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Mitt Romney did not win the Utah Republican Party's nomination on Saturday, meaning he must compete in a June primary election as he seeks to replace retiring US Sen. Orrin Hatch. After a wild and raucous day of voting at the Utah GOP convention, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee was unable to win the 60% that he needed to head to the November ballot unopposed. When none of the 12 candidates were able to cross that threshold, the party continued with successive rounds of caucus voting until one candidate reached 40%. On the second round of...

At a Q&A session Monday night, Senate candidate Mitt Romney defended his conservatism saying he's tougher on some issues — like immigration — than the president, reports the Utah Daily Herald: "I’m a deficit hawk. That makes me more conservative than a lot of Republicans and a lot of Democrats. I’m also more of a hawk on immigration than even the president. My view was these DACA kids shouldn’t all be allowed to stay in the country legally." — Mitt Romney Background: Romney was pointing directly to President Trump's proposed plan that would have created a path to citizenship for...

Mitt Romney is being hit with the first attack ad of the Utah Senate race Thursday, a slickly produced video that portrays him as a darling of the D.C. establishment and gives him the nickname “flip-flopper Mitt.” The ad from Republican candidate Larry Meyers slams Mr. Romney, the presumptive front-runner in the GOP race, with accusations of not being conservative enough for Utah voters. “The D.C. establishment loves Mitt Romney. But Utah voters have a better choice. Larry Meyers,” says the announcer. It then rips open an old wound for Mr. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and a former...

As a father and grandfather, my heart aches for the victims of today’s tragic events. My prayers go out to all of the families and loved ones affected by this senseless act of violence. (1/2) Out of respect for the victims and their families, I will not be making an announcement tomorrow about the Senate race. (2/2)

Republicans in Utah are on edge as they await a decision from Sen. Orrin Hatch on 2018 that could determine whether Mitt Romney’s political career has one more act. Hatch is reconsidering retirement after receiving encouragement from President Trump and his allies, and soaking up praise for shepherding a historic tax overhaul in his role as Senate Finance Committee chairman. The 83-year-old previously signaled plans to step aside after seven terms and clear a path for Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and a prominent Trump critic, to succeed him. Hatch is something of an icon in Utah, but his...

After 42 years, it is time Utah changes up senators. When incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch was elected to his seventh term in 2012, he vowed it would be his last. Recently, however, the 83-year-old told KUTV he will run again—unless his friend Mitt Romney calls him and says he would like to run. Then Hatch would step aside. Here are seven reasons Romney should take Hatch up on that offer. 1. Gives Utah Time to Find a Long-term Solution According to The Salt Lake Tribune, 75 percent of voters said Hatch should not run again. By 2024, he would be...

Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, has excoriated President Trump for his equivocating response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va., and urged him to apologize or risk subjecting the country to “an unraveling of our national fabric.”

Mitt Romney called on President Donald Trump Friday to apologize for his comments about Charlottesville, Virginia, saying the President’s remarks this week “caused racists to rejoice.” “The potential consequences are severe in the extreme,” Romney wrote in a Facebook post. “Accordingly, the president must take remedial action in the extreme. He should address the American people, acknowledge that he was wrong, apologize.” He said that Trump’s remarks — in which he blamed “both sides” for inciting violence, an equivocation between neo-Nazis and those protesting them — had a hurtful impact on the nation. “Whether he intended to or not, what...

"Taking A Mitt" Romney wrote:Having created a natl inflection point of consequence, POTUS must apologize & repudiate the racists. Full statement: 6:12 AM - 18 Aug 2017https://www.facebook.com/mittromney/posts/10154652303536121

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” TheRoot.com Politics Editor Dr. Jason Johnson argued that President-Elect Donald Trump might pick former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as Secretary of State to get him out of Washington in the same way President Obama “took Hillary Clinton, who has been one of his biggest critics, made her Secretary of State and told her to get out of the country.” Johnson said, “There’s an element to this that you sometimes see when someone is like the President of the United States. They may choose some of their most vocal critics, who are still within...

"I don't see any way in the world that Mitt Romney would have a cabinet position in the Donald Trump administration," the former Arkansas governor told Uma Pemmaraju on Fox News... "It would really not so much be an insult to Donald Trump," he said. "It would be an insult to the supporters of Donald Trump, who went out there and faithfully stood behind Donald Trump, to give a guy a job who basically said all those supporters were following a con man. "That would be an insult to the voters..." "We had a far-reaching conversation with regards to the...

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will meet with Donald Trump this weekend to discuss the secretary of state position, a source close to the president-elect with direct knowledge of his thinking told NBC News....

Last year, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was serious about making one last bid for the White House. Only after realizing that Jeb Bush had already secured pledges from most of the top Republican donors did he decide to sit out the 2016 election. Of course, as it turned out, Bush – even with a reported $100 million war chest – could barely make a blip on the electoral radar. In the year of Donald Trump, the former Florida governor was just another victim. Since then, Romney has become one of Trump’s biggest and most outspoken detractors. When the primary...

Mitt Romney blasted the Republican Party on Saturday for not doing more to stop presumptive nominee Donald Trump, saying that the prospects for the party are bleak. During a discussion in Park City, Utah, where Romney is hosting his annual conservative summit, the 2012 presidential nominee singled out Trump’s former rivals Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio), the last two candidates to drop out of the race against Trump. "Ted Cruz was basically praising Donald Trump through the whole process," Romney told discussion host and CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. And Kasich “was in well after the time...

Park City, Utah (CNN) — Mitt Romney suggested Friday that Donald Trump's election could legitimize racism and misogyny, ushering in a change in the moral fabric of American society. The 2012 Republican nominee, who has openly opposed Trump's candidacy, went further than he has before in outlining to CNN's Wolf Blitzer how the country's character would suffer in a Trump White House. Trump's rhetoric has caused even some other Republicans to label him a racist, and Romney said he would not be able to paper over his incendiary remarks. "I don't want to see trickle-down racism" Romney said in an...

(CNN)One year ago the question hovering over Park City, Utah, was which presidential candidate could capture the hearts of Mitt Romney's friends. Less than a week later, Donald Trump said he was running for president and made them his enemy. And he beat them. Now, with Trump as the GOP nominee, those same Republican fundraisers, business titans and longtime friends of Romney are back to huddle far from Trump Tower. Attendees caution that Romney's annual summit -- The Experts and Enthusiasts, or E2, retreat -- is not an exclusive conclave for the #NeverTrump movement. Yet it is the closest thing...

The Weekly Standard published “An Open Letter to Mitt Romney” on Tuesday night, begging the former Republican presidential nominee to launch a third-party bid. “[T]hese are extraordinary times, and your nation still has need of your service. I respectfully implore you to run for president as an independent candidate in 2016,” Jay Cost wrote. Cost slams presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s “Nixonian paranoia” of “enemies” and calls her Republican counterpart, Donald Trump, “a sympathizer with the nativist ‘alt-right.’ ” “They do not see Americans as Americans,” the letter continues. “They see each of us as potential allies or foes,...

Mitt Romney ends recruiting efforts for an independent candidate By Eric Bradner and Jim Acosta, CNN Updated 3:01 PM ET, Wed May 18, 2016 Washington (CNN)Mitt Romney won't launch a third-party presidential campaign of his own and has stopped trying to recruit somebody else to do it. The 2012 Republican nominee had attempted to recruit a challenger to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But prospects like Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said no, and Romney is now dropping his efforts, a source familiar with Romney's thinking told CNN. The news was first reported by Yahoo News.

This is the craziest presidential election I’ve ever seen. Voters on both sides of the aisle are rebelling against their party establishment. Donald Trump who has never before run for office is the presumptive GOP nominee. And Bernie Sanders, a 74-year old Socialist, continues to give Hillary a run for her money, generating 100% of the enthusiasm on the Democrat side. There’s something else brand new about this election – the role of last election’s loser. I thought the role of a Presidential election loser that doesn’t hold any other elective office is to slither away into hiding somewhere and...

Mitt Romney made an unsuccessful effort to recruit Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse as a third-party presidential candidate to challenge Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, a source with knowledge of the efforts confirmed to CNN Sunday. Sasse, the freshman Republican, has emerged as one of Trump's foremost critics from the right. Romney and Sasse have talked, the source said, and Romney encouraged Sasse to seriously consider a run... But Sasse is refusing to enter the race... At the Nebraska GOP convention, Sasse was rebuked through a resolution that was overwhelmingly approved by Republicans there who argued that his position would only...