Photos: Paul Ryan's Path to the Speaker's Office

The newly elected speaker will be one of the youngest to lead the House.

At 45 years old, Rep. Paul Ryan will be one of the youngest speakers of the House in history. Ideologically, he stands to be the most conservative speaker the chamber has seen yet. During his political career so far, Ryan has chaired the Ways and Means Committee and was Mitt Romney's running mate in the 2012 presidential election.

Ryan appears on C-SPAN after winning his first congressional election in 1998.  (Screenshot/C-SPAN)

Ryan holding his child in 2002. He has two sons, Samuel and Charles, and a daughter, Elizabeth.  (Paul Ryan Twitter)

Ryan speaks at the Republican National Convention in New York City on Sept. 1, 2004. (AP Photo/Joe Cavaretta, File)

President Bush, accompanied by Ryan, arrives at General Mitchell International-440th Air Reserve Wing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2006.  (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Ryan, ranking member on the Budget Committee, presenting his alternative Republican budget plan on April 1, 2009, during a news conference on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Ryan speaks at a tax day rally outside the Wisconsin Capitol in 2009. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Ryan and Mitt Romney wave to delegates at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, on Aug. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan speaks at the Conservative Political Action Committee annual conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on March 6, 2014. Ryan said GOP leaders and conservative activists should "give each other the benefit of the doubt" in the debate over the party's future.  (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ryan presides over a committee hearing in June 2015. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Ryan stands with his predecessor, House Speaker John Boehner, in the House Chamber on Oct. 29, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The new sign for House Speaker Paul Ryan is seen above the hallway leading to his office on Capitol Hill on Oct. 30, 2015. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Speaker Ryan and his family take a moment to enjoy the view from the speaker's balcony of the U.S. Capitol. (Facebook/Speaker Paul Ryan)