Mitt Romney

Heritage and youth Willard Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947, at Harper University Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, one of four children of automobile executive George W. Romney and actress and homemaker Lenore Romney (née LaFount). His mother was from Logan, Utah, and his father was born to American parents in a Mormon colony in Chihuahua, Mexico. A fifth-generation member of the LDS Church, he is a great-grandson of Miles Park Romney and a great-great-grandson of Miles Romney, who converted to Mormonism in its first decade. Another great-great-grandfather, Parley P. Pratt, helped lead the early church. 's 1965 yearbook Romney has three older siblings: Margo, Jane, and Scott. He was named after a family friend, businessman J. Willard Marriott, and his father's cousin, Milton "Mitt" Romney. Romney was called "Billy" until kindergarten, when he expressed a preference for "Mitt". In 1953, the family moved from Detroit to the affluent suburb of Bloomfield Hills and his father became the chairman and CEO of American Motors the following year and helped the company return to profitability. By 1959, his father had become a nationally known figure, and Mitt idolized him. Romney took up residence at Cranbrook when his newly elected father began spending most of his time at the state capitol. At Cranbrook, Romney helped manage the ice hockey team, and joined the pep squad. The two became informally engaged around the time he graduated from high school in June 1965. He continued to enjoy occasional pranks. In July 1966, he began a 30-month stint in France as a Mormon missionary, a traditional rite of passage in his family. He arrived in Le Havre, where he shared cramped quarters under meager conditions. He initially became demoralized and later recalled it as the only time when "most of what I was trying to do was rejected." Romney soon gained recognition within the mission for the many homes he called on and the repeat visits he was granted. When the French expressed opposition to the U.S. role in the Vietnam War, Romney debated them. Those who yelled at him and slammed their doors in his face merely reinforced his resolve. At their first meeting following his return, Romney and Ann Davies reconnected and decided to get married. Before their wedding, Romney moved to Utah and enrolled at Brigham Young University, where Ann had been studying. They married on March 21, 1969, in a civil ceremony in Bloomfield Hills and the next day, they flew to Utah for a Mormon wedding ceremony at the Salt Lake Temple; Ann had converted to the faith while he was away. Romney had missed much of the tumultuous anti-Vietnam War movement in America while in France. Upon his return, he was surprised to learn that his father had joined that movement during his unsuccessful 1968 presidential campaign. During the U.S. military draft for the Vietnam War, Romney sought and received two 2-S student deferments, then a 4-D ministerial deferment while living in France as a missionary. He later sought and received two additional student deferments. At culturally conservative BYU, Romney remained separated from much of the upheaval of that era. He gave commencement addresses to both the College of Humanities and the whole of BYU. The Romneys' first son, Taggart, was born in 1970 As a result, he enrolled in the recently created four-year joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. He readily adapted to the business school's pragmatic, data-driven case study method of teaching. He served as bishop of the ward at Belmont, Massachusetts, from 1981 to 1986. As such, in addition to home teaching, he also formulated Sunday services and classes using LDS scriptures to guide the congregation. From 1986 to 1994, Romney was president of the Boston Stake, which included more than a dozen wards in eastern Massachusetts and almost 4,000 church members. He organized a team to handle financial and management issues, sought to counter anti-Mormon sentiment, and tried to solve social problems among poor Southeast Asian converts. He agreed with some requests from a liberal women's group that published Exponent II calling for changes in the way the church dealt with women, but he clashed with women he felt were departing too much from doctrine. Health Romney was treated for prostate cancer in summer 2017. In 2024, Romney admitted he was worried about being at risk of Alzheimer's disease due to years of working in high-stress jobs. ==Business career==

Management consulting After receiving his JD–MBA from Harvard, Romney passed the Michigan bar exam but decided to pursue a career in business rather than law. He was recruited by several large companies but joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), reasoning that working as a management consultant for a variety of companies would better prepare him for a future position as a chief executive. he found his legal and business education useful in his job. At BCG, he was a colleague of Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he formed a friendship that has lasted for more than 50 years. In 1977, he was hired by Bain & Company, a management consulting firm in Boston formed a few years earlier by Bill Bain and several other ex-BCG employees. Bain later said of the 30-year-old Romney, "He had the appearance of confidence of a guy who was maybe ten years older." Unlike other consulting firms, which issued recommendations and then departed, Bain & Company immersed itself in a client's businesses and worked with them until changes were implemented. A state park ranger in 1981 told Romney his motorboat had an insufficiently visible license number and that he would face a $50 fine if he took the boat onto the lake. Disagreeing about the license and wanting to continue a family outing, Romney took it out anyway, saying he would pay the fine. The ranger arrested him for disorderly conduct. The charges were dropped several days later. In 1983, on a 12-hour family road trip, he placed the family's dog in a windshield-equipped carrier on the roof of their car, and then washed the car and carrier after the dog suffered a bout of diarrhea. Private equity In 1984, Romney left Bain & Company to co-found and lead the spin-off private equity investment firm Bain Capital. He initially refrained from accepting Bill Bain's offer to head the new venture until Bain rearranged the terms in a complicated partnership structure so that there was no financial or professional risk to Romney. and managing general partner. Initially, Bain Capital focused on venture capital investments. Romney set up a system in which any partner could veto one of these potential opportunities, and he personally saw so many weaknesses that few venture capital investments were approved in the initial two years. Romney soon switched Bain Capital's focus from startups to the relatively new business of leveraged buyouts: buying existing companies with money mostly borrowed from banking institutions using the newly bought companies' assets as collateral, taking steps to improve the companies' value, and then selling those companies when their value peaked, usually within a few years. Much of the firm's profit was earned from a relatively small number of deals; Bain Capital's overall success-to-failure ratio was about even. Romney discovered few investment opportunities himself (and those that he did often failed to make money for the firm). At Bain Capital, Romney spread profits from deals widely within the firm to keep people motivated, often keeping less than 10% for himself. Exactly how many jobs Bain Capital added compared to those lost because of these investments and buyouts is unknown, owing to a lack of records and Bain Capital's penchant for privacy for itself and its investors. Maximizing the value of acquired companies and the return to Bain's investors, not job creation, was the firm's primary investment goal. Bain Capital's acquisition of Ampad exemplified a deal where it profited handsomely from early payments and management fees, even though the subject company itself later went into bankruptcy. he drew a symbolic salary of one dollar Within about a year, he led Bain & Company to a return to profitability. He then turned it over to new leadership and returned to Bain Capital in December 1992. Romney took a leave of absence from Bain Capital from November 1993 to November 1994 to run for U.S. Senate. During that time, Ampad workers went on strike and asked Romney to intervene. Against the advice of Bain Capital lawyers, Romney met the strikers, but told them he had no position of active authority in the matter. By 1999, Bain Capital was on its way to becoming one of the foremost private equity firms in the nation, and its average yearly return to investors was around 50–80%. Billed in some public statements as keeping a part-time role, Romney remained the firm's sole shareholder, managing director, CEO, and president, signing corporate and legal documents, attending to his interests within the firm, and conducting prolonged negotiations for the terms of his departure. He did not involve himself in the firm's day-to-day operations or the investment decisions of its new private equity funds. In August 2001, Romney announced that he would not return to Bain Capital. The private equity business continued to thrive, earning him millions of dollars in annual income. ==1994 United States Senate campaign in Massachusetts==

, 1994 For much of his business career, Romney did not take public political stances. He had kept abreast of national politics since college, By 1993, Romney had begun thinking about entering politics, partly on Ann's urging and also to follow in his father's footsteps. Romney changed his affiliation to Republican in October 1993 and formally announced his candidacy in February 1994. He won 68% of the vote at the May 1994 Massachusetts Republican Party convention; businessman John Lakian finished a distant second, eliminating Jeghelian. Romney defeated Lakian in the September 1994 primary with more than 80% of the vote. In the general election, Kennedy faced the first serious reelection challenge of his career. When Kennedy tried to tie Romney's policies to those of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, Romney responded, "Look, I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I'm not trying to take us back to Reagan-Bush." Romney said, "Ultimately, this is a campaign about change." Romney's campaign was effective in portraying Kennedy as soft on crime but had trouble establishing its own consistent positions. By mid-September 1994, polls showed the race about even. Kennedy responded with a series of ads that focused on Romney's seemingly shifting political views on issues such as abortion; Romney responded, "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country." Other Kennedy ads centered on layoffs of workers at the Ampad plant owned by Bain Capital. The latter was effective in blunting Romney's momentum. Romney spent $3 million of his own money on the race and more than $7 million overall. Despite a disastrous showing for Democrats nationwide, Kennedy won the election with 58% of the vote to Romney's 41%, The day after the election, Romney returned to Bain Capital, but the loss had a lasting effect; he told his brother, "I never want to run for something again unless I can win." He also became vice-chair of the board of the Points of Light Foundation, which had embraced his father's National Volunteer Center. Romney felt restless as the decade neared a close; making more money held little attraction for him. Although no longer in a local leadership position in his church, he still taught Sunday School. During the long and controversial approval and construction process for the $30-million Mormon temple in Belmont, he feared that, as a political figure who had opposed Kennedy, he would become a focal point for opposition to the structure. He thus kept to a limited, behind-the-scenes role in attempts to ease tensions between the church and local residents. ==2002 Winter Olympics==

at a press conference on Olympic security in October 2001 In 1998, Ann Romney learned that she had multiple sclerosis; Mitt described watching her fail a series of neurological tests as the worst day of his life. When her husband received a job offer to take over the troubled organization responsible for the 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, to be held in Salt Lake City in Utah, she urged him to accept it; eager for a new challenge, as well as another chance to prove himself in public life, he did. for the 2002 Winter Olympics, speaking before a curling match Before Romney took over, the event was $379 million short of its revenue goals. In addition, the Games' image had been damaged by allegations of bribery against top officials including prior committee president and CEO Frank Joklik. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee forced Joklik and committee vice president Dave Johnson to resign. Utah power brokers, including Governor Mike Leavitt, searched for someone with a scandal-free reputation to take charge of the Olympics. They chose Romney based on his business and legal expertise as well as his connections to both the LDS Church and the state. The appointment faced some initial criticism from both non-Mormons and Mormons that it represented cronyism and made the Games seem too Mormon-dominated. Romney donated to charity the $1.4 million in salary and severance payments he received for his three years as president and CEO, and also donated $1 million to the Olympics. Romney restructured the organization's leadership and policies. He reduced budgets and boosted fundraising, alleviating corporate sponsors' concerns while recruiting new ones. He oversaw a $1.32 billion budget, 700 employees, and 26,000 volunteers. of that budget, much of it a result of Romney's having aggressively lobbied Congress and federal agencies. It was a record level of federal funding for the staging of a U.S. Olympics. Romney emerged as the local public face of the Olympic effort, appearing in photographs, in news stories, on collectible Olympics pins depicting him wrapped by an American flag, and on buttons carrying phrases like "Hey, Mitt, we love you!" Organizing committee chair Robert H. Garff later said, "It was obvious that he had an agenda larger than just the Olympics", Kenneth Bullock, another board member of the organizing committee and also head of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, often clashed with Romney at the time, and later said that Romney deserved some credit for the turnaround but not as much as he claimed. President George W. Bush praised Romney's efforts and 87% of Utahns approved of his performance as Olympics head. It solidified his reputation as a "turnaround artist", and Harvard Business School taught a case study based around his actions. U.S. Olympic Committee head William Hybl credited Romney with an extraordinary effort in overcoming a difficult time for the Olympics, culminating in "the greatest Winter Games I have ever seen". Romney wrote a book about his experience, Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games, published in 2004. The role gave him experience in dealing with federal, state, and local entities, a public persona he had previously lacked, and the chance to relaunch his political aspirations. ==2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign==

in 2002 In 2002, plagued by political missteps and personal scandals, the administration of Republican acting governor of Massachusetts Jane Swift appeared vulnerable, and many Republicans viewed her as unable to win a general election. Prominent party figures – as well as the White House – wanted Romney to run for governor and the opportunity appealed to him for reasons including its national visibility. A Boston Herald poll showed Republicans favoring Romney over Swift by more than 50 percentage points. On March 19, 2002, Swift announced she would not seek her party's nomination, and hours later Romney declared his candidacy, In response, the bipartisan Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission unanimously ruled that he had maintained sufficient financial and personal ties to Massachusetts to be an eligible candidate. Romney again ran as a political outsider. He said he would observe a moratorium on changes to the state's laws on abortion, but reiterated that he would "preserve and protect a woman's right to choose" and that his position was "unequivocal". and stressed his ability to obtain federal funds for the state, offering his Olympics record as evidence. In an attempt to overcome the image that had damaged him in the 1994 Senate race – that of a wealthy corporate buyout specialist out of touch with the needs of regular people – the campaign staged a series of "work days", in which Romney performed blue-collar jobs such as herding cows and baling hay, unloading a fishing boat, and hauling garbage. He responded with ads that accused O'Brien of being a failed watchdog for state pension fund losses in the stock market and that associated her husband, a former lobbyist, with the Enron scandal. During the election, Romney contributed more than $6 million – a state record at the time – to the nearly $10 million raised for his campaign. On November 5, 2002, he won the election with 50% of the vote to O'Brien's 45%. ==Governor of Massachusetts (2003–2007)==

Romney was sworn in as the 70th governor of Massachusetts on January 2, 2003. He faced a Massachusetts state legislature with large Democratic majorities in both houses, and had picked his cabinet and advisors based more on managerial abilities than partisan affiliation. He declined a governor's salary of $135,000 during his term. Upon entering office in the middle of a fiscal year, he faced an immediate $650 million shortfall and a projected $3 billion deficit for the next year. Through a combination of spending cuts, increased fees, and removal of corporate tax loopholes, the state achieved surpluses of around $600–700 million during Romney's last two full fiscal years in office, although it began running deficits again after that. portrait by Richard Whitney Romney supported raising various fees, including those for drivers' licenses and gun licenses, to raise more than $300 million. The state legislature, with the governor's support, cut spending by $1.6 billion, including $700 million in reductions in state aid to cities and towns. The cuts also included a $140 million reduction in state funding for higher education, which led state-run colleges and universities to increase fees by 63% over four years. The cuts in state spending put added pressure on localities to reduce services or raise property taxes, and the share of town and city revenues coming from property taxes rose from 49% to 53%. He did propose a reduction in the state income tax rate, but the legislature rejected it. Romney sought to bring near-universal health insurance coverage to the state. This came after Staples founder Tom Stemberg told him at the start of his term that doing so would be the best way he could help people. on May 20, 2005, as part of celebrating Armed Forces Day. Determined that a new Massachusetts health insurance measure not raise taxes or resemble the previous decade's failed "Hillarycare" proposal at the federal level, Romney formed a team of consultants from diverse political backgrounds to apply those principles. Beginning in late 2004, they devised a set of proposals that were more ambitious than an incremental one from the Massachusetts Senate and more acceptable to him than one from the Massachusetts House of Representatives that incorporated a new payroll tax. Past rival Ted Kennedy, who had made universal health coverage his life's work and who, over time, had developed a warm relationship with Romney, gave the plan a positive reception, which encouraged Democratic legislators to cooperate. The bill also established means-tested state subsidies for people who lacked adequate employer insurance and whose income was below a threshold, using funds that had covered the health costs of the uninsured. He vetoed eight sections of the health care legislation, including a controversial $295-per-employee assessment on businesses that do not offer health insurance and provisions guaranteeing dental benefits to Medicaid recipients. The law was the first of its kind in the nation and became the signature achievement of Romney's term in office. At the beginning of his governorship, Romney opposed same-sex marriage and civil unions but advocated tolerance and supported some domestic partnership benefits. A November 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision, Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, required the state to recognize same-sex marriages. In May 2004 and per the court decision, he instructed town clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. But citing a 1913 law that barred out-of-state residents from getting married in Massachusetts if their union would be illegal in their home state, he said no marriage licenses were to be issued to people not planning to move to Massachusetts. In June 2005, Romney abandoned his support for the compromise amendment, stating that it confused voters who opposed both same-sex marriage and civil unions. In 2005, Romney revealed a change of view regarding abortion, moving from the abortion rights positions expressed during his 1994 and 2002 campaigns to an anti-abortion one in opposition to Roe v. Wade. Romney subsequently vetoed a bill on pro-life grounds that expanded access to emergency contraception in hospitals and pharmacies; the legislature overrode the veto. He also amended his position on embryonic stem cell research. In 2004, Romney spent considerable effort trying to bolster the state Republican Party, but it failed to gain any seats in the legislative elections that year. Given a prime-time appearance at the 2004 Republican National Convention, he began to be discussed as a potential 2008 presidential candidate. Midway through his term, Romney decided that he wanted to stage a full-time run for president, and on December 14, 2005, he announced that he would not seek reelection as governor. As chair of the Republican Governors Association, Romney traveled around the country, meeting prominent Republicans and building a national political network; Romney had a 61 percent job approval rating after his initial fiscal actions in 2003, but it subsequently declined, driven in part by his frequent out-of-state travel. It stood at 34 percent in November 2006, ranking 48th of the 50 U.S. governors. In the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, Democratic nominee Deval Patrick beat Romney's lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey, by 20 points, with the win partially due to dissatisfaction with Romney's administration and the weak condition of the state Republican party. Romney filed to register a presidential campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission on his penultimate day in office as governor. His term ended on January 4, 2007. ==2008 presidential campaign==

Romney formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 Republican nomination for president on February 13, 2007, in Dearborn, Michigan. Again casting himself as a political outsider, his speech frequently invoked his father and his family, and stressed experiences in the private, public, and voluntary sectors that had brought him to this point. , Iowa, in May 2007 The campaign emphasized Romney's highly profitable career in the business world and his stewardship of the 2002 Olympics. was in remission and was an active participant in his campaign, helping to soften his political personality. a number of commentators noted that with his square jaw and ample hair graying at the temples, he matched a common image of what a president should look like. Romney's liabilities included having run for senator and serving as governor in one of the nation's most liberal states and having taken positions in opposition to the party's conservative base during that time. For his campaign, Romney assembled a veteran group of Republican staffers, consultants, and pollsters. But he was little-known nationally, and hovered around 10% support in Republican preference polls for the first half of 2007. These resources, combined with the mid-year near-collapse of nominal front-runner John McCain's campaign, made Romney a threat to win the nomination and the focus of the other candidates' attacks. Romney's staff suffered from internal strife; Romney himself was at times indecisive, often asking for more data before making a decision. During all his political campaigns, Romney has avoided speaking publicly about Mormon doctrines, referring to the U.S. Constitution's prohibition of religious tests for public office. But persistent questions about the role of religion in his life, as well as Southern Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee's rise in the polls based on an explicitly Christian-themed campaign, led to Romney's December 6, 2007, "Faith in America" speech. and echoed Senator John F. Kennedy's famous speech during his 1960 presidential campaign in saying, "I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law." Instead of discussing the specific tenets of his faith, he said he would be informed by it, saying: "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone." But he took second place in both, losing Iowa to Huckabee, who received more than twice the evangelical Christian votes, and New Hampshire to the resurgent McCain. The fervor with which Romney adopted his new stances and attitudes contributed to the perception of inauthenticity that hampered the campaign. Romney campaigned intensively on economic issues and the burgeoning subprime mortgage crisis, while McCain attacked Romney on Iraq policy and benefited from endorsements from Florida officeholders. Trailing McCain in delegates by a more than two-to-one margin, Romney announced the end of his campaign on February 7. receiving about 4.7 million votes and garnering about 280 delegates. Romney endorsed McCain for president a week later, and McCain had Romney on a short list for running mate, where his business experience would have balanced one of McCain's weaknesses. Behind in the polls, McCain opted instead for a high-risk, high-reward "game changer", Alaska governor Sarah Palin. McCain lost the election to Democratic senator Barack Obama. ==Activity between presidential campaigns==

Romney supported the Bush administration's Troubled Asset Relief Program in response to the 2008 financial crisis, later saying that it prevented the U.S. financial system from collapsing. During the U.S. automotive industry crisis of 2008–2010, he opposed a bailout of the industry in the form of direct government intervention, and argued that a managed bankruptcy of struggling automobile companies should instead be accompanied by federal guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing from the private sector. After the 2008 election, Romney laid the groundwork for a 2012 presidential campaign by using his Free and Strong America political action committee (PAC) to raise money for other Republican candidates and pay his existing political staff's salaries and consulting fees. A network of former staff and supporters around the nation were eager for him to run again. He continued to give speeches and raise funds for Republicans, but fearing overexposure, turned down many potential media appearances. From 2009 to 2011, he served on the board of directors of Marriott International, founded by his namesake J. Willard Marriott. He had previously served on it from 1993 to 2002. The La Jolla home proved beneficial in location and climate for Ann Romney's multiple sclerosis therapies and for recovering from her late 2008 diagnosis of mammary ductal carcinoma in situ and subsequent lumpectomy. Both it and the New Hampshire estate were near some of their grandchildren. In February 2010, Romney had a minor altercation with LMFAO member Skyler Gordy, known as Sky Blu, on an airplane flight. Romney released his book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, in March 2010, and undertook an 18-state book tour to promote it. In the book, he writes of his belief in American exceptionalism, It debuted atop The New York Times Best Seller list. Romney donated his earnings from the book to charity. Immediately after the March 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Romney attacked the landmark legislation as "an unconscionable abuse of power" and said it should be repealed. The antipathy Republicans felt for it created a potential problem for Romney, since the new federal law was in many ways similar to the Massachusetts health care reform passed during his gubernatorial tenure; as one Associated Press article stated, "Obamacare ... looks a lot like Romneycare." In nationwide opinion polling for the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, Romney led or placed in the top three with Palin and Huckabee. A January 2010 National Journal survey of political insiders found that a majority of Republican insiders and a plurality of Democratic insiders predicted Romney would be the party's 2012 nominee. Romney campaigned heavily for Republican candidates in the 2010 midterm elections, raising more money than the other prospective 2012 Republican presidential candidates. Beginning in early 2011, he presented a more relaxed image, including more casual attire. ==2012 presidential campaign==

Primary election On April 11, 2011, Romney announced, in a video taped outdoors at the University of New Hampshire, that he had formed an exploratory committee for a run for the Republican presidential nomination. Romney stood to benefit from the Republican electorate's tendency to nominate candidates who had previously run for president, and thus appeared to be next in line to be chosen. On June 2, 2011, Romney formally announced the start of his campaign. Speaking on a farm in Stratham, New Hampshire, he focused on the economy and criticized Obama's handling of it. He said, "In the campaign to come, the American ideals of economic freedom and opportunity need a clear and unapologetic defense, and I intend to make it – because I have lived it." Romney raised $56 million in 2011, more than double the amount raised by any of his Republican opponents, and refrained from spending his own money on the campaign. He initially pursued a low-key, low-profile strategy. Michele Bachmann staged a brief surge in polls, which preceded a poll surge in September 2011 by Rick Perry, who had entered the race the month before. Perry and Romney exchanged sharp criticisms of each other during a series of debates among the Republican candidates. The October 2011 decisions of Palin and Chris Christie not to run effectively settled the field of candidates. Perry faded after poor performances in those debates, while Herman Cain's "long-shot" bid gained popularity until allegations of sexual misconduct derailed it. Romney continued to seek support from a wary Republican electorate; at this point in the race, his poll numbers were relatively flat and at a historically low level for a Republican front-runner. After the charges of flip-flopping that marked his 2008 campaign began to accumulate again, Romney said in November 2011: "I've been as consistent as human beings can be." In the month before voting began, Newt Gingrich experienced a significant surge – taking a solid lead in national polls and most of the early caucus and primary states – before settling back into parity or worse with Romney following a barrage of negative ads from Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney Super PAC. In the initial contest, the Iowa caucuses of January 3, election officials announced Romney as ahead with 25% of the vote, edging out a late-gaining Rick Santorum by eight votes (Ron Paul finished third). Sixteen days later, however, they certified Santorum as the winner by 34 votes. A week after the Iowa caucuses, Romney earned a decisive win in the New Hampshire primary with 39% of the vote; Paul finished second and Jon Huntsman Jr. third. In the run-up to the South Carolina Republican primary, Gingrich launched ads criticizing Romney for causing job losses while at Bain Capital, Perry referred to Romney's role there as "vulture capitalism", and Palin pressed Romney to prove his claim that he created 100,000 jobs during that time. Romney also faced accusations of asset stripping. Many conservatives rallied in defense of Romney, rejecting what they took to be criticism of free-market capitalism. Romney's double-digit lead in state polls evaporated; he lost the January 21 primary to Gingrich by 13 points. The race turned to the Florida primary, where in debates, appearances, and advertisements, Romney launched a sustained barrage against Gingrich's record, associations and electability. Romney enjoyed a large spending advantage from both his campaign and his aligned Super PAC, and after a record-breaking rate of negative ads from both sides, Romney won Florida on January 31, with 46% of the vote to Gingrich's 32%. in Norfolk, Virginia, during the vice presidential selection announcement on August 11, 2012 Several caucuses and primaries took place during February, and Santorum won three in a single night early in the month, propelling him into the lead in national and some state polls and positioning him as Romney's chief rival. Days later, Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference that he had been a "severely conservative governor" (while in 2005 he had maintained that his positions were moderate and characterized reports that he was shifting to the right to attract conservative votes as a media distortion). He sought Donald Trump's endorsement, and received it in February 2012, with a speech by Trump and Romney in which Romney joked that he had spent his "life in the private sector, not quite as successful as this guy [Trump] but successful nonetheless". Romney won the other five February contests, including a closely fought one in Michigan at the end of the month. In the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses of March 6, Romney won six of ten contests, including a narrow victory in Ohio over a vastly outspent Santorum. Although his victories were not enough to end the race, they were enough to establish a two-to-one delegate lead over Santorum. Romney maintained his delegate margin through subsequent contests, and Santorum suspended his campaign on April 10. Following a sweep of five more contests on April 24, the Republican National Committee put its resources to work for Romney as the party's presumptive nominee. General election Polls consistently indicated a tight race for the November general election. Negative ads from both sides dominated the campaign, with Obama's proclaiming that Romney shipped jobs overseas while at Bain Capital and kept money in offshore tax havens and Swiss bank accounts. A related issue dealt with Romney's purported responsibility for actions at Bain Capital after taking the Olympics post. During May and June, the Obama campaign spent heavily and was able to paint a negative image of Romney in voters' minds before the Romney campaign could construct a positive one. Comments he made about the readiness of the 2012 Summer Olympics were perceived as undiplomatic by the British press. Israeli Prime Minister (and former BCG colleague) Benjamin Netanyahu embraced Romney, though some Palestinians criticized him for suggesting that Israel's culture led to their greater economic success. On August 11, 2012, the Romney campaign announced Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate. On August 28, 2012, the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, officially nominated Romney for president. Romney became the first LDS Church member to be a major-party presidential nominee. In mid-September, a video surfaced of Romney speaking before a group of supporters in which he said that 47% of the nation pays no income tax, are dependent on the federal government, see themselves as victims, and will support Obama unconditionally. He went on to say, "And so my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." After facing criticism about the tone and accuracy of these comments, he at first characterized them as "inelegantly stated", then a couple of weeks later commented: "I said something that's just completely wrong." At the time an innocuous response to a foreign policy question, it became a focal point for Democratic attacks on Romney during the campaign. Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, called Romney's position "dated" and said Russia had been an ally in solving problems, while Joe Biden, then vice president, accused Romney of having a "Cold War mentality" and being "uninformed" on foreign policy. John Kerry, then a senator, called Romney's comments "breathtakingly off target" and reiterated that position at the Democratic National Convention, saying, "He's even blurted out the preposterous notion that Russia is our number one political geopolitical foe." Romney defended his remarks, saying, "The nation which consistently opposes our actions at the United Nations has been Russia... Russia is a geopolitical foe in that regard", and continued to defend his position in the presidential debates. The first of three 2012 presidential election debates took place on October 3, in Denver. Media figures and political analysts widely viewed Romney as having delivered a stronger and more focused presentation than Obama. That debate overshadowed Obama's improved presentation in the next two debates later in October, and Romney maintained a small advantage in the debates when seen as a whole. The election took place on November 6, and Obama was projected the winner at about 11:14 pm Eastern Standard Time. He won 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206. Romney lost all but one of nine battleground states and received 47% of the popular vote to Obama's 51%. Media accounts described Romney as "shellshocked" by the result. He and his senior campaign staff had disbelieved public polls showing Obama narrowly ahead and had thought they were going to win until the vote tallies began to be reported on election night. (the latter exemplified by the failure of the Project Orca application). In his concession speech to his supporters, he said, "Like so many of you, Paul and I have left everything on the field. We have given our all to this campaign. I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead this country in a different direction, but the nation chose another leader." Reflecting on his defeat during a conference call to hundreds of fundraisers and donors a week after the election, Romney attributed the outcome to Obama's having secured the votes of specific interest groups, including African Americans, Hispanic Americans, young people, and women, by offering them what Romney called "extraordinary financial gifts". The remark drew heavy criticism from prominent members of the Republican party. ==Subsequent activities==

with Paul Ryan in 2015 During the first year after his defeat, Romney generally kept a low profile, with his ordinary daily activities around San Diego captured via social media glimpses. In December 2012, he joined the board of Marriott International for a third stint as a director. In March 2013, Romney gave a reflective interview on Fox News Sunday, saying, "It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House doing what needs to be done." He again expressed regret at the "47 percent" remark, saying "There's no question that hurt and did real damage to my campaign." (He echoed both those sentiments a year later. where they planned to tear down an existing house and build a new one. They also gained long-sought permission to replace their La Jolla home with a much bigger one, including a car elevator that had brought some derision during the 2012 campaign. With the new acquisitions the couple briefly had five homes, near each of their five sons and their families, and the couple continued to spend considerable time with their grandchildren, who by 2013, numbered 22. They then sold the condominium in Belmont and decided to make their main residence in Utah, switching their voter registration. The 2014 documentary film Mitt showed a behind-the-scenes, family-based perspective on both of Romney's presidential campaigns and received positive reviews for humanizing Romney and illustrating the toll campaigning takes. Romney thought he might be branded a "loser for life" and fade into an obscurity like his fellow former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis but, to the surprise of many political observers, that did not happen. Romney reemerged onto the political scene in the run-up to the 2014 U.S. midterm elections, endorsing, campaigning, and fundraising for a number of Republican candidates, especially those running for the U.S. Senate. 2016 presidential election By early 2014, the lack of a clear mainstream Republican candidate for the 2016 presidential election led some supporters, donors, and pollsters to suggest that Romney stage a third run. A July 2014 CNN poll showed Romney with a 53% to 44% lead over Obama in a hypothetical election "redo". By early 2015, Romney was considering the idea and contacting his network of supporters. In doing so he was positioning himself in the invisible primary – the preliminary jockeying for the backing of party leaders, donors, and political operatives – against former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who had already set a likely campaign in motion and would be a rival to Romney for establishment Republican support. Despite support in some quarters for a third bid for the presidency, there was a backlash from conservatives who wanted a fresher face without a history of presidential losses, and many of Romney's past donors were not willing to commit to him again. On January 30, 2015, Romney announced that he would not run for president in 2016, saying that while he thought he could win the nomination, "one of our next generation of Republican leaders" would be better positioned to win the general election. Relationship with Donald Trump As the presidential election went into primary season, Romney had not endorsed anyone but was one of the Republican establishment figures who were becoming increasingly concerned about the front-runner status of New York businessman Donald Trump. Romney publicly criticized Trump for not releasing his taxes, saying there might be a "bombshell" in them. Trump responded by calling Romney "one of the dumbest and worst candidates in the history of Republican politics". and "a phony, a fraud", adding: "He's playing members of the American public for suckers. If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished". In response, Trump called Romney a "choke artist". during a White House listening session on the youth vaping and electronic cigarette epidemic in 2019 Romney encouraged Republicans to engage in tactical voting, by supporting whichever of the remaining rivals had the best chance to beat Trump in any given state. As such, Romney announced he was voting for, although not endorsing, Ted Cruz for president in the March 22 Utah caucus. As the race went on, there was some evidence that tactical voting was occurring, and some partial arrangements were formed among candidates, but by May 3, Trump had defeated all his opponents and became the party's presumptive nominee. Romney announced that he would not support Trump in the general election, saying, "I am dismayed at where we are now. I wish we had better choices." In June, Romney said that he would not vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, saying: "It's a matter of personal conscience. I can't vote for either of those two people." He suggested that he might vote for a third-party candidate, or write in his wife's name, saying she would be "an ideal president". When pressed on which of Trump and Clinton was more qualified to be president, Romney quoted P. J. O'Rourke: "Hillary Clinton is wrong on every issue, but she's wrong within the normal parameters." Romney considered voting for the Libertarian ticket of former Republican governors Gary Johnson and Bill Weld (the latter, like Romney, also a former governor of Massachusetts), saying that he would "get to know Gary Johnson better and see if he's someone who I could end up voting for", adding that "if Bill Weld were at the top of the ticket, it would be very easy for me to vote for Bill Weld for president." and in October it emerged that Independent candidate Evan McMullin was using an email list of 2.5 million Romney supporters to raise money. McMullin's chief strategist said that it was purchased from Romney for President and that "we'll let other folks discuss what that may mean and certainly never speak for [Romney]." Romney and his wife cast early ballots in Utah, but he declined to say who he voted for. After Trump won the election, Romney congratulated him by phone and on Twitter. On November 19, Romney met with him at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, reportedly to discuss the position of Secretary of State, which ultimately went to Rex Tillerson. In February 2017, Romney said that Trump was "off to a very strong start" in fulfilling his campaign promises, although he had "no regrets" about his anti-Trump speech. The next year, Trump endorsed Romney's 2018 senate campaign. 2018 United States Senate campaign in Utah September and October 2017 press reports said that should U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch retire, Romney would run for that seat in 2018. On January 2, 2018, after Hatch announced that he would retire, Romney changed his Twitter location from Massachusetts to Holladay, Utah, contributing to speculation that he was considering a Senate campaign. On February 16, 2018, Romney formally launched his campaign with a video message posted on Facebook and Twitter. At the state Republican nominating convention held on April 21, 2018, Romney received 1,585 delegate votes (49.1%), finishing second to State Representative Mike Kennedy, with 1,642 delegate votes (50.9%). Since neither Romney nor Kennedy garnered the 60% of delegate votes necessary to claim the endorsement, they competed in a June 26 primary election. In the primary, Romney defeated Kennedy, 71.7–28.3%. Romney was elected U.S. senator from Utah on November 6, defeating Democratic nominee Jenny Wilson, 62.6% to 30.9%. With his election, Romney became the third person to have served as governor of one state and senator from another state. (The other two were William W. Bibb, who served as a U.S. senator from Georgia and then the first governor of Alabama, and Sam Houston, who was the sixth governor of Tennessee before becoming a U.S. senator from Texas.) ==U.S. Senate (2019–2025)==

Tenure to discuss COVID-19 relief in February 2021. Shortly before assuming office, Romney wrote a Washington Post editorial strongly criticizing Trump's character. Ronna McDaniel, Romney's niece and the chair of the Republican National Committee, called his comments "disappointing and unproductive", while Trump wrote that he "[w]ould much prefer that Mitt focus on Border Security and so many other things where he can be helpful". By November 9, 2019, Romney was just one of three Republican senators, along with Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who declined to co-sponsor a resolution opposing the impeachment inquiry process into Trump. He was one of two Republicans (with Collins) who joined all Democrats voting to allow impeachment witnesses. Romney condemned the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings, saying: "As we celebrate the miracle of Easter, we hold in our hearts the victims of the senseless violence in Sri Lanka and their loved ones." After many called for Representative George Santos to step down after being investigated by the House Ethics Committee, Romney confronted Santos during President Biden's 2023 State of the Union Address, saying he "shouldn't be in Congress". Social media In the October 2019 issue of The Atlantic, Romney revealed that he used a secret Twitter account to keep tabs on political conversation there, saying, "What do they call me, a lurker?" Shortly thereafter, Slate found a Twitter account with the name Pierre Delecto. The account was registered in July 2011, followed about 700 people, and had eight followers at the time it was discovered. It had tweeted 10 times, always in reply to other tweets. The next day, Romney confirmed ownership of the account. First impeachment of Donald Trump (2019–2020) On February 5, 2020, after Romney read a prepared text on the Senate floor decrying "corrupting an election to keep oneself in office" as "perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office that I can imagine", he broke ranks with the Republican majority as the sole Republican senator to vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial, thereby becoming, according to press reports, the first U.S. senator in United States history to vote to convict a president of the same political party. Fallout from the vote included Romney's being formally censured by various Republican organizations outside of Utah; in comparison, anger against Romney among Republicans within Utah was more muted, and his impeachment vote, according to opinion polling, was supported by Utah Democrats. Jason Perry, director of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, said, "Democrats in Utah were more excited about Mitt Romney's vote than [Utah] Republicans were disappointed." Republicans for the Rule of Law ran various ads thanking Romney. March with Black Lives Matter On June 7, 2020, in response to the murder of George Floyd and the worldwide protests against police brutality, Romney became the first Republican senator to participate in a protest alongside Black Lives Matter. He said, "We need many voices against racism and against brutality, and we need to make sure that people understand that Black Lives Matter." This act drew praise and admiration from the left and right, with some Republicans questioning why other congressional Republicans were not showing support for the movement. On Twitter, Senator Kamala Harris praised Romney's actions, saying, "We need more of this." Trump mocked Romney, saying, "Tremendous sincerity, what a guy. Hard to believe, with this kind of political talent, his numbers would 'tank' so badly in Utah!" 2020 presidential election Romney did not endorse Trump's 2020 reelection campaign and told reporters that he did not vote for him. In a Washington Post op-ed, Romney wrote that Trump "has not risen to the mantle of the office". After the victory of Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, Romney was the first Republican senator to extend his congratulations to them. 2021 U.S. Capitol attack . On the morning of January 5, 2021, Romney was heckled and harassed at the airport on his way to Washington, D.C., to certify Joe Biden's election win in the Senate. Cellphone footage of the incident showed Trump supporters accusing Romney of not supporting Trump's baseless claims of election fraud, and chanting "Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!" as Romney boarded his flight. On the morning of January 6, protesters assembled at the "Save America" rally on the Ellipse, where Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, and several members of Congress addressed the crowd fueling the conspiracy theories about election fraud. Later that day, while the Senate was in session certifying the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count within the United States Capitol, hundreds of Trump supporters violently attacked the Capitol, where they looted senators' offices and broke into the chamber of the United States Senate. Police evacuated the senators and Vice President Mike Pence to an undisclosed area. As they were evacuating Romney, he yelled at Ted Cruz and other Republican congressmen, "This is what you've gotten, guys!" According to New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin, Romney told him with "fury in his voice", " is what the president has caused today, this insurrection!" Romney fully rebuked Trump and condemned the actions of the attackers. Later that night, when Congress had reconvened, Romney said on the Senate floor: On February 10, 2021, new video was released during Trump's second impeachment trial that showed capitol police officer Eugene Goodman saving Romney from running into the Capitol rioters. During a break in the hearing, Romney said, "It was very troubling seeing the great violence the capitol police were subjected to." Romney also said he didn't know how close he was and didn't know it had been Goodman who diverted him away from the rioters, but that he looked forward to thanking Goodman. On May 27, 2021, along with five other Republicans and all present Democrats, Romney voted to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 attack. The vote failed for lack of 60 required "yes" votes. Second impeachment of Donald Trump (2021) On January 13, 2021, the House voted to impeach Trump a second time for incitement of insurrection. On January 26, Republican senator Rand Paul of Kentucky introduced a motion to dismiss the impeachment charge. The objection was defeated on a 55–45 vote; Romney was one of the five Republicans to vote against it. On February 13, 2021, Romney and five other Republican senators voted to allow other witnesses in the impeachment trial. Later that day Romney voted to convict Trump for the second time along with six of his Republican colleagues. The final vote was 57 to convict and 43 to acquit. He wrote a statement that read in part: Second presidency of Donald Trump In December 2025, Romney expressed in a New York Times editorial that the affluent must contribute more in taxes to tackle the escalating national debt. He argued that merely reducing spending is insufficient, and to avert the United States from approaching a "fiscal cliff", it is essential to manage both expenditures and revenues—this includes increasing taxes on the wealthy. He has proposed that certain significant exemptions and "tax loopholes" should be eliminated. Committee assignments During the 117th Congress, Romney sat on the following committees: • Committee on Foreign Relations • Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy (Ranking Member) • Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation • Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism • Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs • Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight • Subcommittee on Governmental Operations and Border Management • Committee on Budget (2021–present) • Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions • Subcommittee on Children and Families • Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety ==Political positions==

after the 2012 presidential election|alt=Romney and Obama shaking hands In addition to calling for cuts in federal government spending to help reduce the national debt, Romney proposed measures intended to limit the growth of entitlement programs, such as introducing means testing and gradually raising the eligibility ages for receipt of Social Security and Medicare. He supported substantial increases in military spending and promised to invest more heavily in military weapons programs while increasing the number of active-duty military personnel. He was very supportive of the directions taken by the budget proposals of Paul Ryan, though he later proposed his own budget plan. Romney pledged to lead an effort to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") and replace it with a system that gives states more control over Medicaid and makes health insurance premiums tax-advantaged for individuals in the same way they are for businesses. He favored repeal of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the Sarbanes–Oxley Act and intended to replace them with what he called a "streamlined, modern regulatory framework". He also promised to seek income tax law changes that he said would help to lower federal deficits and would stimulate economic growth. These included reducing individual income tax rates across the board by 20%, maintaining the Bush administration-era tax rate of 15% on investment income from dividends and capital gains (and eliminating this tax entirely for those with annual incomes less than $200,000), cutting the top tax rate on corporations from 35% to 25%, and eliminating the estate tax and the Alternative Minimum Tax. He promised that the loss of government revenue from these tax cuts would be offset by closing loopholes and placing limits on tax deductions and credits available to taxpayers with the highest incomes, 's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Romney opposed the use of mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions to deal with global warming. Romney called Russia America's "number one geopolitical foe", a position many ridiculed him for, who later publicly apologized to him. He has asserted that preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear capability should be America's "highest national security priority". Romney stated his strong support for Israel. He planned to formally label China a currency manipulator and take associated counteractions unless China changed its trade practices. Romney supported the Patriot Act, the continued operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and use of enhanced interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists. Romney opposed same-sex marriage and civil unions, but favored domestic partnership legislation that gives certain legal rights to same-sex couples. In 2011, he signed a pledge promising to seek passage of a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. In 2022, Romney reversed his previous position on federal marriage, and was one of 12 Republicans voting to advance legislation to codify same-sex marriage into federal law by voting for the Respect for Marriage Act. with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv during the Gaza war on October 15, 2023 Since 2005, Romney has described himself as "pro-life". That year, he wrote: "I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother." During his 1994 Senate campaign, Romney had said, "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country", a stance he reiterated during his 2002 campaign for governor. While Romney would prefer to see passage of a constitutional amendment that would outlaw abortion, he did not believe the public would support such an amendment; as an alternative, he promised to nominate Supreme Court justices who would help overturn Roe v. Wade, allowing each state to decide on the legality of abortion. His earlier pro-abortion rights stance in particular and support for some gay rights and gun restrictions as governor of Massachusetts earned him the criticism of some conservatives; the conservative magazine Human Events labeled him one of the top ten RINOs in 2005. Romney said he would appoint federal judges in the mold of U.S. Supreme Court justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, and Samuel Alito. He advocated judicial restraint and strict constructionism as judicial philosophies. Romney declared his support for the Black Lives Matter international human rights movement by attending the rally, and then joining the Faith Works march, on June 7, 2020. In July 2020, Romney, along with Pat Toomey, was one of two Republican U.S. Senators who condemned Trump's decision to commute the sentence of Roger Stone, which Romney described as "Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president." In September 2020, Romney said the Republicans' decision to nominate and confirm Amy Coney Barrett as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States before the 2020 presidential election was fair: "the circumstance where a nominee of a president is from a different party than the Senate then, more often than not, the Senate does not confirm. So the Garland decision was consistent with that. On the other hand, when there's a nominee of a party that is in the same party as the Senate, then typically they do confirm." In June 2024, Romney proposed a framework to mitigate the existential risk from artificial general intelligence along with senators Jack Reed, Jerry Moran, and Angus King. Romney said he would like to see regulation that "would restrict the types of actions that could lead to existential, or health, or other serious consequences". On July 21, 2024, when President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election, Romney posted a statement which read: "Others will judge his presidency. However, having worked with him these past few years, I respect President Biden. His decision to withdraw from the race was right and is in the best interest of the country." == Electoral history ==

U.S. senator from Massachusetts Governor of Massachusetts {{Election box begin 2012 Republican nominee for President of the United States U.S. Senator from Utah {{Election box begin no change ==Awards and honors==

Honorary degrees Non-academic awards and honors on behalf of his state People magazine included Romney in its 50 Most Beautiful People list for 2002, and in 2004, a foundation that promotes the Olympic truce gave him its inaugural Truce Ideal Award. The Cranbrook School gave him its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005. In 2012, Time magazine included Romney in their List of The 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2021, Romney received the Profile in Courage Award for being the only member of his party to vote to convict Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial. In 2024, Romney received the annual Legislative Achievement Award from the National Emergency Management Association for his efforts in creating the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission in Utah. ==Published works==

• • • • • • ==External links==