Mitt's son says no to 2nd District run
"It's been a lot of excitement for the family, but it's been a tough year for us as well," Josh Romney told the Deseret Morning News. "We're just not quite ready to hop into another tough race."
His decision comes just over a week after he told the Deseret Morning News that he'd been approached to run as Republican against 2nd Congressional District Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and was seriously considering entering the race.
But on Saturday, Josh Romney said it was just too soon after his father's campaign. Mitt Romney, the former leader of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, dropped out of the presidential race last month after a disappointing Super Tuesday showing on Feb. 5.
"I'm not too disappointed, not at all," Josh Romney said of not getting into what would have been a competitive race for the only Utah congressional seat held by a Democrat. "I think this is a decision that is right. I definitely don't want to rush into anything."
But, Josh Romney said, his father did not tell him what he should do.
"He didn't say yes or no, go or don't go," Josh Romney said. "He said this was something I had to decide on my own."
In the end, Josh Romney said, he realized he wanted to be able to spend more time with his wife, Jen, and their three children, Owen, 1; Wyatt, 3; and Gracie, 5; and return to full-time work as a real-estate developer. He works for his father's longtime friend, Kem Gardner.
Plus, he said, it would have been "pretty quick to start up another campaign."
Josh Romney said he was first approached about two months by a close friend about the party's interest in seeing him enter the congressional race, at a time when his father's bid for the White House was still going strong.
"Originally, when I thought my dad would still be in the race and I'd be campaigning for him, it was more difficult to visualize," he said. "Once my dad dropped out, I thought about it some more."
Josh Romney and his four brothers traveled around the country campaigning for their father, something Josh Romney said he really enjoyed.
"I think it's addictive," he said. "I think that really kind of stuck with me, just meeting a lot of different people and recognizing I could make a difference."
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