One potential Republican presidential contender has already said no: Jon Huntsman.
The former Utah governor, who ran in 2012, said he would not run for governor again nor would he run for president in 2016.
“I can’t describe a pathway through the early primary states up to Super Tuesday, and if you can’t find that pathway or describe what that pathway is, then you had [better] not be in the race,” Huntsman told Politico.
He also said he would not run of state office again, describing the eventual letdown after being elected twice with 80 percent of the vote as a “fool-hearted” effort: “If you try to do that over again, you’re never going to be as good the first time around,” Huntsman explained.
Huntsman, now co-chairman of an organization of Republicans, Democrats and Independents dubbed “No Labels” and chairman of nonpartisan international affairs think tank the Atlantic Council, was recently mulling a White House bid as recent as September — as an independent, sources told Buzzfeed.
During both his time as governor and during his presidential run, Huntsman revealed to Politico he did not speak with the Republican Party at all.
“Parties today are probably more irrelevant than they’ve ever been,” Huntsman said, saying the “real power” in politics lies in the individuals raising and giving campaigns “huge amounts of money.”
Huntsman’s 2012 presidential run was a short-lived one: After finishing third in the 2012 New Hampshire Republican primary, he dropped out of the race and endorsed Mitt Romney.
