Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nominee and a vocal critic of former President Trump, is not seeking a second term in the Senate.
In a video Wednesday, Romney, 76, said, “At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-eighties. Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders. They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in.”
Romney criticized both President Biden and former President Trump in his announcement, saying neither was leading their parties to address the challenges of “mounting national debt, climate change and the ambitious authoritarians of Russia and China.”
The senator told The Washington Post that the potential for a less productive second term, both due to House dynamics and likely either a President Trump or Biden, influenced his decision to retire.
The Hill’s Al Weaver noted Romney’s “single term in the upper chamber will be widely remembered for his votes to convict Trump in both of his impeachments — the only Senate Republican to have that distinction.”
