Is Mitt Romney Exploring a 2018 Senate Bid?

Kerry Lear

9 years ago

&nbsp&semi;The Atlantic reported this month that the former Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney is considering running for the Utah Senate seat&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;The current Utah Republican Orinn Hatch, 83, has not announced that he will be officially retiring&period; However, he did say that Romney would be his ideal successor&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;If I could get a really outstanding person to run for my position, I might very well consider [retiring],&rdquo&semi; said Hatch to the National Journal&period; &ldquo&semi;Mitt Romney would be perfect&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;This may be the &ldquo&semi;go ahead&rdquo&semi; that Romney needed to run in Utah&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;Romney, who owns a house outside Salt Lake City, has discussed the potential bid with Republicans in Utah and Washington, but he would not move forward without an OK from Hatch himself,&nbsp&semi;The Atlantic&nbsp&semi;reported,&rdquo&semi; writes USA Today&period; &ldquo&semi;What could this run look like&quest; Look to the past for hints&period; Back in 2012, Romney, a Mormon, won the state&&num;8217&semi;s Republican presidential primary with 93&percnt; of the votes&period; And while he lost the general election, he won Utah with 72&percnt;&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Although this is all speculation at this point, The Atlantic outlined a few factors that may pull Romney from his cushy retirement&period;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;One being a chance to &ldquo&semi;challenge&rdquo&semi; President Donald Trump&period; &ldquo&semi;It would be an opportunity for Mitt to represent the Utah style of Republicanism &hellip&semi; and present a strong challenge to the president,&rdquo&semi; said a senior Republican to The Atlantic&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Romney was a local critic of the current president, but quickly changed his tune when he was bidding for the Secretary of State gig, now held by Rex Tillerson&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;Another factor is Romney&rsquo&semi;s Mormon faith&period; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is headquartered in Utah, has long relied on Hatch to serve as a representative and ambassador in Washington&mdash&semi;a role that Romney views as important, and necessary&period; Many of the Mormon Romney-backers I spoke to talked about his call to public service in spiritual terms&mdash&semi;with some even making half-joking references to &ldquo&semi;White Horse Prophecy,&rdquo&semi; a bit of apocryphal LDS folk doctrine that predicts the U&period;S&period; Constitution will one day &ldquo&semi;hang by a thread&rdquo&semi; and Mormons will have to save it,&rdquo&semi; write The Atlantic&period;&NewLine;With the alleged reports that Romney is considering a 2018 Senate bid, his infamous comment about having &ldquo&semi;binders full of women&rdquo&semi; has resurfaced&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;We don&rsquo&semi;t have to collect a bunch of binders to find qualified, talented, driven young women,&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;said former president Barack Obama in response to Romney&rsquo&semi;s comment&period;&NewLine;However, this former gaffe may actually work in his favor&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;Though the comment backfired during the debate, the binders are apparently real&period; The Globe claims a former Romney aide shared two white, three-ring binders, weighing in at a combined 15 pounds, with staffers&period; The binders are &&num;8220&semi;packed&&num;8221&semi; with nearly 200 resumes and cover letters of candidates, according to the newspaper,&rdquo&semi; writes Newsmax&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Could this binder comment could actually help Romney in today&rsquo&semi;s political climate&quest;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;Indeed, the binders&&num;8217&semi; discovery could make voters in deep-red Utah, where Romney might run, nostalgic for a time when the chief criticism of the nation&&num;8217&semi;s top Republican was that he tried too hard to promote women,&&num;8221&semi; writes the Post&&num;8217&semi;s Callum Borchers&period; &&num;8220&semi;Trump&&num;8217&semi;s Cabinet is overwhelmingly male, a fact the news media has noted&period; By contrast, half of Romney&&num;8217&semi;s senior policy appointees, in his first year as governor, were women&period; In short, revisiting the &&num;8216&semi;binders&&num;8217&semi; episode makes Romney look like a champion for women&period;&rdquo&semi; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Even though Utah could be where Romney could have a &ldquo&semi;political comeback,&rdquo&semi; Hatch may still decide to stay in office&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;Of course, there is no guarantee that Hatch&mdash&semi;the longest-serving Republican Senator in Washington&mdash&semi;will decide to bow out&period; GOP leaders in Utah have been quietly discussing for years how best to convince Hatch he should retire&mdash&semi;but the subject has taken on a new urgency in recent months, as polls show an overwhelming majority of voters would prefer that he not run again&period; A few months ago, Hatch and his allies attempted to boost the senator&rsquo&semi;s standing in the state with a flurry of photo-ops, increased face time in Utah, and glowing op-eds in local papers&mdash&semi;but his poll numbers remained stubbornly low,&rdquo&semi; writes The Atlantic&period;&NewLine;Editor&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon; Mitt shot his mouth off a lot during the presidential race, and that hurt his reputation&period; If he can focus on moving the conservative agenda and not on his own ego, he should be a great longterrm influence in the Senate, should he decide to run&period;&NewLine;