Meet Regional Director Ryan Byrley
As a Regional Director with Progressive Turnout Project, Ryan Byrley oversees four offices in our competitive battleground districts of VA-07, VA-10, FL-26 and MI-11. Byrley’s interest in politics has grown over time and has since used his passion towards the greater good on numerous campaigns before coming to PTP.
Prior to working in politics, Byrley served his country in the United States Navy for four years. He enlisted at 17 years old because he knew he would want to join as soon as he graduated from high school. Byrley was an aviation mechanic in the Navy and worked on the Dwight D. Eisenhower CVN-69 aircraft carrier for two years before moving on HSC-
22 helicopter squadron.
“Being from southwest Louisiana, there wasn’t a lot of diversity where I’m from,” Byrley said. “Joining the military, I was interacting with folks from Brooklyn and Alabama and people from different regions. It was interesting getting to know people from different backgrounds and being able to cement what would later become my progressive ideals.”
Byrley said he was always outspoken about issues but he didn’t consider himself to be political. He acknowledged that many serving in the Navy alongside him had different beliefs than he did, but he was able to form his own values as time went on.
“When I was out of the Navy that’s when I started taking a more active interest in politics,” Byrley said.
He left the Navy right around the time the recession hit in 2008 and became more aware of issues as they continued to affect himself and his family. Around this same time, Byrley and his wife moved to the south where he continued to see people around him making ignorant comments that didn’t align with his own thinking.
“After the Navy, as the recession hit and I took my wife back home and had to hear some pretty racist stuff from time to time,” Byrley said.”We had recently had a child that’s on the spectrum and getting stuff we needed to take care of her as a special needs child. All of that was sort of an obvious push in this direction.”
As a Regional Director with PTP, Byrley manages numerous offices and directly manages the District Directors in those areas remotely from PTP headquarters in Chicago. He travels to his districts each month to visit with the teams and provide feedback, training and coaching. In addition to these in-person visits, there are calls with district directors on a weekly basis to achieve effective communication between Byrley and all offices in the region.
“I have an open line to all of my folks so they can call and ask me questions because I always prefer for them to ask me questions to make sure things are being done the right way,” Byrley said. “I would say the key to this position is taking all of this chaos and being able to organize it.”
He said that one of the most enjoyable aspects of his job is being able to oversee PTP’s district directors hard work and determination. He enjoys being an avenue for the district directors to have a connection to headquarters and get their direct feedback on the organization.
Byrley’s wife and daughter currently live in Raleigh, North Carolina while he is based out of Chicago and frequently travels for work.
He said that being away from his family is a challenging aspect of the job but is extremely grateful for the time that PTP gives him to spend with them each month. He’s able to go to North Carolina and spend time with his wife and daughter and manages two districts in Virginia close to home.
He said his various campaign jobs prior to coming to PTP have kept him apart from his family for longer periods of time before which is why he is grateful to PTP for allowing him to have time to spend at home in North Carolina.
“It’s tough. Luckily the folks here at PTP have sort of made it a blessing to where I’m working in Virginia so I can go down to North Carolina and visit with my family,” Byrley said. “Without those once a month visits, this job would just be impossible for me.”
Byrley said that his commitment to PTP’s mission and creating a better future for the United States as a whole motivates him to keep going.
“I think progressive politics as so much diverse talent,’ Byrley said. “And I think that we’re the ones that are working really hard to carve out a proper path for America.”
