SALENA ZITO: The Rise of Tim Ryan, Rust-Belt Democrat.

So far, the Democratic congressman from Ohio’s Mahoning Valley has been to New Hampshire three times and Iowa twice. Why?

“I was invited,” he answers matter-of-factly. “Look, people ask me, ‘What are you doing in Iowa and New Hampshire?’ I say, ‘I got invited.’ I don’t just show up in Iowa. Then, I got invited back. I got invited to New Hampshire. I got invited back to New Hampshire. I got invited back again to New Hampshire,” he said.

Ryan, who was elected in 2002, thinks it’s a good thing. “It tells me something that in a place like Manchester, a guy from Youngstown is seen as someone who is talking about the issues that are important in a state like New Hampshire.”

So, is he running? Ask him after the midterms, he says.

But is there a place for a white male who sides with the working class in today’s Democratic Party? Well, actually, the answer to that is clearly no. But tomorrow’s Democratic Party? That remains to be seen.