Mitt Romney passes on 2016 run, Bush and Christie fight over donors
The 2012 GOP Presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will not make a third run for president, he told supporters, saying he believes it’s “best to give other leaders in the party the opportunity” to become the nominee.
Romney acknowledged during the call that he may not have been the strongest contender for the GOP in a general election, and said that was the primary motivation behind his decision.
“I feel that it is critical that America elect a conservative leader to become our next president. You know that I have wanted to be that president. But I do not want to make it more difficult for someone else to emerge who may have a better chance of becoming that president,” he said.
Romney says that he’ll “do whatever I can” to help elect that person and repeated that he will not change his mind.
“That seems unlikely,” he said. “Accordingly, I’m not organizing a PAC or taking donations; I’m not hiring a campaign team.”
Romney said that while he’s “convinced that we could win the nomination … it would have been a difficult test and a hard fight.”
“Our finance calls made it clear that we would have enough funding to be more than competitive. With few exceptions, our field political leadership is ready and enthusiastic about a new race. And the reaction of Republican voters across the country was both surprising and heartening,” he said, noting early primary polling that’s had him leading the potential GOP primary field.
Now the funds for a Romney campaign are expected to flow to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who already had won over several of Romney’s past donors. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie claimed the support of others who were waiting on Romney to make a decision about whether to seek the White House a third time.
Tony Carbonetti, a Christie supporter and top aide to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a 2008 GOP candidate, said every major Republican donor got at least two calls on Friday — one from Christie’s people and one from those promoting Bush.
Romney, Carbonetti said, “released the hounds.”
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