Free Republic

Mitt Romney is leading Mike Kennedy, 77 percent to 23 percent in initial returns posted after polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the race to become the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch.

SALT LAKE CITY — The way Mike Kennedy sees it, he’s “just a plain old guy.” He’s no Mitt Romney, the millionaire Republican elder statesman and Kennedy’s opponent for the party’s nomination for Utah’s soon-to-be-open Senate seat. And he’s certainly no Ted Kennedy, the late liberal senator with whom he shares a surname but not a bloodline. Nope. Mike Kennedy’s “just a plain old guy” who “comes from dirt.” Mike Kennedy is not really plain or old. He’s a physician, and a lawyer, and a three-term state legislator, a husband and father of eight children. He’s a practicing member of...

SALT LAKE CITY — Mitt Romney will again face a Kennedy in an election with a U.S. Senate seat on the line. Not one of those Kennedys. (Romney lost to Ted Kennedy in the 1994 Senate race in Massachusetts.) This is Mike Kennedy, a conservative state legislator from Alpine who outgunned Romney at the Utah Republican Party's state convention over the weekend, getting himself into a primary election June 26. Romney had already qualified for the ballot through signature gathering. But who is this guy? In short, Kennedy is a married father of eight children who works as a family...

Former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney finished second at the Utah Republican Convention on Saturday behind State Rep. Mike Kennedy (R-Alpine). Romney and Kennedy will now face each other in a primary election, because neither Romney (49.12%) nor Kennedy (50.88%) reached the 60% threshold necessary to secure the party’s nomination automatically.

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...