Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who voted to convict Trump at both of Trump’s impeachment trials, has announced that he will not run for reelection after his current term expires in 2025.
Video of Romney:
My message to Utahns on my Senate reelection plan: pic.twitter.com/kgbsfIxMeR
— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) September 13, 2023
Romney said in part in the video, “”At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-80s. Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders. They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in.”
In a Senate that has been described as a retirement home, Senators in both parties have stayed in office into their 80s and even approaching 90, it is refreshing to someone walk away. Romney has been critical of both Biden and Trump, but he also holds the unique distinction of being the only Republican senator to vote to convict Trump twice at his impeachment trials.
Mitt Romney is more like what the fiscal side of the Republican Party used to be. Romney famously said at the Iowa State Fair while making what would be a successful run for the Republican presidential nomination, “Corporations are people, my friend.”
According to an interview in The Washington Post, Romney has also been telling Sen. Joe Manchin not to run for president on a No Labels ticket because that would only help Trump win.
Romney is no liberal, but he values democracy, knows Trump should never be in office, and would not intentionally harm the nation. Those qualities make him an ally to those who are fighting to keep US democracy safe, even if we disagree with Sen. Romney on virtually every other issue.
The departure of Mitt Romney means that one of the few sane Republican voices is leaving the Senate, and if the past is prologue, he could be replaced by a right-wing extremist.