Mitt Romney: How He Could End Up The Republican Presidential Nominee


It’s been a fairly big week for Mitt Romney. Despite not “officially” running for president this time around, the Romney name has been in the news a lot lately. On March 3, he gave a scathing speech at the University of Utah, where he tore into GOP front-runner Donald Trump. Then CNN reported that Mitt Romney’s advisers are working out the best way to prevent Donald Trump from securing the GOP presidential nomination at the July Republican Convention.

It’s even been reported that Mitt Romney recently filed paperwork with the FEC, paperwork that would allow him to run for president. In that paperwork, Romney named Speaker of the House Paul Ryan as his running mate.

Trump Romney
[Photo by @LIbertea2012/Twitter]
With all of the media attention that’s been given to the GOP primaries in the last year or so, some people are wondering how Romney could throw his name in the hat at this late date. After all, while Mitt Romney has been sitting on the fringes, a large group of Republican contenders has been whittled down to four — Kasich, Rubio, Cruz, and Trump. All four remaining in the GOP primary race have devoted time, money, sweat, and tears to a brutal race. Is it really possible that Mitt Romney could come in like the “White Horse” he proclaimed himself to be in 2012 and actually steal the nomination?

The short answer is yes. Even now, after Super Tuesday and Super Saturday, even after millions upon millions of dollars spent by the slew of potential GOP nominees, Mitt Romney (who was endorsed by Donald Trump in 2012) could potentially end up the 2016 Republican presidential nominee.

Romney has sworn that he isn’t trying to “steal” the nomination from the last four candidates standing, reports the Washington Post. However, Mitt Romney isn’t completely shutting the door on the possibility, either.

The Romney way to the White House in 2016 would require a contested convention in July. In layman’s terms, this would be a Republican Convention in which none of the GOP primary candidates manages to collect enough delegates to secure the Republican nomination. The magic number is 1,237. If none of the candidates reach that number of delegates throughout the course of the primaries, delegates at the Republican Convention will be free to vote for who they please.

This would mean that delegates could choose to vote for any “off-the-board name” that might be entered for consideration at the convention. Such names could very well include Mitt Romney.

“I don’t think anyone in our party should say, ‘Oh no, even if the people in the party wanted me to be the president, I would say no to it.’ No one’s going to say that.”

To be fair, such a scenario is pretty far-fetched, but it could plausibly happen. Following Super Saturday, Donald Trump has managed to secure 382 delegates, Ted Cruz is sitting in a comfortable second place with 300, Marco Rubio has 128 delegates, and John Kasich is holding 35. There are still 1,612 Republican delegates available, and they could be split any number of ways. It is entirely possible that Mitt Romney’s “White Horse” scenario could come into play this election cycle.

Speech Exerpts
[Photo by @MarkHalperin/Twitter]
Especially with Mitt’s plans to block Donald Trump’s nomination at the Republican Convention. A source close to the Romney inner circle told CNN that Mitt Romney has instructed his advisers to work out the likelihood of actually blocking Trump’s nomination at the convention. It appears that Romney’s ultimate goal isn’t actually to secure the GOP nomination for himself, but rather to ensure that the nomination goes to anyone but Donald Trump. Mitt Romney has said he’d support Trump’s closest competitors, Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio, but that he doesn’t support Trump and he’s encouraged fellow Republicans not to do so, either.

“His bankruptcies have crushed small businesses and the men and women who worked for them. He inherited his business, he didn’t create it. And whatever happened to Trump Airlines? How about Trump University? And then there’s Trump Magazine and Trump Vodka and Trump Steaks, and Trump mortgage? A business genius he is not.”

For his part, despite the harsh words against Trump, despite the FEC filing, Mitt Romney says he doesn’t think it’s likely that he will be added to the GOP presidential ballot at the Republican Convention, even if he’s able to block Trump at the last minute.

“I can guarantee you this: One of the people running for president — one of the four — is going to be the Republican Party nominee. Three of the four are people I would endorse. But I’m not running, and I’m not going to be running.”

Are we hearing some famous last words from Mitt Romney? Is the 2012 Republican presidential nominee really that far removed from a second White House bid?

It’s still too early to tell.

As for Donald Trump, he’s repeatedly flip-flopped on his devotion to the Republican Party. On more than one occasion, he’s pledged to run on the Republican ticket or not at all. However, on just as many occasions, he’s spoken of running as a third-party candidate if the felt “unfairly treated” by the Republicans. Is it possible we’re going to see a general election that features the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump as an Independent and Mitt Romney sneaking in on the Republican ticket?

[Image Courtesy Of @2012Taxes/Twitter]

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