After months of speculation, Mitt Romney says he will finally make an announcement about the upcoming US Senate race in Utah on February 15.
Romney posted the date of his announcement on Twitter and pointed to his mittromney.com website.
Looking forward to making an announcement on February 15th about the Utah Senate race. https://t.co/OLXWZWREEK
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 1, 2018
Romney has been expected to announce his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the retirement of Sen. Orrin Hatch for quite some time.
Sources tell UtahPolicy.com that Romney will gather signatures to get on the GOP primary ballot. They say it should take about three weeks for him to meet the 28,000 statewide threshold and will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000. That sum is a drop in the bucket for Romney, who still has $5 million left over from his 2012 presidential run.
Romney has been meeting with advisers recently to plot out his campaign. He is also scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Utah County GOP’s Lincoln Day Dinner fundraiser the day after his scheduled announcement.
If, as expected, Romney does enter the race, he would likely face little opposition either in a GOP primary or the general election in November. A UtahPolicy.com poll finds Romney would handily defeat likely Democratic nominee Jenny Wilson in a hypothetical matchup by a whopping 51 points.
