Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah is putting his political muscle to work for Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill, launching a new vehicle for high-dollar fundraising and planning to headline events around the country in the months ahead.
Romney, the GOP presidential nominee in 2012 and among the party’s most prolific fundraisers, has formed “Team Mitt,” a joint fundraising committee with the National Republican Senatorial Committee. This weekend, the senator is traveling to Florida to mingle with Republican donors attending an annual NRSC finance retreat, the first of several trips planned to help protect the party’s Senate majority in 2020.
“Sen. Romney has an expansive national fundraising network, and Team Mitt will leverage that to help his colleagues who are up for reelection in 2020 and to help elect new Republicans to the Senate,” a Romney adviser told the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
Romney, 71, the former governor of Massachusetts, was elected to the Senate last year in Utah, his adopted home state of the last decade where his familial roots run deep. As a former presidential nominee, Romney arrived in the Senate with a political machine and Rolodex of campaign contributors uniquely robust for a freshman member of Congress.
That history, and Romney’s periodic squabbling with President Trump, has stoked speculation that he might be readying a third presidential bid. But Romney has said he’s not interested and ruled out challenging Trump in the 2020 Republican primary. “Team Mitt” and Romney’s other political activities, aides say, are about defending the Senate majority.
“Team Mitt” is an old nickname of sorts. In the past, Republicans and others supportive of Romney’s political endeavors would use it to describe their affiliation with him.
To boost NRSC coffers, Romney has created a fundraising committee of the same name — one that will be instantly recognizable to his donors. The new instrument is a joint effort of the NRSC, the Senate GOP campaign arm, Romney’s Senate campaign, and Believe in America, his political action committee. Under federal election law, the entity can collect nearly $250,000 each from individual contributors.
This coming weekend, Romney will among a group of approximately 20 GOP senators in Florida to socialize with Republican donors at a two-day NRSC retreat.
