Mitt Romney’s US Senate bid may be in serious trouble.
Romney is hoping to replace Senator Orrin Hatch, but new rules passed by the Utah Republican Party will seemingly be a major roadblock to his candidacy.
According to New York Magazine:
“With Orrin Hatch retiring, erstwhile GOP nominee and onetime prominent Trump critic Mitt Romney seemingly has a clear path to becoming Utah’s next senator. But a hard-right faction within the state’s Republican Party has taken a drastic step that could derail him.
Over the weekend, the faction passed a bylaw that allows Utah Republicans to expel any candidate that qualifies for the ballot via signatures — the route Romney plans to take.
Utahpolicy.com reports that Utah Republican Party chairman Rob Anderson, a relative moderate, is attempting to fend off repeated challenges to his leadership by a group of aggressive right-wingers in the party’s Central Committee. While they don’t have the numbers to oust him outright, they are able to pass bylaws over his wishes.
On Saturday, they passed one dictating that to get on the ballot, Republicans must follow the state’s current nomination laws, which don’t currently allow signature-gathering as an option.
And, the new bylaw says, if a candidate does follow that route to the ballot, they “immediately” lose their membership.”
This could get interesting!
