In his announcement that he would not seek a second term, the senator from Utah, Mitt Romney, underlined the need for a new generation of leadership in the United States
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Wednesday, Utah Mitt Romney senator announced He would not present himself to re -election in 2024. On the surface, the electoral impact of Romney's decision is minimal – its seat should remain safely in republican hands. But it is always notable because it represents the departure of one of the few remaining republican senators who had a moderate voting file and / or the former president vocally, Donald Trump.
The Senate, of course, was a second (or, really, third) career for Romney. After a successful career in business during which he co -founded Bain Capital, Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2002 – which is part of the long love history of the state of Bay with moderate republican governors. He introduced himself twice to the presidency and won the republican appointment in 2012, losing against the president of the time Barack Obama in the general election.
It was the last time that the GOP has chosen a presidential candidate who was not Trump. Since 2016, republican voters have turned against the republicanism brand aligned with the establishment and have adopted Trump's cheeky populism. In 2018, a year that saw a large number of moderate or anti-Trump republicans to leave Congress, Romney has buckled the global trend by being elected to the Utah Senate (where a large number of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Holy Dates-including Romney himself-made the More atou-esptic local gop than most). Since then, he has spoken vocally Against the new party leadership. More particularly, he Voted to condemn Trump In Its two trials of dismissal.
Romney has also developed a moderate voting record, breaking with the right wing of his party in votes ranging from Confirming judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has reverse Trump's emergency declaration To finance the border wall. Romney DW nomine score – A measure of ideology based on call votes, where 1 represents the most conservative and -1 represents the most liberal – is 0.288, making it more moderate than all current republican senators except three.
The two groups of republicans – Trump's opponents and moderate ideological – are now endangered species, and Romney's departure will further reduce the herd. Of the 17 Republicans who voted to dismiss or condemn Trump in one or the other of the dismissal, only six are still in the Congress, including Romney. And the number of Senate Republicans with DW nominees of nominees less than 0.300 is at least 40 years old.
Romney's anti-Trump and moderate file may have indirectly contributed to its decision to retire, as it made it relatively unpopular to the republican voters of UTAH. According to a Survey from August 7 to 14 By Dan Jones & Associates, only 56% of the registered republican voters of UTAH approved Romney's professional performance. It may not seem too bad, but among the members of your own party, 56% is a fairly mediocre approval rating. (On the other hand, 81% of republican registered voters at the national level have a favorable opinion on Trump, according to the latest poll Quinnipiac University.)
Much like a prominent Trump critic Former senator Jeff Flake did in 2018Romney may have refused to present himself to re-election because he was afraid of losing republican primary. The same survey asked questions about a hypothetical main correspondence, and Romney received 45% support from the Republicans. It is quite anemic for a holder, who is accustomed to the waltz at renomination.
On the other hand, no other survey candidate has obtained more than 7%, and only 27% said they would vote for another nameless candidate. In addition, the survey revealed that Romney's approval rating among the Republicans was increasing; In May, only 40% had approved its performance. The Romney path towards renomination is therefore probably clearer today than it has been for a while, which makes the timing of the announcement curious. So maybe we should take Romney to the word when he quoted his age as a factor in his retirement video. (Romney is 76 years old and would have been 83 at the end of a second potential term.)
So what is the next step for Utah Class I Senate seat? Romney's withdrawal is unlikely to lead to a competition general election next fall: even though utah has shifted toward democrats in the trump era, it is still red enough that it voted for him by more than 20 percentage points in 2020, and democrats haven't won a statewide election In The Beehive State Since 1996. (True, Evan McMullin, independent anti-top, lost against the republican senator Mike Lee in 2022 only 10.4 points after Democrats have sidelined themselves and have not appointed anyone In order to give McMullin a better chance of winning. But, on the other hand, the Evan McMullin independent of the Anti-Trump has always lost against the Republican Senator Mike Lee in 2022 by 10.4 points even after the Democrats got out and did not appoint anyone in order to give McMullin a better chance of winning!)
The competition to watch will therefore be the republican primary of June 25 of the State – in particular, that the party candidate is more conservative and / or pro -Trump than Romney. So far, it seems that the answer is yes; The field of potential candidates does not have someone as iconoclastic as Romney. The president of the State House, Brad Wilson, who has already formed an exploratory committee, presents himself as “”conservative champion»And in 2020 he presented a legislative resolution pay tribute to Trump after his first indictment. However, it can be the The most pleasant option for the old -fashioned republicans; A second candidate, the mayor of Riverton, Trent Staggs, Assailed Romney For his support for “La Borne” and for the dismissal of Trump. And the attorney general of Utah, Sean Reyes, who was co -president of the Trump re -election campaign in the state and tried to reverse the results elections of 2020, is a According to the candidate.
But there is still a lot of time for a candidate of Romney to intervene. UTAH still has a good number of Trump -Sceptical Republicans – for example, the former representative of the Becky Edwards State, a republican who voted for President Biden and just lost a special primary election for the 2nd district of Utah. It is possible that one can emerge from the primary of the Senate if the Conservative / Pro-Trump vote is divided between several candidates. But of course, none of the alternatives has recognition of the name of Romney or the financial advantage. There is therefore no doubt that his retirement is a punch for the Republicans who do not like what happens to their party.
