Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told Politico recently that he is still undecided whether to seek reelection to the U.S. Senate in 2024, but if he does run, he feels confident that he will win. Many Republicans inside and outside of Utah would just as soon see him retire.
“I’ve faced long odds,” Romney said, reciting the history of his political career. “Getting the nomination in 2012 was a long shot, becoming a Republican governor in one of the most liberal states in America, Massachusetts…. So, I’m convinced that if I run, I win. But that’s a decision I’ll make.”
One factor would certainly be his age. Romney would be nearing 77 years old in 2024, and with the obvious cognitive decline of President Joe Biden — who is 80 years old — it is possible that voters would be less inclined to support another politician of advanced age.
But even more significant could be that the voters in conservative-leaning Utah might decided that they should have a more conservative senator representing them.
Although Romney attempted to portray himself as a staunch conservative during his 2012 effort to win the Republican nomination for president, even resorting to calling himself a “severe conservative,” the truth is that Romney is closer to being a liberal Republican than a conservative. In fact, Romney’s father, George Romney, was closely aligned with Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, and even refused to support the 1964 Republican nominee for president, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona.
While one cannot fairly be held accountable for what one’s father did or did not do, Mitt Romney has followed closely in his father’s footsteps, both in his less-than-conservative voting record and in his failure to support more-conservative Republicans at critical times.
Romney began his own political career not in Michigan, where his father had been governor (George Romney had a tenure as the CEO of American Motors Corporation when the car company developed the popular Rambler automobile), but in one of the most liberal of states, Massachusetts. When he ran for the U.S. Senate against Senator Edward Kennedy, Romney was adamant during a debate that he was “pro-choice” on the abortion issue. This was somewhat surprising, as Romney is a Mormon, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is officially pro-life. (Of course, so is the Roman Catholic Church, but that did not stop Kennedy then, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden now, all Catholics, from supporting legalized abortion.)
Despite losing the Senate race, Romney was able to get elected governor of Massachusetts, serving in that position from 2003-2007. Then, in 2008, he ran for president, by this time running as a “pro-life” Republican. He eventually lost the nomination to Senator John McCain of Arizona, who also was not very conservative.
Then, in 2012, Romney managed to capture the Republican nomination for president, losing to President Barack Obama in the general election, although he did much better than McCain had done in 2008. In fact, Obama was the first president to be reelected with a smaller percentage of the popular vote than he won in his first election.
When Romney ran for the U.S. Senate in 2018, he had the support of Senator Mike Lee of Utah, one of the most conservative members of that body. He also had won the endorsement of then-President Donald Trump.
In both instances, however, Romney failed to demonstrate any gratitude. When the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump in 2019, Romney was the lone Republican senator to vote to convict him. Romney also voted to convict Trump a second time — after Trump was already out of office — in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot.
If anything, Romney’s performance in last year’s Utah Senate race is even more despicable. Lee had easily won the Republican primary, and the Democrats had opted not to field a candidate to oppose him. However, “independent” candidate Evan McMullin did run against Lee, and the Democratic Party of Utah supported McMullin. This is not surprising, considering that McMullin supported Joe Biden for president in 2020.
McMullin is also a former officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. Despite all of this, and despite Lee’s having supported Romney in 2018, Romney opted to not support Lee in the election against McMullin.
Romney was also one of the 12 Republican senators who recently voted in favor of passing a bill protecting the “right” of same-sex marriage. The bill is clearly unconstitutional, as marriage laws are not one of the enumerated powers given to Congress in the U.S. Constitution. His voting record while in the Senate has certainly not been that of a conservative — “severe” or otherwise.
It is probable that, were Romney to run for reelection in 2024, the mainstream media would fall all over themselves in praising him — which would be yet another reason that the people of Utah should find themselves a different person to represent them in the U.S. Senate, someone more like Senator Mike Lee.
