist in Iowa. “It just occurs to me that there’s nothing memorable there from his experience running for vice president. People remember Palin’s convention speech, and there are many other examples like that. But I was trying to remember what I could recall from Paul Ryan being on the ticket, and I couldn’t come up with anything.”

Ryan was not always an afterthought in Iowa—far from it, in fact. Whenever his name was floated as a potential presidential aspirant before the 2012 GOP field was set, the famous budget hawk sparked widespread interest among Iowa Republicans as one of the few prospective candidates who might finally fill the void for a strong alternative to Romney…

“If Paul Ryan does run, it won’t be as the conservative darling but instead the establishment figurehead,” said Iowa-based Tea Party activist Ryan Rhodes. “To shake that label, he would need to make some significant changes to his policies.”