1) Ryan’s district is very safe. It’s his as long as he wants it, ensuring continuity as Speaker.
2) Ryan is Catholic, which seems to be a prerequisite for House Speakers. Only exceptions in decades have been TX Dem Jim Wright’s two yrs. as Speaker before his book scam brought him down and Denny Hastert’s last minute insertion for the Catholic Bob Livingston (LA) after Larry Flynt’s offer of $1M for dirt on any Republican outed him as an adulterer. Before that, Livingston was running for Speaker unopposed.
2) Ryan is Catholic, which seems to be a prerequisite for House Speakers.
The district is not particularly safe—Cook rates the district as R+3, and there are only 218 districts that are rated R+2 or worse (24 R +1 or R +2, 9 even, and 185 as Dem leaning). It has been Repbulican held since 1995, but has gone back and forth over the years.
Catholic and Jewish thinkers tend to fall into certain predictable molds—both good and bad—while agnostics, and with an increasing tendency Protestants—tend to be more all over the map. That is my theory behind the Supreme Court makeup, and it may to a lesser extent apply to House members, and particularly leaders, as well.
I tend to think that while there were many people who wanted the job, a good number didn’t think they could hold things together—in many cases even as far as securing the position initially, and some of the others didn’t think that they would be able to do the job. Ryan is a Catholic with some conservative leanings/dressing, but who has adopted a “pragmatic” enough approach that there is a decent size spectrum that is comfortable with him, even though probably no one (including Ryan) is completely happy with him.
Politics as the art of the possible/compromise (or the compromised).