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SALT LAKE CITY — With a comfortable lead in his bid for the U.S. Senate, Mitt Romney has traveled inside and outside Utah to campaign for other Republicans.
The 2012 GOP presidential nominee knocked on doors with a Salt Lake County Council candidate, attended meet-and-greets with legislative hopefuls, and appeared in TV ads for 1st Congressional District Rep. Rob Bishop and Rep. Mia Love, who is engaged in a heated race with Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams in Utah’s 4th District.
Romney also hosted a campaign event with Rep. Chris Stewart and joined Rep. John Curtis for get-out-the-vote phone calls.
Earlier this month, Romney headlined a rally for U.S. Senate candidate Martha McSally in Arizona.
As for his own race, Romney said last week that he has held 385 campaign events since announcing his intent to replace retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch last February.
Polls show the former Massachusetts governor with a substantial lead over Democratic Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson.
Wilson promises to push through to Election Day, now only two weeks away. She launched a digital ad last Friday in which she questions how Romney could call himself a “deficit hawk” when he supports the Republican tax plan, which is estimated to add $1.9 trillion to the national debt.
The video shows rich diners at a fancy meal passing the bill down to a young girl.
"The Mitt Romney-supported Republican tax bill: giveaways to corporations and billionaires," the narrator says. "Sadly, the next generation will pay. Mitt Romney, a deficit hawk?"
The #GOPTaxBill — which my opponent, a self-styled “deficit hawk” supports — is ballooning the national deficit by 17%. The next generation will be left with this debt. Share our video, then chip in to help bring fresh faces to Congress: https://t.co/NlpEVPrqQTpic.twitter.com/MSyE2NVvpJ
— Jenny Wilson for UT (@JennyWilsonUT) October 19, 2018
Romney has made cutting deficit spending and moving toward a balanced budget top priorities.
Wilson drafted a tax plan of her own that she said that would have brought relief to working families without busting the budget.
"I predicted at the time of its passage, and six months later at the introduction of my alternative bill, that the GOP tax bill would fail our nation. It has done just that,” she said.
Balancing the federal budget takes more than rhetoric. If we are serious about balance, we have to look realistically at where the money is spent. Read more at: https://t.co/iIU8oPiTJj
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) October 15, 2018
At their only debate two weeks ago, Romney said he liked and disliked aspects of the Republican tax cut. He said he didn’t like that higher income people received a tax break.
Wilson contends Romney has gone “back and forth” on the tax bill, originally endorsing its passage but more recently opposing tax cuts for the rich.
"Principles and consistency are sorely missing in Washington, along with old-fashioned math,” she said.