Mitt Romney weighs Senate reelection decision in light of Trump attacks and likely Utah primary challenge
- Senator Mitt Romney says he will make a decision on re-election in the fall
- Likely Republican challengers for his Senate seat in Utah are already lining up for the primary
- He is hated by part of his own party for standing up to Donald Trump
Senator Mitt Romney says he will decide in the fall whether to run for reelection to the Senate after years of bitter attacks from Donald Trump and his allies, plus the prospect of a painful primary challenge.
The 76-year-old former presidential candidate has become a lightning rod for the Trump wing of the Republican Party, often dismissed as “Republican in name.”
It’s a role he has embraced, most recently arguing that the party should unite around an alternative to Trump in the presidential run.
Now he must decide whether he is up for an exhausting primary battle in Utah, which was once cold-blooded against Trump and his allies, but now favors the former president over Romney, according to recent polls.
“I will make my own decision based on my assessment of what I could achieve in the second term,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
Senator Mitt Romney says he will decide in the fall whether to run for re-election, after years of bitter attacks from Donald Trump, plus the prospect of a painful primary challenge
He added that he found making deals “fun and productive.”
And he said he had skin tough enough to withstand attacks from a party that has moved to the right over the 2012 Republican nominee for president.
“Just because I’m alone doesn’t mean I’m wrong… You get to a point in life where it’s not like sitting in the cafeteria alone in high school,” he said.
His state has also failed him, according to a poll published in June. A survey by Deseret News and the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics found that 47 percent of Republican voters thought Trump represented them better, compared to 39 percent who chose Romney.
Yet in 2016, Trump only took third place in the state’s presidential caucus.
That leaves room for a Trumpy alternative in a primary. Utah State House Speaker Brad Wilson has set up an exploratory committee, but says he will wait with a final decision until Romney announces whether he will run again.
Yet Wilson — who introduced a motion to “pay tribute” to Trump barely a month after rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — has already won the support of 60 members of the Utah House and Senate.
Romney spoke out against Donald Trump in 2016 and the former president continues to repay the compliment, especially since the Utah senator voted to impeach
Utah State House Speaker Brad Wilson has set up an exploratory committee, but says he will wait with a final decision until Romney announces whether he will run again.
Only one Republican has spoken in favor of the race, but several others are circling, including former Representative Jason Chaffetz.
Meanwhile, Romney, with his reputation as an established Republican, remains a favorite punching bag of Trump, just as he has been since 2016.
“Who is a worse senator, John ‘The Stiff’ Cornyn of Texas, or Mitt ‘The Loser’ Romney of Massachusetts, Utah??” he recently asked on his media platform Truth Social.
“They are both weak, ineffective and very bad for the Republican Party and our nation.”
The attacks have been an ever-present part of Trump’s rally speeches.
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