Mitt Romney, a Republican who lost the 2012 presidential election after shifting his stance on abortion, taxes and Ronald Reagan, has flip-flopped again, this time telling voters not to support the candidate he endorsed last week so the Republican Party can beat Donald Trump.
Romney campaigned last week in Ohio to help Gov. John Kasich win his first contest March 15.
The primary season is more than half over. But the win in battleground Ohio was more than symbolic. It has been touted as the one state that didn’t go to Trump, who extended his delegate lead in the three-way race for the Republican nomination.
On Friday, however, Romney www.facebook.com/mittromney/posts/10153370698696121">announced on Facebook that he would be voting Tuesday in Utah for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and his party should, too.
“I like Gov. John Kasich. I have campaigned with him. He has a solid record as governor. I would have voted for him in Ohio,” wrote Romney. “But a vote for Gov. Kasich in future contests makes it extremely likely that Trumpism [as opposed to Republicanism] would prevail.”
The change of heart came on the same day the Kasich campaign www.johnkasich.com/videos/">launched an ad in Utah featuring Romney’s endorsement of Kasich at the MAPS Air Museum in Green. “Unlike the other people running, he has a real track record,” Romney said of Kasich in the ad.
The Kasich campaign did not respond when asked about Romney’s pivot toward Cruz.
Romney’s ability to swap support has everything to do with beating Trump. The former Massachusetts governor said the billionaire is fueling “racism, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia, vulgarity and, most recently, threats and violence.”
Romney’s unsuccessful 2012 presidential bid and centrist views may not resonate with Republican primary voters, especially more avid conservatives who caucus in Utah on Tuesday.
Hard-line conservatives attacked Romney in 2012 for his role in passing universal health care while he was governor of Massachusetts in 2006. “Romneycare,” as it became known, predated the Affordable Care Act, which the tea party used to launch a successful anti-Barack Obama turnout in 2010.
Trump, a businessman and negotiator, has pointed out that the Republican Party is deliberately trying to stop him.
By joining the establishment, Romney may again disenfranchise fundamentalist Republicans and evangelicals, said Danielle Coombs, associate journalism professor at Kent State University. That constituency has supported Cruz and Trump in earlier races in Utah.
“We’re seeing that again,” Coombs said of potential pushback. “He’s representing the establishment that has lost a lot of the tea party vote.”
The polls have Cruz ahead of Trump in Utah and behind the billionaire in Arizona, a winner-take-all primary with 18 delegates on Tuesday.
Coombs said that while Romney may have switched campaigns from Kasich to Cruz, the goal remains to stop Trump from reaching 1,237 delegates necessary for nomination before the convention in Cleveland in July. If no candidate receives more than half the delegates’ votes on the first ballot, the delegates may change their support in subsequent ballots to candidates such as Kasich or U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
Ryan has told reporters to “knock it off” with the rumors that he could emerge as a dark horse candidate for the Republican nomination.
“He also said, ‘knock it off, I’m not going to be the speaker of the house,’” Coombs recalled of Ryan’s apparent reluctance to take the Republican mantle after the tea party prodded Speaker John Boehner of Ohio into early retirement.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.