A little bit about the author of this article: Dan is a writer and freelance journalist living in Chicago with his husband and cat, Ryan denounced the efforts of some of his former Republican colleagues to overturn Biden’s win. “Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic,” he said in a statement, according to USA Today. “It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans,” he said. “The fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy.” Ryan lectured at Notre Dame during the 2019–2020 academic year. In April 2019 — a year after Ryan announced that he wouldn’t run for re-election to Congress — Notre Dame announced that he would be a guest lecturer for political science and economics during the 2019–2020 school year. “As an Irish Catholic from the Midwest, the University of Notre Dame has always held a special place in my heart,” Ryan said in a statement at the time, per CNN. “As much as I hope to impart as a lecturer, I know that I will learn a tremendous amount from Notre Dame’s remarkable students as we discuss the big challenges before our nation and collaborate on how best to address them.” Ryan’s work with the university continued into the following school year. Notre Dame hosted him for a lecture on the intersection of economics and public policy in October 2020. Ryan founded the American Idea Foundation in 2019. In October 2019, Ryan launched the nonprofit American Idea Foundation in his hometown of Janesville, Wis., with the aim to focus on issues of economic prosperity. “The Foundation works at the intersection of grassroots, community-driven efforts to expand opportunity and national policymakers who can implement change,” the organization explains on its website. “The Foundation takes an evidence-based approach to identifying real-world initiatives that are achieving results, arming policymakers with the information they need to improve the efforts of the federal government, and linking practitioners with elected officials to replicate those success stories in other communities in need.” Ryan is on Fox Corporation's board of directors. Since March 2019, Ryan has served on Fox Corporation's board of directors. The company includes the assets that The Walt Disney Company didn't acquire when Disney bought out 21st Century Fox that year, including Fox Broadcasting Company, For News, Fox Sports, and Fox television stations.