Senator Mitt Romney announces he will not run for re-election
Today Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) announced he will not be running for re-election. This is a decision that will have significant impact on the balance of power in the US Senate.
Senator Romney has been one of few Republican Senators that has been willing to stand up to:
the Trump domination of the Republican Party and
the appeasement of anti-democratic behavior by the vast majority of Republican elected officials.
By not running for re-election the most likely outcome is Romney will surrender his crucial Senate seat to a pro-Trump Republican.
In 2020, after four years of watching Trump’s behavior as president, Utah voted for Trump 58% to Biden 38% with a margin of 205,000 votes.
This is a very tough state for Democrats to win, though the 2020 margin was significantly closer than the 2012 results when Romney (R) won 72% to Obama’s (D) 25% or the 2000 results when Bush (R) won 67% to Gore’s (D) 26%.
Utah’s heavily Mormon population has been more disinclined to support Trump style Republicans than most other traditional Republican constituencies, but despite the sizable number of Mormons to say no to Trumpism, the majority still have gone along, which has resulted in Romney being the only non-Trump Republican to win federal office from Utah.
Just eight days ago one of the rare anti-Trump Republicans lost the primary in a Special Election for Utah’s 2nd Congressional seat to fill the vacancy when Congressman Chris Stewart (R) resigned to address health issues his wife was having.
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