GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah announced that he hasn’t decided if he’ll seek reelection in 2024, but says that if he does run, he believes he’ll be victorious.
“I’ve faced long odds,” he said to Politico. “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.”
Romney served as the governor of Massachusetts from early 2003 to early 2007. He later won the Republican nomination for the 2012 presidential election, but lost to incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama.
In 2018, he won an election to the U.S. Senate after he was endorsed by then-President Donald Trump. However, after the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump in 2019, Romney in 2020 voted to convict on one of the two articles, making him the only GOP senator to do so.
Then, after the House voted to impeach Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, Romney was one of the seven GOP senators to vote to convict, making him the only GOP senator to vote against Trump in both impeachment attempts.
In both of these impeachments, Trump was acquitted, as the number of senators who voted to convict fell short of the threshold required for conviction.
Romney has been a heavy critic of Trump since the former president left office, even going so far as to bash the former president in an op-ed while simultaneously praising President Joe Biden.
“President Joe Biden is a genuinely good man, but he has yet been unable to break through our national malady of denial, deceit, and distrust,” he wrote. “A return of Donald Trump would feed the sickness, probably rendering it incurable.”
Romney was also one of 12 Republican senators to vote in favor of a pro-gay marriage measure.
“He’s been a really important part of our conference. People respect his intelligence, his assessment of the era we find ourselves in. And I think his running for reelection would be very important,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said of Romney, according to Politico. “It’s important for the Republican Party and the country that he runs again.”
Romney said he is starting to make moves for reelection, but hasn’t “made a decision, finally. And probably won’t do that anytime in the immediate future,” he said.
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