Mitt Romney announces return to politics with Utah Senate run

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former governor of Massachusetts, officially announced Friday morning that he is running for the Senate seat being vacated by seven-term GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.

Romney tweeted out a video announcement, after delaying a planned launch on Thursday in the wake of the deadly mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

I am running for United States Senate to serve the people of Utah and bring Utah's values to Washington. pic.twitter.com/TDkas6gD2p

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 16, 2018

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The move was widely anticipated after Hatch, the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history, said in early January that he was calling it quits after 42 years of service. Hatch told The Salt Lake Tribune that he was urging Romney to run. "I've expressed it to him. I can see why he might not want to do it, but I can also see why if he did it, it would be a great thing for America," Hatch said.

Even before Hatch's retirement, large majorities of Utahans, including 75 percent of voters in one poll taken in October, said Hatch should not seek an eighth term. Early polling indicated Romney would receive overwhelming support from voters in hypothetical matchups against Democrat Jenny Wilson, who currently sits on the Salt Lake County Council.

Romney ran for the Senate in Massachusetts in 1994, losing to Democrat Ted Kennedy. He was elected as the state's governor in 2002.

In the interim, Romney stepped in to turn around the scandal-plagued 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics, which vaulted his reputation in Utah.

Another reason Romney likely enjoys broad support in Utah is because of his Mormon faith.

As NPR pointed out during his 2012 presidential run, Romney rarely talks about his faith, despite having held leadership positions within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served as a missionary for the church in France in the 1960s.

In fact, his connection to the faith goes back generations. Romney's great-great-grandfather Miles Romney was a Mormon pioneer, who settled in Utah in the 19th century and designed the famed St. George Tabernacle.

That connection to the state contributed to his nearly 73 percent share of the vote in Utah in the 2012 presidential contest, soundly defeating former President Barack Obama there by 48 points. Contrast that with the 2016 presidential race. While President Trump won Utah, he only received 46 percent of the vote.

Many Utahans, fueled by their growing unease with Trump's divisive rhetoric, instead cast their vote for Evan McMullin, a third-party candidate and a Mormon, who got 21 percent.

Romney's stature in the GOP and history of criticizing Trump create the potential for a powerful Trump Republican critic coming to Washington as others like Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona retire.

Here's how NPR's Mara Liasson envisioned the scenario playing out in a report from December: "If that happened, Romney would immediately become the most prominent elder statesman of the GOP. Dignified and disciplined, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee would become the center of gravity for those in the party who are uncomfortable with Trump's behavior."

After clashes between white nationalists and counterprotesters turned deadly in August in Charlottesville, Va., Romney was critical of the president's early response in which Trump said there was "blame on both sides." Romney condemned Trump's response in a Facebook post, said Trump's comments "caused racists to rejoice."

He also criticized Trump's reported vulgar comments about African nations and Haiti last month.

The poverty of an aspiring immigrant's nation of origin is as irrelevant as their race. The sentiment attributed to POTUS is inconsistent w/ America's history and antithetical to American values. May our memory of Dr. King buoy our hope for unity, greatness, & "charity for all."

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) January 15, 2018

During the 2016 campaign, Romney excoriated Trump by delivering a speech at the University of Utah. "Here's what I know. Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud," Romney said, later adding, "He has neither the temperament nor the judgement to be president. And his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill."

Romney met with Trump during his transition into the White House to discuss becoming secretary of state, but no offer materialized.

When Hatch announced his retirement, amid much speculation about Romney's run, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked whether Trump would commit to campaigning for the eventual GOP nominee.

"I don't think we've made a determination in terms of campaigning, but the president certainly has the greatest and deepest amount of respect for Sen. Hatch and his over four decades of experience in the Senate," Sanders said at the time.

Months prior to Hatch's announcement, Trump publicly and privately tried to persuade the 83-year-old senator to seek re-election this year.

The president showered Hatch with praise at a Salt Lake City event in December. "You are a true fighter, Orrin," Trump said. Another time, the president said he hopes Hatch stays in the Senate "for a long time to come."

With his Senate run, Romney has an opportunity to change perceptions that dogged him throughout his presidential campaign -- that he is an out-of-touch plutocrat, detached from the realities lived by many Americans.

Much of Romney's considerable personal wealth, at the time estimated to be about $250 million, was attained as a venture capitalist in the 1980s as the head of the firm Bain Capital.

Romney tried to counter that image by picking a wonky, more energetic and self-proclaimed "young gun" running mate in Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who was at the time the chairman of the House Budget Committee. As NPR reported at the time, the pick energized some in the GOP base but ultimately did not win him the White House. Ryan is now speaker of the House, and the two remain in contact.

Two issues that Romney contended with in 2012, and that still haunt the GOP today, are health care and Russia.

Like many Republicans, Romney vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature achievement, even though he started a similar program as governor of Massachusetts.

And at the time, Romney was mocked for saying Russia was the country's top "geopolitical foe."

"[Russia] is, without question, our No. 1 geopolitical foe," he told CNN in 2012. "They fight every cause for the world's worst actors. The idea that he has some more flexibility in mind for Russia is very, very troubling, indeed."

Romney appeared to be offering a prescient warning after the Russian efforts to influence the 2016 campaign came to light. But Trump still refers to the idea as a "hoax."