Meet the ‘plain old guy’ who could end Mitt Romney’s political career

Mike Kennedy is not really plain or old. He’s a physician, and a lawyer, and a three-term state legislator, a husband and father of eight children. He’s a practicing member of the Mormon LDS Church and an Eagle Scout. And he’s 20 years younger than his opponent.

But you get the idea, and Kennedy is hoping Utah Republicans do, too. He’s not a descendant of a famous political family. He’s not part of the loathed establishment. He’s not “one of the privileged elite” or “just an image on a screen,” he says.

And perhaps most importantly to Utah Republicans, Kennedy’s not going to be a constant thorn in the side of his party’s president. “I stand with President Trump,” he says. “I’m deeply supportive of what he’s done. When I disagree with someone, I don’t need to go give a speech at a university.”

That jab was aimed at the 2016 speech Romney gave at the University of Utah, in which he labeled Trump “phony” and a “fraud.”

Kennedy hasn’t delivered any university speeches criticizing Trump. But he has held a press conference to chide Romney. In mid-May, Romney denounced Trump’s choice of Robert Jeffress to say a prayer at the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. Romney called the Texas pastor a “religious bigot” for derogatory statements he’d made about the LDS Church and other faiths. Kennedy responded by holding a press conference in which he apologized to Jeffress for Romney’s comments.

During their only debate on May 29, Romney touted Trump’s endorsement of his candidacy and the “relationships” he has within the Trump White House. But Kennedy continued to lambaste Romney for criticizing Trump, even drawing upon his first career to offer the following critique:

Kennedy’s criticisms are his way of distinguishing himself from the man who was once expected to cruise to victory in both the primary and general elections.

Kennedy has derailed that expectation, at least for now. In April, Kennedy surprised just about everybody but himself by beating Romney 51 percent to 49 percent among delegates to the Utah Republican Party Convention.

Romney and Kennedy will face off in the Republican primary on June 26.

When I met Kennedy at the Utah State Capitol a few weeks after his convention win, I asked him about the coincidence of his name. The only other time Romney has run for U.S. Senate, in Massachusetts in 1994, he lost to Ted Kennedy. “He’s 0-for-1 against Kennedys,” Mike Kennedy said. “I may have the same name, but I’m no Ted Kennedy.”

Kennedy is in much the same position that Romney was in a quarter-century ago, running as a relatively unknown candidate against the state’s most prominent and beloved politician. Utah’s Gov. Gary Herbert has called Romney “Utah’s favorite adopted son.” Ted Wilson, the former Salt Lake City mayor and father of Jenny Wilson, the Democratic nominee for Senate, has referred to Romney as “a guy who’s almost a God in Utah politics.”

Romney’s exalted status doesn’t faze Kennedy. He said that while Romney may be well-known, his name isn’t necessarily associated with only good things. Romney “ruffled some feathers” when he managed the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Kennedy said. “I heard some people tell some personal stories about some things that happened during the Olympics.”

As Kennedy made clear during the debate, he has pledged not to publicly criticize the president. “[Trump’s] work product is outstanding, despite the fact that he may rub people the wrong way sometimes,” he told me. “ If I find that we disagree, I’ll disagree respectfully.”

I pressed Kennedy a little, and asked him whether as a man of faith, he finds it difficult to disregard Trump’s bad behavior. “We’ve all got problems,” he said. “And I’ve always subscribed to this philosophy my entire life: I better take the beam out of my own eye before I take the moat out of someone else’s eye. When I stand up to someone, it will be respectful and most of the time it will be privately done.”

On policy, Kennedy is a Freedom Caucus-style Republican whose top priority is deficit reduction. He looks to Utah’s other senator, Mike Lee, as a role model. “I would be an ally of his in moving our government to a smaller version of what it is,” he said.

Kennedy is placing his career as a physician front and center in his campaign. His yard signs and literature refer to him as “Dr. Mike Kennedy.” He stresses that the qualities he honed as a primary care physician (thoughtfulness, compassion and listening skills) help him as a legislator too. But he adds, “When I have to be fierce and willing to fight, I can and will.”

Kennedy says he won the Republican convention through sheer “sweat equity.” He worked the phones and the convention floor, touting his everyman roots and uncommon resume.

As convention day wore on, and confetti and other debris began to litter the floor, Kennedy grabbed a broom and started sweeping, underscoring his plain old guy-ness and eliciting applause from his supporters.

The sweat equity and phone calls helped, no doubt. But there was something else: Kennedy relied on the caucus-convention system to reach the primary. Romney, meanwhile, also gathered signatures to ensure that he’d reach the primary even if he lost at the convention. Many conservative delegates in Utah loathe the 2014 law that allows candidates to earn a spot in the primary by collecting signatures, which diminishes their power.

So some delegates voted against Romney as a protest not against his candidacy but against the process he used to reach the primary. “The only hurt Romney will suffer from [his signature gathering] has already happened,” Jason Perry, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, told me. That means anyone looking at the convention results for signs of an impending Romney defeat should look elsewhere.

One place I looked was a backyard event in Ogden, Utah, about an hour’s drive north of Salt Lake City, where about three-dozen people recently gathered to hear Kennedy’s pitch in late May.

Most of the attendees I spoke with said they had supported Romney’s presidential campaigns. But many were angry about his constant critiques of Trump.

“When [Romney] blasted Trump, he lost me,” said Alexander Norton of Romney’s 2016 University of Utah speech. “When he did that, he showed it’s all about Mitt. It’s about setting up a dynasty. He showed his true colors. From that point forward, I couldn’t support him. And I’d supported him before.”

When Kennedy got to the event, he introduced himself by talking about his humble beginnings. Raised by a single mother, he made money as a boy mowing lawns for $5 a pop. “I learned early to work hard and save money,” he said.

Then came college at Brigham Young University, medical school at Michigan State University, and law school back at BYU. He soon felt the call to politics. Kennedy has served in the Utah state legislature since 2013. All the while, he’s been raising eight children with his wife, Katrina.

The centerpiece of Kennedy’s stump speech is the Biblical story of David versus Goliath, which he sees as a metaphor for his candidacy. His campaign even hands out stone-shaped stress cushions with “Kennedy for Senate” emblazoned on them.

But in Kennedy’s telling, he’s not David and Mitt Romney is not Goliath. The people of Utah represent David, he says, and the federal government is Goliath. “I’m your stone to fling at the foes of liberty,” he tells audiences.

Then Kennedy returned to his main message: “I’m just an average person. I came from average circumstances. …I’m not one of the privileged elite.”

Kennedy’s other top policy priority (other than the deficit, which he proposes to reduce by enacting across-the-board cuts to federal agencies) is immigration reform. He supports President Trump’s border wall but, as a Mormon and the son of a naturalized U.S. citizen from Canada, mentions that he’s “deeply sympathetic and empathetic to those who want to come here to work.” On DACA, Kennedy said, “I won’t talk about it until we secure the border.”

During the question-and-answer portion of the event, a man named Roger Moon said, “I always thought Romney would be the greatest president. [But] he really should have kept his mouth shut about Trump.” Moon then revealed that he’d now vote for “a dirty yellow dog” over Romney.

Somebody asked Kennedy how he will be able to compete financially with Romney. According to FEC records, Romney had $1.15 million cash on hand at the end of the first quarter, to Kennedy’s $257,000. Kennedy again alluded to his up-from-the-bootstraps story. “Coming from poverty, I know how to stretch a dollar,” he said.

When Moon asked Kennedy whether he plans to exploit the fact that Romney became an official resident of Utah only in 2014, Kennedy responded, “In the state of Utah, we have to be gentle and kind.” At the debate, Kennedy referred to Romney as a “Boston businessman” who “has seen fit to relocate here.”

Kennedy has the calm, reassuring demeanor of a family physician, and despite being fairly new to politics, he’s engaging on the stump and rarely seems caught off guard by a question.

Later, I chat with a man wearing a “Make Mitt Lose Again” baseball hat. He said he won’t be voting for Romney, who he suspects will run for president in two years “and leave us without a senator again.”

The guy’s hat is a good reminder that for all of Romney’s prominence in Republican politics, he hasn’t been very good at winning elections. He’s just 1-for-4, having won one term as governor of Massachusetts, lost two presidential contests, and lost that bid for U.S. Senate against Ted Kennedy.

Romney’s 1994 loss was something of a moral victory, though. He made Kennedy work harder than he’d ever worked to win re-election. Kennedy was even forced to take a mortgage out on his home to pay for all the negative ads he ran against the upstart Republican Romney.

Mike Kennedy assured me he won’t be taking out any mortgages. In fact, he told the audience at his next campaign stop at Ridgeline High School in Logan that paying off his 30-year mortgage in 15 years is his “greatest private sector success.”

Then, after taking a few questions about national monument designations and term limits, Kennedy returned to his favorite theme. “I don’t want my name on any bridges or buildings,” he said. “I’m just a plain old guy. I come from dirt.”

Daniel Allott is the author of Trump’s America: The Race to 2020 and formerly the Washington Examiner’s deputy commentary editor.