Former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney captured his party’s nomination for Senate in Utah on Tuesday.
Romney defeated conservative state Rep. Mike Kennedy for the opportunity to succeed longtime Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Kennedy forced the primary by narrowly beating Romney 51 percent to 49 percent at the state GOP convention. Romney led among the full primary electorate by some 50 percentage points.
[Related: Trump congratulates Mitt Romney on ‘big and conclusive’ primary win]
In the overwhelmingly Republican state, Romney will be the heavy favorite against Democratic nominee Jenny Wilson, a member of the Salt Lake City council.
Romney has positioned himself as a counterweight to Trump in a state where Mormon voters have been slow to warm to the president. He recently said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a frequent Trump critic and the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, would be a model for his service.
At the same time, Romney has toned down his criticism of Trump compared to the 2016 campaign, when he emerged as a leading “Never Trump” figure. Some anti-Trump conservatives hoped Romney would launch an independent or third-party presidential campaign, but he remained on the sidelines aside from speaking out against both Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
During his Senate race, Romney has promised to speak out against Trump when merited. He strongly opposed the immigration policy that led to the separation of families at the border, for example.
But Romney has also emphasized areas of agreement with Trump and even praised him at times. “I do not make this a daily commentary; I express contrary views only when I believe it is a matter of substantial significance,” he wrote in the Salt Lake Tribune.
Two other Trump-backed candidates, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and New York Rep. Dan Donovan, won their primaries Tuesday night.
Trump has endorsed Romney for Senate, but he also tried to prevent a Romney candidacy by exhorting Hatch, a loyalist of the president, to run for another term. Hatch declined. Trump briefly considered Romney for secretary of state after winning the presidency, settling instead on businessman Rex Tillerson.
Son of the late George Romney, a former Michigan governor who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination and served in President Richard Nixon’s Cabinet, Romney began his political career in Massachusetts. He was the 1994 GOP challenger to Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., losing 58 percent to 41 percent.
Romney contemplated running for governor of Utah after saving the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Massachusetts Republicans implored him to run for governor in the commonwealth instead. He won that race, defeating Democrat Shannon O’Brien, and served a single term, declining to run for re-election in 2006.
It was during these campaigns that Romney acquired a reputation for centrism, strongly supporting legal abortion during his Senate run and implementing healthcare reforms as governor that became a model for Obamacare. Romney had to modify some of these positions to win over conservative primary voters when he ran for president in 2008 and 2012, acquiring the “flip-flopper” label.
On his second try, Romney received the GOP nod for president but lost the general election to President Barack Obama. Democrats attacked Romney’s record as a venture capitalist, a tactic that worked for Kennedy in 1994.
Utah is a much safer state from which to launch a Romney political comeback, starting Tuesday as he beat another — unrelated — Kennedy in a Senate contest.
