WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Mitt Romney will not seek reelection in 2024, capping a roller-coaster ride through Republican politics from the height of his party’s 2012 presidential nomination to the depths of tribal warfare in the age of Donald Trump.
Casting aside the hopes and appeals of colleagues, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the 76-year-old Utah Republican said he would retire as a one-term senator when his term ends in early 2025, rather than seek another six years among a dwindling number of Republican moderates in Congress.
Romney stood out within his caucus as a rare critic of former President Trump, but his decision to retire effectively surrenders his Utah Senate seat to a successor who could be more closely aligned with Trump and the hardline conservative politics of the state’s other U.S. senator, Mike Lee.
Romney nonetheless said he believed it was time to go.
“At the end of another term I’d be in my mid-80s. Frankly it’s time for a new generation of leaders,” Romney said in a video statement released on Wednesday. “While I’m not running for reelection, I’m not retiring from the fight.”
The son of a former Michigan governor, auto industry executive and 1968 presidential candidate, Romney became a multimillionaire in the private equity business and served as Massachusetts’ governor before mounting an unsuccessful challenge against then-President Barack Obama as the Republican party presidential nominee in 2012.
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