On Wednesday, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) announced that he will not seek reelection when his term ends in early 2025.
“I’ve spent my last 25 years in public service of one kind or another. At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-80’s,” Romney said in a video posted to X. “Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders.”
My message to Utahns on my Senate reelection plan: pic.twitter.com/kgbsfIxMeR
— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) September 13, 2023
The senator promised last month that he would reveal his decision on another Senate run by the fall.
Romney, 76, was elected to the Senate in 2018 after being endorsed by then-President Donald Trump, and went on the become a frequent critic of the president. Romney is the only GOP senator who voted in favor of both of Trump’s impeachments.
In February of 2020, when the Senate acquitted Trump on the Democrats’ weak Ukraine-related impeachment charges, Romney broke with his party to vote for impeachment.
“Corrupting an election to keep one’s self in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine,” Romney said at the time.
A year later, Romney voted with Democrats again in Trump’s second impeachment trial.
“After careful consideration of the respective counsels’ arguments, I have concluded that President Trump is guilty of the charge made by the House of Representatives. President Trump attempted to corrupt the election by pressuring the Secretary of State of Georgia to falsify the election results in his state. President Trump incited the insurrection against Congress by using the power of his office to summon his supporters to Washington on January 6th and urging them to march on the Capitol during the counting of electoral votes. He did this despite the obvious and well known threats of violence that day. President Trump also violated his oath of office by failing to protect the Capitol, the Vice President, and others in the Capitol. Each and every one of these conclusions compels me to support conviction,” Romney said in a statement at the time.
After voting to impeach Trump twice, Romney on Wednesday said “I haven’t heard any allegation that would rise to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor” regarding the GOP’s Biden impeachment inquiry.
Romney, who voted to remove Donald Trump from office over a phone call where he asked Zelenskyy a question about Biden's corruption, says on the Biden impeachment inquiry "I haven't heard any allegation that would rise to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor." pic.twitter.com/31a0FK03Gr
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 13, 2023
In 2019, it was discovered that Romney had a secret Twitter account called “Pierre Delecto” where anonymously monitored political conversations and defended himself from his conservative critics.
In 2006, while he was the governor of Massachusetts, Romney signed into law a healthcare reform law commonly referred to as Romneycare that was the template for ObamaCare.
With that background, it is not surprising that he failed to unseat then-President Barack Obama in 2012.