Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has reportedly told a friend that he will run for Utah’s open Senate seat.
Romney texted ‘I’m running’ to prominent Utah business leader Kem Gardner, who relayed the remarks last Saturday to Governor Gary Herbert, who is anxious to find a successor to Orrin Hatch, the New York Times reported.
Hatch, 83, announced his intention to retire after seven terms in office earlier this month, freeing up the safe Republican seat and immediately sparking speculation of a Romney run.
‘Let’s not be coy about this,’ Herbert recounted telling Gardner to the Times.
‘If he’s going to run, let’s go. If not, we need to find somebody else to run, and there’s people that have been trying to queue up for the opportunity.’
Mit Romney reportedly texted a friend ‘I’m running’, in yet another sign he will seek the Senate seat that will be vacated by Utah Republican Orrin Hatch
Hatch (pictured) said he will be retiring after seven terms at the age of 83
Before, after: Mitt Romney updated his Twitter bio to Holladay, UT hours after Senator Orrin Hatch announced he would not be seeking another term
Though Romney grew up in Michigan and was the governor of Massachusetts, he is well known in Utah for saving the Salt Lake City Olympics and as Mormon icon.
Last week, he disclosed that he had been treated for prostate cancer last year, a move that was viewed as a sign he is preparing to run for Hatch’s seat.
If elected, Romney is expected to bring vocal opposition to Trump to the Senate floor.
He has been an outspoken Trump critic, branding him’ ‘a fraud’ during the 2016 campaign who had ‘neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president.’
Romney dropped a hint about his Senate ambitions last week after Hatch announced his plan to retire, changing the location listed on his Twitter account from Massachusetts to Holladay, Utah.
Trump had urged Hatch, his 83-year-old longtime ally, to run for another term. But the senator said last week that ‘every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves.
Romney could create real road blocks to the administration’s agenda.
If he is elected in deep-red Utah, his role as a never-Trump voice could occasionally ally him with Democrats working to counter the president.
During his famous 2016 speech, Romney said: ‘I’m afraid that when it comes to foreign policy he is very, very not smart.’
‘Dishonesty is Donald Trump’s hallmark,’ Romney said in the blistering remarks.
Trump responded at the time by labeling Romney a ‘choke artist’ who lost the 2012 election to Barack Obama – a ‘winnable’ race.
President-elect Donald Trump and Mitt Romney dined at Jean Georges restaurant, November 29, 2016 in New York City when Romney was under consideration for secretary of state
The two appeared to have a detente after the 2016 election, when Trump said he was considering Romney for secretary of state.
They were seen dining together in an infamous photograph, before Trump pulled the rug out from Romney’s diplomatic ambitions in what many considered an act of revenge for Romney’s attacks during the campaign.
Last week, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to answer whether Trump would campaign for whoever becomes the GOP nominee in the deep-red state.
‘Obviously, 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 Senator Hatch and his over four decades of experience in the Senate,’ she said.