Orrin Hatch is retiring from the Senate. McKay Coppins first broke a story months ago that Hatch was expected to retire with Mitt Romney planning on running for his seat. Then the last few months Hatch seemed to indicate he was reconsidering. He also made many favorable statements about Trump, much to the displeasure of some Utahns. Trump himself clearly wanted Hatch to run again. Today though it seems like Hatch finally decided to stick with his original plan.
If Romney runs, he’ll almost certainly win. Romney remains beloved in the state. If anything more so since Trump won the Presidency. Recent polls put Romney’s expected numbers as +50 for the Senate seat. An almost unheard of domination of polls. Many think that Romney may wish to run to act as a check on Trump’s domination of the Republican party. While Romney’s motives are more a matter of speculation, he was one of the few GOP leaders to maintain a strong critical stance towards Trump. Although a few found his meeting with Trump for the Secretary of State position disquieting. (I think it goes without saying he’d have made a better Secretary of State than Tillerson)
It’s hard to say what the next few months will bring.
My favorite tweet response was Ben Park’s “wrong color horse” in response to a picture of Romney on a brown horse. For those who didn’t get the joke, it’s a reference to the infamous White Horse purported prophecy.
BTW, Clark Goble, would you tell Art I said “hi?”