# Mitt Romney is not running for reelection next year **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 13, 2023, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066 "2023-09-13T18:42:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/1 "2023-09-13T18:42:30Z")
He seemed to be one of the less-MAGA Republicans at times and voted to convict Trump in 2020, though he also gushed over Donald and seemed to be angling for a Cabinet post-perhaps Secretary of State-when the plum jobs were being handed out. I wonder who will take his spot. From what little I’ve read, Mormons aren’t especially enthusiastic about Trump. Article here: [https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/13/gop-sen-mitt-romney-says-he-will-not-run-for-reelection.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/13/gop-sen-mitt-romney-says-he-will-not-run-for-reelection.html) ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/2 "2023-09-13T18:46:33Z")
Well, we know it won’t be a Democrat. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/3 "2023-09-13T18:48:39Z")
I’d settle for another John Manchin-esque person. Though hopefully less annoying. ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/4 "2023-09-13T18:55:26Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > another John Manchin-esque person. Though hopefully less annoying. Or Joe Manchin, either. The Dems should run a conservative candidate who is anti-Trump, anti-Maga against a pro-Trump GOPer. Might pick up a seat. ---
**Author:** ![Beesnest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@Beesnest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beesnest)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/5 "2023-09-13T18:56:08Z")
Dr. Oz is available and willing to travel. Would they be mad at their governor applying for the job. ? ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/6 "2023-09-13T18:56:45Z")
> [@slicedalone](#): > > Or Joe Manchin, either. Dangit! ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/7 "2023-09-13T18:57:28Z")
Doesn’t surprise me. Romney is rich as hell. Why would he want to be part of the Trump Mess that 2024 will be? Whether Trump wins or loses, Romney would be stuck in the middle of the morass. Give it up, and enjoy his massive wealth while the rest of the world burns. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/8 "2023-09-13T19:08:58Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > enjoy his massive wealth while the rest of the world burns. That’s my plan. Now, back to work on the massive wealth part… ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/9 "2023-09-13T19:25:14Z")
> [@slicedalone](#): > > The Dems should run a conservative candidate who is anti-Trump, anti-Maga against a pro-Trump GOPer. Might pick up a seat. A reporter on MSNBC reported something similar, that if Romney had run the Dems wouldn’t even oppose. But there’s a MAGA mayor making noise about running (so is the AG), and if the mayor runs, the Dems would think hard about running an appropriate candidate to oppose. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/10 "2023-09-13T20:52:47Z")
This is just the break the McMullin campaign has been waiting for! ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/11 "2023-09-13T21:16:16Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > A reporter on MSNBC reported something similar, that if Romney had run the Dems wouldn’t even oppose. Utah Democrats decided not to run a nominee against Sen Mike Lee last year, endorsing Independent Evan McMullin. He lost by ten points. You can only refuse to run in so many races if you still want to be taken seriously as a political party. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/12 "2023-09-13T21:36:19Z")
I don’t know if Romney could have won his primary. Democrats ought to look for a “conservative” Mormon Democrat to run, just on the off chance that the Republican candidate turns out to be a beatable MAGA nut. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/13 "2023-09-13T21:47:50Z")
With the announcement of Romney’s intention retire, the Atlantic released this preview of their November issue. > **[What Mitt Romney Saw in the Senate](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/11/mitt-romney-retiring-senate-trump-mcconnell/675306/)** > > In an exclusive excerpt from my biography of the senator, Romney: A Reckoning, he reveals what drove him to retire. Some quotes: > Romney sends his text: “In case you have not heard this, I just got a call from Angus King, who said that he had spoken with a senior official at the Pentagon who reports that they are seeing very disturbing social media traffic regarding the protests planned on the 6th. There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch; to smuggle guns into DC, and to storm the Capitol. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator—the President—is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require.” > > McConnell never responds. > “A very large portion of my party,” he told me one day, “really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.” He’d realized this only recently, he said. We were a few months removed from an attempted coup instigated by Republican leaders, and he was wrestling with some difficult questions. Was the authoritarian element of the GOP a product of President Trump, or had it always been there, just waiting to be activated by a sufficiently shameless demagogue? And what role had the members of the mainstream establishment—­people like him, the reasonable Republicans—played in allowing the rot on the right to fester? > Perhaps Romney’s most surprising discovery upon entering the Senate was that his disgust with Trump was not unique among his Republican colleagues. “Almost without exception,” he told me, “they shared my view of the president.” In public, of course, they played their parts as Trump loyalists, often contorting themselves rhetorically to defend the president’s most indefensible behavior. But in private, they ridiculed his ignorance, rolled their eyes at his antics, and made incisive observations about his warped, toddler­like psyche. Romney recalled one senior Republican senator frankly admitting, “He has none of the qualities you would want in a president, and all of the qualities you wouldn’t.” I guess there’s no turning back now. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/14 "2023-09-13T22:02:15Z")
I might actually read that book. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/15 "2023-09-13T22:27:03Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > Perhaps Romney’s most surprising discovery upon entering the Senate was that his disgust with Trump was not unique among his Republican colleagues. “Almost without exception,” he told me, “they shared my view of the president.” In public, of course, they played their parts as Trump loyalists, often contorting themselves rhetorically to defend the president’s most indefensible behavior. But in private, they ridiculed his ignorance, rolled their eyes at his antics, and made incisive observations about his warped, toddler­like psyche. Romney recalled one senior Republican senator frankly admitting, “He has none of the qualities you would want in a president, and all of the qualities you wouldn’t.” Time for Romney to name names. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/16 "2023-09-13T22:52:25Z")
Sunlight is the best disinfectant and Mittens knows this… but I’m not expecting a profile in courage from him. Gave up on that from the “mainstream Republicans” in 2016. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/17 "2023-09-13T22:56:40Z")
That possiblity doesn’t exist in Utah. A MAGA Republican (but I repeat myself) is the only viable candidate in that state. It’s a waste of money and resources to put up someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/18 "2023-09-13T23:22:54Z")
I read the book excerpt in The Atlantic earlier today and it was interesting. Like John McCain, Romney is a person I largely disagree with and would not vote for, but they do have some principles. As that expression goes, I think they’re ‘wrong within normal parameters’. But I also came away thinking, couldn’t he have done more while he was there? Seems like a lot of politicians suddenly find their spine and voice once they’re no longer in power. Understandable at a basic level, I suppose, but I still consider it cowardly. That said… COULD Romney have done more? He’s still got a year before he leaves, so can he take any meaningful action in that time? Can he do anything to restore what he sees as sanity in the Senate and politics overall? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/19 "2023-09-13T23:45:54Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > That possiblity doesn’t exist in Utah. A MAGA Republican (but I repeat myself) is the only viable candidate in that state. It’s a waste of money and resources to put up someone else. Have you been paying attention? You did notice Romney winning that seat five years ago, no? Utah is way too conservative for MAGA to gain much traction, there. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066/20 "2023-09-13T23:52:41Z")
Yes and he’d lose today, which is why he’s packing it up. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romney-is-not-running-for-reelection-next-year/990066.md?page=2)