Romney Fails To Secure Utah GOP Senate Nomination, Faces Primary
“Mike Kennedy emerged in the lead with 50.88%. Romney came in a close second with 49.12%”
Earlier this year, Kemberlee blogged about former Massachusetts governor and former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney announcing his Senate run in Utah. Romney is running to fill the Utah Senate seat being vacated by Senator Orrin Hatch (R).
He failed to secure the Republican nomination yesterday and will now run in Utah’s June primary against Utah state representative Mike Kennedy.
In order to secure the nomination, a candidate needed to achieve 60% of the vote at Utah’s state Republican convention. No one hit that threshold. Kennedy beat Romney 50.88%-49.12%, so they will face off in June’s primary.
Mitt Romney did not win the Utah Republican Party’s nomination on Saturday, meaning he must compete in a June primary election as he seeks to replace retiring US Sen. Orrin Hatch.
After a wild and raucous day of voting at the Utah GOP convention, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee was unable to win the 60% that he needed to head to the November ballot unopposed. When none of the 12 candidates were able to cross that threshold, the party continued with successive rounds of caucus voting until one candidate reached 40%.
On the second round of voting, Utah state representative Mike Kennedy emerged in the lead with 50.88%. Romney came in a close second with 49.12%.
Romney and Kennedy will now compete in a primary set for June 26.
Thank you to all the delegates who hung in there with us all day at the Convention. I appreciate the support I received and look forward to the primary election.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) April 22, 2018
Romney secured his spot on the ballot with a signature drive, a move he acknowledged may have hurt him at the convention.
Mr. Romney had previously secured his spot on the ballot by collecting 28,000 voter signatures, but he said on Saturday that the choice was partly to blame for his loss.
Gathering signatures is unpopular among many conservative delegates in the state who say it dilutes their ability to choose a candidate. The issue prompted hours of debate, shouting and booing at the convention.
The convention also contended with Romney’s well-known disdain for and criticism of President Trump. Meanwhile, Romney’s GOP primary opponent has positioned himself as the underdog fighting against the “Romney machine.”
The New York Times continues:
At the convention, Mr. Romney faced 11 other candidates, mostly political newcomers who questioned his criticism of President Trump and the depth of his ties to Utah. He had spent two months on the campaign trail visiting dairy farms, taking photos with college students and making stump speeches in small towns.
“Some people I’ve spoken with have said this is a David vs. Goliath race, but they’re wrong,” Mr. Romney said in his speech. “I’m not Goliath. Washington, D.C., is Goliath.”
Mr. Kennedy, a doctor and lawyer who has been a state lawmaker since 2013, received applause from the crowd as he criticized the national debt, Common Core education standards and President Barack Obama’s health care law. He framed himself as an underdog taking on the “Romney machine.”
Watch the report:
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Comments
and Mittens is pure DC Swamp creature… here’s hoping his sorry a55 loses in June.
maybe then he will finally go away permanently. remember: this is the RINO POS who threw away his chance to beat Obola in 2012.
He is quite the failure politically.
He fits right in with the drek of the GOPe.
This morning I learned that Romney spent $500,000 on this preliminary–preliminary race against Kennedy’s $30,000. Romney is a carpet bagging misfit parachuting in with a bushel of bucks just seeking a venue for his blather. Kennedy is a physician, attorney, state representative died in the wool loyal, beyond capable, concerned Utah resident. There is absolutely no comparison whatsoever. Romney ought to be sent packing. He is for himself–first, last and always. He more than had his day in the sun and its long past time that he should simply dry up and blow away instead of buying his way into Utah’s politics to use to park his political corpse.
And yet we kept being told by people that he was “inevitable.”
Those people were either stupid or shills.
as the Horde @ AoSHQ says, “…embrace the power of ‘and’…”
why can’t they be both?
(Does a little quick research) Hm, Mike Kennedy doesn’t sound too bad. Obviously, quite a few UT voters agree. I hope he does well.
Be interesting to see what sort of dirt McConnell and the GOPe will throw at Kennedy once he emerges as the candidate.
If Kennedy wins, be absolutely sure that the GOPe will openly campaign for and fund the Democrat.
Kennedy will suddenly become a “kook,” somehow. That’s the GOPe’s go-to strategy for sabotaging elections.
The swamp must have figured Utah would be a lock for Romney. Surprise. Even if he wins, it’ll be because the entire GOPe was behind him. If he loses the primary look for an ‘independent’ to pull votes from Kennedy.
It’s funny how you have to read the CNN report twice to pick up that Romney actually received fewer votes than another candidate.
The Republicans are in a better position than they’ve seen in over thirty years. And the D’rats are in existential disarray, making the R position even better.
But to capitalize on it they have to stop giving us the usual crapola same-old same-old Dem-lite candidates.
I am not a fan of Mitt Romney. When he won the presidential nomination I was not especially glad, it was a difficult vote given to him (and McCain) but they would have been better than Obama. Why does the GOP do that? We have had poor choices through the years, and it shouldn’t be that way. I get it that it’s through primaries, but are the GOPe stuffing ballot boxes like the DNC does? (I know it was the Super Delegates with the DNC but similar outcome). It just seems odd how most times the choice made for Republican is not a good one. It is as if the GOPe selected the candidate.
I’m glad to see him having a little less votes, and wouldn’t be sad to see him lose the primary. He just rubs me wrong somehow.
Like Kasich, flake, Clinton and McCain, Romney should just go away.
As Lynyrd Skynrd (sp) sung, we “don’t need him around, anyhow.”
It’s Utah. This is entirely normal – this just about happened to Hatch a couple of times. It did happen to previous Gov. Mike Leavitt – so he just started running his general campaign before the primary vote. Didn’t mention that he had a challenger – just ran all the normal puff piece commercials – blanketed the airwaves (which his opponent couldn’t afford to do) – and Leavitt won the primary without a problem.
Utah conservatives tend to stretch things out in state and county conventions because they know that those who are less “die hard” will not stay till the very end. And that’s when the voting takes place. I’ve been involved in campaigns in Utah – and they have to work to get their people to stick around for the vote at these conventions.
While Utah is a conservative state – it is not nearly as conservative as the conventions tend to be.
Romney will win the primary with zero problem.
Ugh.
I was there yesterday. I have been following Hatch’s on-again-off-again retirement for 12 years. So when he said he was out if Romney runs, I started following Romney. I am not a fan of a retiring senator bequeathing his seat to a chosen successor. To that end, I started fighting the Romney machine. Not to mention, Romney is a swamp-creature, a carpetbagger (to which question he replied at a townhall – mine was the last question, and I am sure he wished he had ended on the previous! – “Remember the Olympics?” like him being hired to do a job somewhere makes him a citizen/resident of that locale), and an arrogant noblesse oblige attitude.
I ran for state delegate of my local precinct at our caucus meeting in March. I ran specifically on the fact that I would vote against him. Someone asked who I would vote for; I had researched 3 of the declared candidates on whom I could find info. Anyway, it was close, but I was elected. So off I went yesterday.
I had not heard of Mike Kennedy before about two weeks ago, but I liked what I saw (even if my husband says he is over-educated with both an MD and a JD 😛 ). I heard him speak yesterday, and even though I like the idea of Timothy Jimenez, an environmental engineer in the US Senate, I decided to vote for who I thought had a better chance to beat Romney. On that note, however, I also really liked Larry Meyers and Sam Parker. That is another reason I do not like Romney running – Utah had 4 great candidates running who would be great to represent us, but Romney feels that only HE can save us, and through us, the country from the wreck that is Trump and the Washington Swamp.
“Some people I’ve spoken with have said this is a David vs. Goliath race, but they’re wrong,” Mr. Romney said in his speech. “I’m not Goliath. Washington, D.C., is Goliath.”
Romney gave his 5 min speech before Kennedy and did say this. Kennedy came up after, and also said a variation of this, including that the people of Utah are David, the DC swamp is Goliath, and he (Kennedy) wants to be our stone. I have to think that Kennedy had been planning to say this as part of his speech because after the convention, his people were handing out these: https://www.inkhead.com/gray-rock-stress-ball/2911/ with his logo on it. Makes me wonder if Romney overheard it and tried to steal it to make Kennedy look like he was stealing the good line. But Kennedy was obviously prepared for his analogy.
Another point – “Gathering signatures is unpopular among many conservative delegates in the state who say it dilutes their ability to choose a candidate. The issue prompted hours of debate, shouting and booing at the convention.” That was not the issue causing 3.5 hours of debate, shouting, and booing (although we did bemoan the lack of popcorn). There is a internal coup taking place in our state party, and I have not been able to find out if it is the chairman trying to oust anyone who disagrees with his autocratic control of the party or if it is a contingent of the State Central Committee that is trying to wrest control from both the chairman and the counties. I have seen evidence of both, and the literature I have been able to find is neither impartial nor clear.
All that being said, I feel that Romney will probably win. He has a lot of fans “Romney! He has connections in DC. He will be able to get stuff done! He’ll get committee chairs right off!” He also has name recognition, which is a big thing for people who may just show up on election day without any research done on the candidates. I think he was right – I think he did get hurt at the convention by circumventing our caucus tradition.
OTOH, I am not sure about Utah sending a senator by the name of Kennedy. That has been done, and I cannot say I was a fan of the last Senator Kennedy 🙂 perhaps he can redeem the name
Sounds like not much has changed since 2000/2002 when I attended county and state conventions.
As for “exerting control” – historically, UT GOP leadership has been “mainstream” Republican for quite a while. There are quite a few party activists who are much more conservative – but they don’t have enough power/support to get elected to statewide UTGOP positions.
So, if I had to guess – it’d be the state central committee who’s trying to wrest control from the party chair.
I know there was people like Gayle Ruzicka, Arnold Gaunt and Nancy Lord who are constantly fighting against party leadership. They were always running for party leadership positions – but never had enough support to actually win.
Your information is out of date. The latest US Senator Kennedy is John Kennedy (R-LA).
You are not alone.
I’ve witnessed the exact same behavior in Arizona, where the GOP establishment rigs the game against citizens and true conservatives. I believe this is how they hold onto power in every state in the nation: union-like thug tactics to subvert the organization, then monopoly-like tactics to deny voters another, better choice.
Stay strong and keep fighting.
Mike Kennedy is “working to stop the Romney machine.” Nice.
Some guy told me Romney hasn’t paid his taxes in ten years.
If Romney wins the Senate seat, it is another vote for anything McConnell wants and against anything we Deplorables want. Romney has already said that his goal is to replace McCain as someone to oppose President Trump. Kind of makes you wonder why bother to vote Republican.
“Republican” means nothing anymore. Its just a party we align with occassionally.
They’re not on our side.
“Repeal obamacare.”Remember that one?
Phuck Romney. We need this RINO like we need clap.
I was a big Romney supporter in 2012 and admire his past political work. Very moral guy too. But he really turned me off when he repeatedly bashed Trump once the primaries were over and the only competition left was Hillary. You don’t have to kiss Trump’s feet the way the Left kissed Obama’s, but he was the only option we had at the time and has turned out to do a really good job thus far. Here’s hoping Romney fades into retirement once again.
He won’t “fade away,” and that’s the problem.
Just like the culture wars, you will be *made* to care. If you want change, you’re going to have to FIGHT for it, because there are a whole lot of corrupt people whose livelihoods depend on the system staying just like it is.
I am old enough to remember Nixon losing the CA governors race after his 1960 loss (stolen election with Kennedy family colluding with the Daley machine in Chicago). I sense Romney is going down in June. I saw Dr. Mike Kennedy on Fox this morning, very impressive. Romney is running to be an alternative to Trump in 2020, even after Trump endorsed him. It’s time to put the Mittens away and retire them forever.
“Romney is running to be an alternative to Trump in 2020, even after Trump endorsed him.”
Which begs the question of why Trump keeps endorsing squishes like Romney (Luther Strange was McConnell’s man, and Trump also endorsed John McCain even though it’s known that he hates him).
As I’ve repeatedly warned, Trump is halfway in bed with the GOPe. He has traded independence and doing right by the voters in exchange for the GOP establishment’s organization and money. He did this back in 2016, when it wasn’t sure if he or Cruz would win the nomination.
The GOPe already knew for a fact they couldn’t break Cruz (they already tried!), and took a gamble that Trump would be more accommodating towards corrupt politicians. They were right.
Now, I still think Trump is a million times better than Hillary so we made the right choice. But people need to wake up to the fact that Trump doesn’t always have their best interests at heart.
That’s why we keep having to reject his endorsements.
Mitt is 5hit! Where do I send my check for Kennedy!?
https://www.kennedy4senate.com/
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