Mitt Romney urges Republicans not to repeat mistakes of 2016 GOP primary, which led to Trump’s shock win of the nomination in op-ed.
Romney noted that “a baker’s dozen Republicans” are challenging Trump to be the GOP standard bearer in 2024, and it “is possible for any of them if the field narrows to a two-person race before Mr. Trump has the nomination sewn up.”
The 2012 Republican GOP nominee for president then argued, “Republican megadonors and influencers—large and small—are going to have to do something they didn’t do in 2016: get candidates they support to agree to withdraw if and when their paths to the nomination are effectively closed.”
Romney even went so far as to offer a specific date for all but one non-Trump candidate to drop out of the race. “That decision day should be no later than, say, Feb. 26, the Monday following the contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.”
The Utah Republican then noted that this may not be easy as “there are incentives for no-hope candidates to overstay their prospects.” Romney explained:
Coming in behind first place may grease another run in four years or have a market value of its own: Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum got paying gigs. And as former New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu has observed, “It is fun running for president if you know you cannot win.”
Romney then took a short walk down memory lane to a time when “candidates themselves used to consolidate the field.”
Noting that those days are far behind us, he argued that PACs and billionaire donors are now pulling many of the strings in modern campaigns and that they “have a responsibility to give their funds with clear eyes about their candidate’s prospects.”
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: McCarthy: Biden Probes ‘Rising To Impeachment Inquiry Level’
Romney concluded by taking an indirect shot at Trump, writing, “Our party and our country need a nominee with character, driven by something greater than revenge and ego, preferably from the next generation.
Family, friends, and campaign donors are the only people who can get a lost-cause candidate to exit the race. After Feb. 26, they should start doing just that.”
