Ann Romney Says No To A Third Romney Run

Mitt Romney 2016? Not as far as his wife is concerned.

meh-romney

While there’s been plenty of speculation about the possibility of Mitt Romney running for President a third time, his wife seems to already considered the matter and rejected it:

On another matter that has been the subject of much political babbling lately — a potential third run for president by her husband — Ann Romney was happy to wave off the possibility.

“Done,” she said. “Completely. Not only Mitt and I are done, but the kids are done,” she said, referring to her five sons. “Done. Done. Done.”

Asked whether there were any circumstances under which she would encourage the former Massachusetts governor to attempt another run — or if she would support him if he wanted to run — she said she hadn’t “been pushed to that point mentally,” but that they would make the decision together.

She reeled off a long list of what she called “really interesting” potential Republican contenders, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and her husband’s 2012 choice for vice president, Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin.

“We’re going to see a nice field shake out.”

Much like Mitt Romney’s own disclaimers of interest in a potential 2016 run, it’s unlikely that these statements from Ann Romney are going to stop people from speculating about the possibility of her husband making another run for the Presidency. Part of the reason for that, of course, is the fact that Romney continues to act like someone who at least wants to keep his name relevant in the Republican Party, with the best example of that being the numerous endorsements and fundraising trips that he’s made for Republican candidates for both the House and the Senate around the country this year, a schedule that he seems intent on keeping during the final weeks of the campaign. Additionally, many of the advisers and donors that were supporting Romney in 2008 and 2012 seem to be staying loyal to him, or at least staying on the sidelines, until Romney’s intentions are clear.  As I noted when I last wrote about this, it’s only natural for people to look at activity like that and think that, just maybe, Romney is keeping the door a little more open to the idea of running again under the right circumstances.

There was some discussion of those circumstances this morning on Morning Joe, and there were two points that were made that stick out to me. Firstly, it’s increasingly beginning to look like Chris Christie may not run for President after all. Notwithstanding the fact that the so-called “Bridgegate” investigation has failed to find any evidence of wrongdoing by the Governor or any knowledge by him of what was going on, there’s no question that the story has damaged him politically. Just today, a new Rutgers-Eagelton poll shows Christie with a negative favorability rating in New Jersey for the first time since 2011, for example. Additionally, Christie’s standing in the polls of potential 2016 candidates for the GOP nomination has declined significantly from where it was when he won re-election last year. And, finally, Christie would face the same problems with the GOP base that he always would have  if he ran, but he will no longer benefit from the high favorability numbers he once had. In addition to Christie, there are also questions about Jeb Bush, who is facing having to decide if he will finally decide to run for an office he passed up twice before already. What Bush is thinking right now is a guessing game, of course, but there’s as much reason to believe that he won’t be running as there is to believe that he will. Even if he does run, though, Bush is not polling where you’d expect to see a strong candidate to poll in the early matchups, especially given what would think if his high level of name recognition. If neither Christie nor Bush prove viable, than the people who were behind Romney and the rest of the GOP “establishment” and business community is going to be looking for a candidate, and at that point the name Romney is likely to be on their minds. Whether he takes the bait will be up to him.

FILED UNDER: 2016 Election, The Presidency, US Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. al-Ameda says:

    Right now I believe that Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and Rand Paul are the best candidates the Republican Party has to offer. Maybe someone else emerges from the primordial mists, I don’t know, but I can’t believe it’s going to be a sour conservative Catholic like Rick Santorum or a completely thoughtless media centric candidate like Sarah Palin.

  2. beth says:

    While there’s been plenty of speculation about the possibility of Mitt Romney running for President a third time, his wife seems to already considered the matter and rejected it:

    If you believe this, I’ve got a car elevator to sell you. It always felt like she took the loss harder than he did – he seemed almost relieved.

  3. legion says:

    @beth: I think he _was_ relieved, at least on some level. It was painfully apparent throughout the campaign that he had absolutely no idea at all _why_ he was running or what he intended to accomplish; it was just what was “expected” of him to do, like some latter-day Hapsburg prince ascending the throne.

  4. PAUL HOOSON says:

    Romney’s past problem is his lack of management skills over his campaign organization, which was very disorganized compared to the Democrats. On election day, for example, critical “get out the vote” software wasn’t functional in many key states. Further, even campaign donors complained that Romney’s 2012 campaign was managed much like some college freshman class project rather than a professional organization. Further, the candidate was undisciplined and would offer campaign positions on the stump that contradicted his previous actions as governor or previously held views. And Romney seemed to lack much of a message, other than he was wealthy, and it was his turn to be the Republican nominee. Romney also preferred to plan campaign efforts on hopelessly hopeful and biased polling techniques, rather than much more objective polling which would have redirected campaign efforts towards other key states and saved money spent in safer states or states not within his reach. – In all, Romney really offered little to motivate his voters other than those who disliked President Obama. – He had a golden opportunity to lay out a vision for the country, yet his campaign never really seemed to make the effort to do that. – Unlike his father, George Romney, who was a brilliant businessman and a progressive and compassionate Republican governor, the son just seemed like a whole lot less than even a chip off the old block. – Nothing about the Romney campaign proved the business management skills that you would expect from Romney. – The best campaign, and not always the best candidate win elections every time. And, like John McCain, Romney ran another poor campaign for president, failing by around 5 million votes, despite being decidedly less qualified than John McCain who lost by around 10 million votes. Romney’s best hope in 2012 was to capitalize off of voter’s remorse over Obama. Yet, Romney, only managed to appear to be not ready for primetime himself, with a clumsy campaign and a running mate who often struck voters as dishonest and not very truthful talking head when he explained campaign issues. – The pair had all of the charm of two slick used car dealers out selling lemons to an old lady who only wanted an honest ride to go to church on Sunday. – That hardly sold the deal to many voters. By comparison, Obama was at least the devil you know, which looked somewhat better by comparison…5 million votes better…

  5. gVOR08 says:

    Asked whether there were any circumstances under which she would encourage the former Massachusetts governor to attempt another run — or if she would support him if he wanted to run — she said she hadn’t “been pushed to that point mentally,” but that they would make the decision together.

    Didn’t that strike you as a bit short of Shermanesque?

    ______
    “I hereby state, and mean all that I say, that I never have been and never will be a candidate for President; that if nominated by either party, I should peremptorily decline; and even if unanimously elected I should decline to serve.” – W. T. Sherman

  6. legion says:

    @al-Ameda: I’m waiting to see Ted Cruz and Governor Goodhair get into a knife-fight to named the One True Son of Texas; both of them desperately want to sit in the Big Chair, and if they don’t get it in 2016, they’ll likely have to wait until 2024 for the next shot…

  7. Pinky says:

    … the numerous endorsements and fundraising trips that he’s made for Republican candidates for both the House and the Senate around the country this year, a schedule that he seems intent on keeping during the final weeks of the campaign.

    That’s what party leaders are supposed to do. It might not hurt their future chances, but they’re supposed to be rallying the troops. This idea that you’re only supposed to campaign for yourself is fairly new.

  8. anjin-san says:

    @PAUL HOOSON:

    Romney’s folks were both quite admirable. What happened to Mitt is anyone’s guess.

  9. gVOR08 says:

    @anjin-san: Privilege.

  10. anjin-san says:

    @gVOR08:

    Privilege

    That’s a good guess.

  11. Barry says:

    @gVOR08: And a changing GOP. His father was a governor when the Goldwaterites were just taking over (63-69). His father was in favor of civil rights; he works the opponents of civil rights.

  12. Just 'nutha' ig'rant cracker says:

    I think the fact that the father engaged in a business that made products while the son engaged in a business that made deals plays a role, but I can’t exactly explain why that matters.