Utah Senator Mitt Romney is saying that he has no plan to endorse anyone in the 2020 Republican primary or in the General Election, a good indication that he has not changed his opinion about President Trump since coming to Washington:
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said Thursday that he’s planning to withhold his endorsement in the 2020 race both in the primary and in the general election, underscoring the uneasy relationship between the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee and the leader of his party.”I’m not planning on endorsing in the presidential race,” Romney, who has periodically sparred with Trump, told CNN in the Capitol. “At this stage, I’m not planning on endorsing in the primary or in the general.”Romney’s statement adds more certainty about his plans in the presidential race after previously signaling he was unlikely to endorse a candidate in the 2020 elections. The decision by a party’s previous nominee to avoid backing a sitting president is yet another norm-breaking episode in Trump’s tumultuous time atop the Republican Party.
Romney is a friend of one of Trump’s primary challengers, Bill Weld, who served as Massachusetts governor before Romney’s term in office. In an interview in April, Romney called Weld a “superb governor” but declined to say if he would get behind the long-shot candidate.
On Thursday, Romney told CNN that he has concerns with the move by several states to cancel their primary contests in a bid to help Trump as he faces challenges from Weld, former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh and former South Carolina congressman and Gov. Mark Sanford.
“I would far prefer having an open primary, caucus, convention process … where people can be heard,” said Romney, who reiterated that he’s not running himself.
Romney was an outspoken critic of Trump’s in the 2016 campaign, but flirted with the notion of becoming his secretary of state before the President chose Rex Tillerson for the job at the beginning of his administration. On the eve of starting his job as a freshman Utah senator, Romney wrote an opinion piece bashing Trump’s actions and questioning his character, saying he had “not risen to the mantle of the office.” And after the Mueller report came out,
Romney offered perhaps the toughest criticism of any Republican lawmaker, saying he was “sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President.”Yet Romney only periodically spars with Trump, often voting to back the President’s nominees, supporting his policies and shying away from criticizing even some of the more controversial Trump tweets.
Although Romney actively sought and accepted Trump’s endorsement during the race for the 2012 Republican nomination, which Romney did not renounce even when Trump ventured back into birtherism, the favor was not returned in 2016. Instead, it was widely reported early in the 2016 race that Romney was strongly opposed to Trump, and that he at least flirted with the idea of entering the race at the last minute in what likely would have been a futile effort. Ultimately, of course, that did not happen, although Romney did deliver a strongly-worded attack on Trump in March 2016 that has basically set the tone for the relationship between the two men going forward. Romney also delivered a strong attack against Trump shortly after being elected to the Senate last year.
Unlike most national Republicans who ultimately fell in line behind Trump, Romney did not endorse Trump in 2016 and made it clear that he would not vote for him either. Additionally, since becoming a Senator Romney has been one among a very small number of Republican legislators willing to speak out against Administration policy, especially on international trade and foreign policy, as well as the President’s increasingly divisive rhetoric. Taking all this into account, the fact that Romney is going to sit 2020 out rather than endorsing or campaigning wit the President.
All that being said, it’s unclear what impact this may have. As I’ve said repeatedly, Trump’s support among Republicans is quite high and likely to stay that way through the election. It’s possible, of course, that it could have an impact in Romney’s home state of Utah, where Trump received less than 50% of the vote in 2016, but even there it is unlikely that Trump would actually lose a state that has gone for the Republican nominee in every Presidential election since 1968. That being said, it’s good to see someone in the GOP standing up against Trump.
