WASHINGTON--Mitt Romney will announce his vice presidential choice on Saturday morning in Norfolk, Va., his campaign announced on Friday night--and news reports name Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) as Romney's choice.

NBC News and the Associated Press are reporting the selection of Ryan, the Janesville, Wisc. native who is the chairman of the Budget Committee. Ryan's selection could bolster Romney with conservatives and provide help in the battleground state of Wisconsin--where polls show President Barack Obama is running ahead.

The timing allows Romney to throw the spotlight on his new ticket before the start of the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Aug. 27.

The announcement and introduction of a running mate comes as Romney kicks off in Virginia a four-day battleground state bus tour.

Romney unveils the new ticket at an event at the Nauticus Museum in Norfolk in the morning.

The new GOP ticket then appears at a rally at the Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va, and winds up the day in northern Virginia, in a rally in Manassas.

ON RYAN

Ryan was first elected to Congress in 1998 --when he was only 28-- and has become a specialist in government finance, serving on the Ways and Means Committee as well as the Budget panel.

He was born Jan. 29, 1970 in Janesville, was raised there and currently lives there with his wife, Janna, and their three children.