The Story:
Mitt Romney, a former Presidential candidate, former Governor of Massachusetts, and former managing partner of Bain Capital, has now won the Republican Party’s Senatorial primary in Utah, easily defeating State Representative Mike Kennedy. Romney received more than 70% of the votes cast.
The Background:
Romney and President Donald Trump have a complicated history. During the Republican primary season in 2016, Romney was a very prominent anti-Trump voice, calling Trump a phony and a fraud, saying that Trump was playing “members of the American public for suckers.”
After Trump won the nomination, Romney professed himself unable to support his party’s candidate in the general election. He said “I am dismayed at where we are now.”
Yet after Trump won the election in November, Romney did make his availability for a cabinet position very obvious. He didn’t get the job.
The Thing to Know:
Romney is poised for an almost certain victory in the Utah election in November. It is not at all clear what role he will play in the US Senate when he gets there. He may become an important center of intra-party opposition to the President. Or he may not.
