Mitt Romney says he’s not running for president again — at least not yet.
The failed 2012 Republican presidential nominee, in an interview for MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program that aired Wednesday, said he’s “not running” for president in 2016 — stepping back from hints he recently made that he was open to such a possibility.
But the former Massachusetts governor then quickly added he was “not planning on running,” leaving the door ever-so-slightly open to the possibility of another White House bid.
“I’m not going to add to the story beyond that,” he said.
Romney told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in June that he wasn’t going to run for president in two years, calling such speculation “silly.” But he soon began to hedge, saying in August that “circumstances can change.”
The Washington Examiner’s Byron York wrote in September that Romney was “talking with advisers, consulting with his family, keeping a close eye on the emerging ’16 Republican field, and carefully weighing the pluses and minuses of another run.”
And in a Time magazine article published days later, Romney was quoted as saying “we’ll see what happens” when asked if he was going to run again.
Enthusiasm for another Romney run has been growing among some Republican faithful. An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted earlier this month shows the former governor held a commanding lead among several potential candidates, with 21 percent support of registered Republican voters. Former governors Jeb Bush of Florida and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas tied for second, with 10-percent support in the survey.
A “Mitt Romney for President 2016” Facebook page has more than 7,800 “likes.” Several Facebook pages dedicated to Bush and Huckabee potential White House runs collectively have significantly less likes.
Romney told “Morning Joe” that he understands he still is on the minds of many voters as a possible 2016 GOP candidate but that other White House hopefuls deserve a shot.
“Right now I’m kind of like, ‘Well, he’s the guy who ran it last time — he’s got to do it again.’ Well, there will be some other new faces that will will step forward,” he said. “We’ll get a chance to see them and see how they do.”
