Former Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan says that his party lost the White House in 2012 because so many “urban” voters went to the polls, not because Americans rejected his Medicare and other budget policies.

“We were surprised with the outcome,” the Wisconsin Republican told WISC-TV’s Jessica Arp. “We knew this was going to be a close race. We thought we had a very good chance of winning it. I think that the surprise was some of the turnout, some of the turnout especially in urban areas, which definitely gave President Obama the big margin to win this race.”

“There’s always an Electoral College strategy to winning these things, and you know what states you need to win to get to 270 electoral votes. When we watched Virginia and Ohio coming in, those as tight as they were, and looking like we were going to lose them, that’s when it became clear we weren’t going to win.”