(RepublicanInformer.com)- Former presidential candidate and current Republican Senator Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he didn’t vote for President Donald Trump.
Romney voted early in his home state of Utah. He told CNN on Wednesday:
“I did not vote for President Trump.” He was asked who he voted for, but he wouldn’t say: “That’s something I’m keeping private at this stage.”
The first-time senator, who was the Republican candidate for president in 2012, has consistently been a critic of Trump, since the 2016 campaign. He tried to mend his differences with the president, and did for a bit. He was at one point considered for the position of secretary of state under the president, and Trump did endorse Romney’s run for his current Senate seat in 2018.
Ever since, though, Romney has been one of the only Republicans in Washington who has consistently criticized Trump.
Maine Senator Susan Collins, who is embroiled in a tough re-election battle, has refused to say whether she’d support Trump’s re-election, or if she even voted for him in the GOP primary in Maine. She also said she wouldn’t vote in favor of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee — Amy Coney Barrett — before the election.
Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse has also attacked Trump for how he treats women and doesn’t denounce white supremacist groups. He also wouldn’t reveal if he planned to vote for his party’s leaders at the polls.
Still, Romney was also the only Republican to vote in favor of removing the president from office over the abuse of power charge from the House impeachment trial.
On the Senate floor when he announced his vote to remove Trump, Romney said:
“I am aware that there are people in my party and in my state who will strenuously disapprove of my decision, and in some quarters, I will be vehemently denounced. I am sure to hear abuse from the president and his supporters.
“Does anyone seriously believe I would consent to these consequences other than from an inescapable conviction that my oath before God demanded it of me?”
Trump hasn’t been shy about criticizing Romney, either. He responded to Romney’s floor speech by calling him a “failed presidential candidate.”
Through it all, Romney has remained committed to the conservative cause. He hasn’t broken with his party to side with liberals. He’s just made his distaste for the party’s leader known. Republicans have been able to count on Romney to consistently side with the party on major voting issues.
Romney explained to CNN why he didn’t vote for Trump’s re-election:
“I think our party is in trouble with young people, increasingly with older people, with minorities. And those young people we were in trouble with five years ago are now voting, and so we’ve got some real work to do.”
Will Romney’s actions be a trend that will play itself out in less than two weeks? Republicans are worried that more typical supporters of the party might not throw their support behind the president, as they normally might.
