Mitt Romney has announced that he will not seek the Republican party’s nomination a third time.
Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will not run for president in 2016.
Three weeks after unexpectedly saying he was considering a third campaign for the White House, the former Massachusetts governor told members of his staff during a Friday conference call that he is out of race.
Romney jumped back into the presidential discussion on Jan. 10, when he told a small group of former donors in New York that he was eyeing another White House run.
Romney did seem to be feeling out big-money donors a few weeks ago, which fueled speculation, but it turns out that, while those donors had written checks to Romney in the past, in order to fulfill their fever dreams of a moderate Republican Presidency, they had moved on from Mitt to Jeb Bush. According to several key donors who spoke to the Associated Press, they believe, collectively, that while Mitt Romney was great while he lasted, Jeb Bush is just as acceptable, and given that both his brother and father have already served in the White House, likely to bring along a senior staff of advisors who can get the job done seamlessly (David Kochel, who ran Romney’s 2008 and 2012 Iowa operations moved to Bush’s team yesterday).
They also believe that Jeb Bush has more widespread appeal, by which it appears they mean that he’s acceptable “to a few more people than Mitt Romney.”