Mitt Romney is considering a 2016 presidential campaign, the 2012 GOP nominee told a group of donors Friday.
Romney was speaking at a session with donors in New York City, a person familiar with Romney’s remarks told the Wall Street Journal.
“Everybody in here can go tell your friends that I’m considering a run,” Romney told the crowd, according to Politico. That language is a slight departure from October, when said he wasn’t “planning on running” in 2016.
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A third Romney bid would add another perceived moderate to a field of likely competitors that already includes former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
The former governor of Massachusetts would have a strong core of supporters.
“Virtually the entire advisory group that surrounded Mitt in 2012 are eager for him to run, almost to a man and a woman,” a Romney insider told the Washington Examiner in September.
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Bush currently leads the prospective GOP field with 17 percentage points of support, according the RealClearPolitics polling average. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee round out the top five.
While Romney is not listed on RealClear’s polling average, he consistently performs well in outside polls.
“I don’t really think you can objectively chalk it up to name ID,” a Romney insider told the Examiner in December. “People are saying, ‘He was right.’ I think that has happened in so many different ways that people are looking at it with a fresh perspective.”
Update: BuzzFeed News has a blistering quote from a former Romney adviser on Bush’s vulnerability compared to newcomers such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
“Look, Jeb’s a good guy. I think the governor likes Jeb,” the adviser told BuzzFeed. “But Jeb is Common Core, Jeb is immigration, Jeb has been talking about raising taxes recently. Can you imagine Jeb trying to get through a Republican primary? Can you imagine what Ted Cruz is going to do to Jeb Bush? I mean, that’s going to be ugly.”
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