It's rough to be a reasonable politician nowadays. If you cross the Big Dog it gets even harder. Talk about f-cked up!
Then again, he's almost as old as Joe.
Mitt Romney’s Political Journey Reaches a Crossroads
Republican senator from Utah, an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, would face a tough fight if he seeks re-election
‘Just because I’m alone doesn’t mean I’m wrong,’ Sen. Mitt Romney said of his votes that break with his Republican party.
By Eliza Collins, in South Jordan, Utah, and Siobhan Hughes, WSJ
in Washington
Updated Aug. 20, 2023
Sen. Mitt Romney has to decide if he has another fight in him.
The Utah Republican plans to announce soon whether he is running for a second term, after a roller-coaster run in politics that included winning the GOP presidential nomination just over a decade ago. Since then, Romney has become a pariah for some Republicans because of his stubborn rejection of former President Donald Trump, underscoring the party’s shift away from traditional conservatism.
If he runs, Romney could face a wrenching primary contest, and one potential rival has piled up endorsements. He also will need to decide whether he wants another six potentially lonely years on Capitol Hill, where he is an increasingly rare breed of Republican, largely voting the party line but also open to working with Democrats on issues such as infrastructure, same-sex marriage and guns. At 76 years old now, he would be 83 at the end of his next term.
“I’ll make my own decision based upon my assessment of what I would be able to accomplish in the second term,” Romney said in an interview, pointing to deal making as “fun and productive” work. On votes breaking with his party, he said: “Just because I’m alone doesn’t mean I’m wrong…You get to a point in life where it’s not like sitting alone in high school in the cafeteria.”
He said he expects to make a decision in the fall, possibly around October.
Mitt Romney campaigned for president at a 2012 rally in Colorado. PHOTO: GERALD HERBERT/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Romney’s choice will reverberate beyond the Beehive State, coming as Republican voters look poised to renominate Trump for president—despite recent indictments, most recently in Georgia—and as partisanship in Washington leads to regular standoffs over spending and debt. Romney’s dilemma casts a spotlight on a central question for the Republican Party: whether there is room for lawmakers who plain can’t stand its most prominent member and are willing to say so.
Interviews with voters, officials and lawmakers indicate Romney would face a tougher fight than in 2018, when he failed to secure the nomination at the state convention of largely conservative activists but went on to win the primary comfortably. Critics charge that Romney is too obsessed with Trump. Backers admire his principles.
“There’s a strong Romney-support wing and a strong group that does not support him right now,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican who has also criticized Trump. “He says he can win, and I think there’s a path for him to win. But it will certainly be harder this time.”
Romney, who pivoted from a career at Bain Capital to help turn around the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and later served as governor of Massachusetts, filed the paperwork necessary to raise funds as a candidate, but he isn’t currently acting like someone running for re-election.
He pulled in less than $22,000 from individual donors in the second quarter, according to federal election filings. Some past donors are giving instead to a possible campaign by the Utah state House speaker, Brad Wilson, who has formed an exploratory committee. Wilson has drawn the endorsement of more than 60 state lawmakers, comprising more than two-thirds of the Republicans in the legislature.
Brad Wilson
Trent Staggs
Mitt Romney
$0
$500,000
$1,000,000
People familiar with Wilson’s thinking said he is waiting to see what Romney decides. Spokesman Chris Coombs said Wilson “is exploring his own potential race, irrespective of what other potential candidates may or may not do.”
Romney didn’t hold events in Utah for the first half of the August break, but he plans several later this month, including one to honor Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.).
McConnell, who has fought with Trump over the direction of the party, said he has asked Romney to run again. “He’s an incredibly effective senator,” McConnell said.
The GOP primary in Utah is in June. If Romney, who also has support among independents and some Democrats, makes it through the primary, he is likely to win the general election.
Sharp growth in the tech industry near Salt Lake City has brought a more diverse workforce to the state. Still, political analysts say the population changes haven’t yet significantly affected the state’s politics.
Many of the businesses in Utah’s rapidly growing tech sector have settled in to an area known as Silicon Slopes, in Lehi. PHOTO: NIKI CHAN WYLIE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Romney sees some reasons to stay. He wants to shore up Medicare and Social Security, and address climate change and China. The job affords a prominent platform to push back against Trump, who Romney concedes is likely to win the GOP nomination.
“I think being in the Senate is without question an opportunity for a bigger megaphone and more impact than as a private citizen,” Romney said.
Trump wants Romney gone. He recently told Breitbart News that Romney was a “terrible Republican.”
The men have a long history. Romney called Trump “a phony, a fraud” in 2016, and Trump called Romney a loser for his 2012 defeat to then-President Barack Obama. Trump later endorsed Romney for Senate, but the peace didn’t last.
Romney was the only Republican to vote “guilty” in Trump’s 2020 impeachment trial over pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, the first time that a senator had voted to oust a president of his own party. After the House impeached Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, Romney was joined by six fellow Senate Republicans in voting to convict. Trump was acquitted both times.
Mitt Romney dined with President-elect Donald Trump and Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus in New York in 2016. PHOTO: EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Most of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over Jan. 6 either retired or lost re-election bids, and several of the senators retired. Some Romney critics were incensed by his impeachment votes.
“I think he sucks,” said Bob Kunze, a retiree from West Jordan, a Salt Lake City suburb. Romney “votes with the Democrats all the time against Trump.”
Chris Null, chairman of the Salt Lake County Republican Party, said the only thing Romney could do to win over the pro-Trump base would be to “turn back time and vote differently.”
Null is supporting Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, who has entered the GOP race. Staggs supports Trump and said if elected he would align himself with conservatives, including Utah’s other senator, Mike Lee, focused on reining in the national debt.
Staggs said he has never seen Romney “get passionate about fighting government spending…. It’s been always just fighting Trump.”
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
Is there still a place for Mitt Romney in the Republican Party? Join the conversation below.
Supporters say much of Romney’s record aligns with GOP voters. He was one of only three Republicans to back President Biden’s Supreme Court pick Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, but he joined GOP colleagues in opposing Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 package and the Inflation Reduction Act climate law.
“He needs to spend some time in Utah making his case and reminding the bulk of the Republican voters…that he is the guy getting things done for Utah,” said Kathryn Webb Dahlin, a Republican activist and Romney fan.
Rebecca Littlefield, left, supports Romney after voting for Trump in 2016 but not again. Bob Kunze doesn't support Romney and likes Trump.
NIKI CHAN WYLIE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)
Rebecca Littlefield, a retiree from Herriman who supports Romney, said “the party doesn’t matter as much as his sense of morals. I love that.” She said she voted for Trump in 2016 but hasn’t supported him since.
Romney retains support from many members of the fast-growing state’s business community. They are looking for “compromise, rather than the two extremes,” said Derek Miller, who leads the Salt Lake Chamber.
Romney is one of a small number of lawmakers driving bipartisan deals, a group with an uncertain future. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I., Ariz.), who helped lead talks on Biden’s infrastructure law, said she sought out Romney “because he is fiscally conservative. And he also is someone who likes to negotiate.” Sinema hasn’t committed to running for re-election, nor has Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), another deal maker. Others such as Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) recently retired.
Utahns were initially cooler to Trump than voters in some other red states, which some analysts attribute to the influence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to which Romney and roughly half of the state’s adults belong, according to the Pew Research Center. In 2016, Trump came in third place in the state’s GOP presidential caucus.
A June poll by Deseret News and University of Utah Hinckley Institute of Politics found that 47% of Republican voters said Trump better represented them, versus 39% for Romney.
A planned community in South Jordan, Utah, a state where roughly half of all adults belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to the Pew Research Center. PHOTO: NIKI CHAN WYLIE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jason Perry, director of the nonpartisan Hinckley Institute, said state Republicans’ relative centrism means Romney could win his primary, despite the anger of Trump supporters. Romney’s impeachment stance “has not and will not be politically fatal,” he said.
If Romney runs, he could quickly increase fundraising. He has national donors he can tap for cash, and extensive personal wealth. His campaign committee has roughly $1.6 million in cash on hand, in part from renting out his donor list to other candidates.
Wilson, the Utah House speaker, raised $1 million from individual donations last quarter. He lent his campaign committee an additional $1.2 million.
Romney is keeping up the warnings about Trump. He recently wrote an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal calling for weak GOP presidential candidates to drop out to consolidate support for a strong challenger to Trump.
Romney said several GOP colleagues texted him to praise the article. Asked if any would back its sentiments publicly, he responded: “No,” and laughed.
Jack Gillum and Aaron Zitner contributed to this article.
Comments