Search results
Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer, and the junior United States senator from Utah since 2019. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and was the Republican Party 's nominee for president of the United States in the 2012 election , losing to Barack Obama .
- Overview
- Early life and business career
- Governor of Massachusetts
- Presidential runs in 2008 and 2012
- Later activities and U.S Senate
Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.) American politician who served as governor of Massachusetts (2003–07) and who later represented Utah in the U.S. Senate (2019– ). He was the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2012.
The youngest of four siblings, Romney was born into one of the most prominent families within the Mormon faith. His father, George Romney, was a successful business executive who managed American Motors from near bankruptcy to record profits and who later served as governor of Michigan (1963–69) and as secretary of housing and urban development (1969–72) in the cabinet of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon. The younger Romney attended Stanford University in California, but he interrupted his studies in 1966 to undertake a 30-month missionary campaign for the Mormon church in France. While there he was seriously injured in a car accident, and he returned to the United States a few months later. Romney graduated summa cum laude from Brigham Young University with a B.A. degree in English in 1971. He earned J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Harvard University in 1975.
Britannica Quiz
12 Quotes from U.S. Presidential Debates: A Quiz
Romney then moved into the private sector as an investment consultant. He spent most of the next 20 years with the Boston-based consulting firm Bain & Company and its investment-focused spin-off, Bain Capital, which he cofounded in 1984 with Coleman Andrews and Eric Kriss. During his time at Bain, Romney acquired a multimillion-dollar fortune.
Romney made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 1994 against Democratic incumbent Ted Kennedy. His successful turnaround of the scandal-plagued 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, chronicled by Romney in Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games (2004), served as a springboard for his successful Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign in 2002.
After taking office in 2003, Romney addressed the state’s budget problems, implemented universal health care for the uninsured, and created a scholarship program for lower- and middle-income students to attend Massachusetts universities. Romney sometimes took centrist positions early in his political career (e.g., during his 1994 campaign against Kennedy, he argued that homosexuals needed “more support from the Republican Party” and that “abortion should be safe and legal”), but later in his career he fashioned himself as a fiscal and social conservative, maintaining that his views on such issues had evolved. Romney was opposed to gay marriage, and, after the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in November 2003 that the denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples was unconstitutional, he tried unsuccessfully to have the issue placed on the ballot. He did not seek a second term as governor, and he left office in 2007.
Romney turned next to pursuing the Republican nomination for president in 2008. His campaign platform stressed his achievements as governor, as well as his business background, and suggested that his successes as governor could be repeated at the federal level. His campaign received a boost in August 2007 when he finished in first place in the Iowa straw poll. In January 2008, however, Romney placed a disappointing second in both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, losing to Mike Huckabee and John McCain, respectively. He won the relatively uncontested Wyoming caucuses and emerged from Super Tuesday (February 5, 2008) in second place, behind front-runner McCain. Acknowledging the gap that existed between the number of delegates that each candidate could claim, Romney suspended his campaign several days later.
Are you a student? Get Britannica Premium for only 24.95 - a 67% discount!
Learn More
Romney remained active in politics, and he also published the book No Apology: The Case for American Greatness (2010). In June 2011 he announced his decision to make a second run for the presidency. Romney began the campaign as the perceived front-runner for the Republican nomination. During the ensuing months, however, he struggled to draw support from social conservatives, who still viewed him as a moderate, and he placed second behind more-conservative candidates in important primaries, including Ohio’s. Nevertheless, he was able to rally most of the Republican Party around his candidacy and earned enough delegates after the Texas primary in May 2012 to secure the presidential nomination. In August Romney chose U.S. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his vice presidential running mate.
Although there was speculation that Romney would stage a third presidential run, in 2015 he publicly stated that he was not entering the 2016 race. However, he was a notable presence during the campaign, becoming a vocal critic of Donald Trump, the eventual Republican nominee and winner. In February 2018 Romney announced that he was running for the U.S. Senate seat in Utah that was being vacated by the retiring Orrin Hatch. Despite their differences, Romney quickly received the endorsement of Trump. Although widely seen as the favourite candidate, Romney failed to secure his party’s nomination in a vote during the Utah Republican convention in April, necessitating a primary election. However, he easily won that contest two months later, and in November 2018 he was elected to the Senate. Shortly before taking office in January 2019, Romney wrote an op-ed in which he was harshly critical of Trump, alleging that the president “has not risen to the mantle of the office.” Later that year the House of Representatives impeached Trump over his actions involving Ukraine, charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and in early 2020 the Senate held a trial. Trump was easily acquitted, but Romney made history by voting to convict Trump of abusing his power, thereby becoming the only U.S. senator to vote for the removal of a president from his own party. However, he acquitted Trump on the charge of obstructing Congress.
In the 2020 presidential election, Trump was defeated by Joe Biden, who had served as Obama’s vice president. Trump and various Republicans, however, challenged the results, alleging widespread voter fraud despite a lack of evidence. Romney condemned those claims as “reckless.” On January 6, 2021, he and other members of Congress met to certify Biden’s win, but the proceedings were temporarily halted when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. When Congress reconvened hours later, Romney gave a speech in which he accused Trump of inciting the deadly siege. On January 13, one week before the end of Trump’s presidency, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for “incitement of insurrection.” At the Senate trial the following month, Romney and six other Republicans joined with Democrats to vote for Trump’s conviction; the former president, however, was acquitted.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sep 14, 2023 · Mitt Romney is the junior U.S. senator from Utah and was the Republican Party’s nominee for president of the United States during the 2012 election, when he lost to Barack Obama.
The latest posts from @MittRomney
22 Aug 2024
Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947), usually called Mitt Romney, is an American politician and businessman. Romney is the junior United States senator from Utah since January 3, 2019. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts serving from 2003 to 2007. He ran for the Republican Party nomination in the 2008 election, but lost the ...
Prior to serving in the Senate, Romney served as Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. He also led the 2002 Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Winter Olympics and, with a team of volunteers and managers, helped turn the struggling Games into a Utah success story. He was a candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination and ...
People also ask
Who was Mitt Romney?
How old is Mitt Romney?
When did Mitt Romney run for President?
Where did Mitt Romney grow up?
Sep 13, 2023 · Top left: Mitt and Ann Romney at a dinner in Washington for Richard Nixon’s inauguration, January 1973. Top right: Romney speaking to a Mormon congregation in the Boston area, 1980s.