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SALT LAKE CITY — Although Sen. Mitt Romney has resisted the idea of running for president in 2024 on a third-party ticket, a new political action committee is asking voters to sign a petition in hopes of talking the Utah Republican into another run for the White House.
The Draft Romney Manchin Committee launched an online petition Thursday where voters can express support for a bipartisan presidential ticket to include Romney and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia. Both senators recently announced they wouldn't seek reelection next year, and Manchin's announcement earlier this month spurred speculation he would pursue a bid for the presidency.
If the senators were convinced to enter the presidential field, they would compete for the nomination at the No Labels convention in Dallas in March.
The committee is calling on the No Labels group to nominate the pair at its convention in Dallas in March, if Romney and Manchin can be convinced to sign on. No Labels, a third-party political organization that is seeking ballot access nationwide in 2024, has ties to former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., and has floated plans for a third-party "unity ticket" in the likely event that the two major political parties renominate President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Joe Lieberman, co-chairman of No Labels, has said the group would avoid the 2024 presidential race if polling showed its candidate would play a "spoiler" role by helping to elect either of the main party candidates.
The Draft Romney Manchin Committee is not associated with No Labels, Romney or Manchin. Manchin spoke with Huntsman at a No Labels town hall in New Hampshire in July. At the time, he said he hadn't decided whether or not to run for president, saying he "gets in races to win."
Our website is now live with our online petition to start building grassroots support for the #UnityTicket. Sign the petition at https://t.co/zvU2W8QRAt and help get America #BackOnTrack. We'll be adding a Donate button soon. Please share and retweet to spread the word! pic.twitter.com/NNxicMUpfx
— Draft Romney/Manchin (@romneymanchin24) November 16, 2023
Deseret News reported on the efforts of the committee last week. In a statement to the Deseret News, Romney's Senate chief of staff said, "Sen. Romney was not aware of this effort and he is not considering running for president on any ticket."
Romney has previously considered running as a third-party candidate, but backed away from the idea after being told it would help Trump win a second term, according to the new book, "Romney: A Reckoning."
He told CNBC last week that if the 2024 election was a rematch between Trump and Biden, he would write in the name of his wife, Ann Romney, as he did in 2016.
His reluctance to run for president a third time appears to be part of the reason the Draft Romney Manchin Committee is pursuing a public campaign of support for a third-party ticket.
"Mitt Romney was drafted to run for governor of Massachusetts," Jennifer Franks, committee chair, said in a news release Thursday. "He jumped into the governor's race after he saw the level of support for his candidacy and the polling data that showed a winning path. After being encouraged by that earlier draft effort, Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts and turned the state around from an economic recession following the 9/11 attacks. We think history can repeat itself here."
The committee also plans to conduct polling in the swing states of Arizona and Michigan to help gauge support for a third-party option — results they hope will further encourage buy-in from Romney and Manchin.
Manchin said Wednesday he would not want to act as a "spoiler" candidate in 2024, but warned that if Trump were elected for another term, "he will destroy democracy in America," according to the Associated Press.
"If they said, 'You're the only person to do it,' I'll do whatever I can to save this nation," he said.
Romney and Manchin have been regular bipartisan collaborators in the Senate, including a recent bill introduced to create a commission to study ways to stabilize the national debt.
