During a wide-ranging luncheon in a hotel ballroom here Thursday, Texas Tribune editor-in-chief Evan Smith asked: “Does Paul Ryan want to be speaker?”

“No, he doesn’t,” Ryan replied. …

“I could’ve decided to go on the elected leadership route years ago,” Ryan said during a luncheon sponsored by local chambers of commerce and the nonprofit news outlet the Texas Tribune. “I’m more of a policy person. I prefer spending my days on policy and my weekends at home with my family. My weekends consist of going to the YMCA for basketball and then one of their neighborhood parishes for basketball these days. I want to keep doing that. … The speaker is expected to fly around the country on weekends as well, helping folks — I’m not going to do that. I’m four days a week in D.C. and three days a week in Janesville — it’s a good mix, I like that mix.”