Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is encouraging President Trump to throw his support behind Mitt Romney’s U.S. Senate candidacy despite their rocky past.
“I can’t imagine that he’s not,” McConnell, R-Ky., told the New York Times on Friday when asked if the president was going to support Romney’s campaign. “We don’t want to lose the seat, and this looks like a pretty formidable candidate.”
Romney is running to replace Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who will be retiring at the end of his seventh term, despite previously being encouraged by the White House to run for another term.
The 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former governor of Massachusetts has been no stranger to questioning Trump’s leadership, but said on Friday that he will work with the president on policies that benefit his constituents if elected.
However, he also vowed hold the president accountable if he deems it necessary.
“If he says something I don’t like, I will call it like I see it,” Romney said before a group of Utah Republicans, just hours after announcing his candidacy in the 2018 U.S. Senate race in the state.
After months of speculation, Romney officially threw his hat in the ring in the race to fill Hatch’s seat on Friday by releasing a social media video outlining his vision.
