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->''"I love our country. I believe that our Constitution was inspired by Providence. I am convinced that freedom itself is dependent on the strength and vitality of our national character."''

Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an [[UsefulNotes/UnitedStates American]] politician, businessman, and lawyer who currently serves as a Republican Senator for UsefulNotes/{{Utah}}. He previously served as Governor of UsefulNotes/{{Massachusetts}} from 2003 to 2007 and was the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States in the 2012 election. He was born into a powerful political family: his father was George W. Romney, chairman and president of American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962, Governor of UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}} from 1963 to 1969, a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 1968 U.S. presidential election, and United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under UsefulNotes/RichardNixon from 1969 to 1973. Additionally, Mitt's niece, Ronna Romney [=McDaniel=], has been the Chair of the Republican National Committee since 2017.

After some time in finance, Romney ran as the Republican candidate in the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, losing to longtime incumbent UsefulNotes/TedKennedy. After returning to the private sector, a successful stint as president and CEO of the then-struggling Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames Winter Olympics]] led to a re-launch of his political career, being elected Governor of Massachusetts that year. During his governorship, he famously developed and later signed a health care reform law that provided near-universal health insurance access.[[note]]Ironically, that system became a major model for future rival Barack Obama's signature legislation, which meant Romney had a hard time criticizing it, even admitting that he saw a little of "Romneycare" in it.[[/note]] He did not seek re-election in 2006, instead focusing on his campaign for the Republican nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, wherein UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush was ineligible to seek a third term. Though he won several primaries and caucuses, Romney ultimately lost the nomination to Senator UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain. Romney again ran for, and this time won, the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, becoming the first UsefulNotes/{{Mormon|ism}} to be a presidential nominee of a major party, but lost to incumbent Democratic President UsefulNotes/BarackObama.

After re-establishing residency in Utah, Romney announced his campaign for the state's U.S. Senate seat contested in the 2018 election (which became open when then-senator Orrin Hatch announced he would retire after finishing his seventh term) and won it; in doing so, he became only the third person ever to be elected governor of one state and U.S. senator for another state.[[note]]The other two were William Bibb, who was a senator from UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}} and then became the first governor of Alabama, and Sam Houston, who was governor of UsefulNotes/{{Tennessee}} before becoming a senator from UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}.[[/note]] However, despite being the face of the party just a few years prior, Romney became known in his time in the Senate as one of the few Republicans who would vocally criticize then-president UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump over anything. In Trump's first impeachment trial, he voted to convict the president of abuse of power (over Trump's attempts to get UsefulNotes/{{Ukrain|e}}ian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into his political rival UsefulNotes/JoeBiden); while the votes to convict were insufficient and Trump was acquitted, this nonetheless made Romney the first senator in U.S. history to vote to convict a president of his own party. Romney also voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial, held after the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, this time joined by a few other Republicans, although once again votes to convict were insufficient and Trump was acquitted. He has ruled out seeking re-election to his Senate seat in 2024.

He is married to Ann Romney and they have five children.

!!Books
* ''Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games'', with Timothy Robinson
* ''No Apology: The Case for American Greatness''

!!Media
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[[folder: Live-Action Television ]]

* In ''Series/TheLateShowWithStephenColbert'', he appears AsHimself in one of its [[https://time.com/3981673/stephen-colbert-late-show-mitt-romney-promo/ initial promos]].
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': During the 2012 presidential election, Creator/JasonSudeikis played him.