A friend very close to Mitt Romney confirmed that Romney plans to run for the upcoming empty Senate seat currently occupied by Orrin Hatch.
Hatch has held that seat for more than 40 years, and now at age 84 has decided it is time to step down. For many unfamiliar with the current Senator, Hatch and Romney have a great relationship, so it should come as no surprise that Hatch has already publicly endorsed Romney “should he decide to run for the seat.” On January 3rd, Hatch shared the following:
“Despite Romney being an outspoken critic of President Trump, Trump reportedly phoned the 2012 Republican presidential nominee on January 4th to encourage him to contest Hatch’s seat.”
Romney now lives in Utah and could win the seat with extremely minimal campaigning throughout the state. Currently, Romney is far more popular in the state of Utah than Trump is.
This is where things start to heat up. Trump’s distaste for Romney has been seen on multiple occasions. One of the more recent and absurd demonstrations from President Trump, though, came when he all but demanded Ronna Romney McDaniel, the RNC Chairwoman, to drop her family name.
When rumors began circling political circles that Romney was back in Utah with plans to occupy Hatch’s well used Senate chair, Trump almost immediately began a personal campaign to keep Hatch in the Senate, admonishing him not to retire.
Trump would rather keep an 84-year-old man in the Senate so he does not have to politically and publicly face Romney, a very outspoken critic, and successful politician. With their history, specifically Trump bullying Romney around, the potential of President Trump having to deal with Romney now as not only a successful Governor and Republic Presidential Nominee, but as a sitting U.S Senator as well.
When Trump’s efforts to keep Hatch in the Senate appeared to be futile he quickly resorted to public support of Romney, that is, should Romney choose to campaign for the Senate seat.
The writing is on the wall in big bold writing: Trump is quickly trying to repair every burned bridge he can see between himself and Romney. If things continue like they are rumored to go, President Trump will soon be dealing with Senator Romney quite often.
Source: RedState
