Millions hung their heads in disbelief at the outcome on election night 2012. Nowhere was the disappointment felt more deeply than Utah. The state’s favorite adopted son, Gov. Mitt Romney, had lost a hard-fought battle for the U.S. presidency. Romney’s defeat was a lost opportunity for the country, a country that desperately needed just the kind of help he was expert in. It was like suffering a heart attack on a plane that just happened to be carrying the nation’s foremost cardiac surgeon and inexplicably asking “is there a plumber in the house” because, you know, this other guy understands pipes and pumps so his care will be good enough.
The country missed an opportunity to elect someone who had turned around companies, turned around the Olympics, and could have turned around the country. Instead the nation suffered another four years of economic stagnation at home and failure of leadership abroad. It is not a stretch to say the national division and unrest that drove the dynamics of the 2016 presidential election and the current state of national division could have been different had Romney been president.
Of course, what might have been is conjecture, but what is not conjecture is the real opportunity Romney now has to run for the U.S. Senate in 2018. It has been widely reported that he is considering the opportunity. This may not be the position Romney had hoped for. It may not be the timing Romney had expected. But the need is real. The current national dysfunction feels like another heart attack and this time we can choose the expert to help. Utahns are hoping for one more chance to cast a vote for Romney.
Seldom in life, particularly political life, does one get a second chance. But opportunity is knocking on Romney’s door, an opportunity much larger than simply representing Utah in the U.S. Senate. What Romney hoped to do for the country as president in 2012, he can do as a senator in 2018. To unite people by focusing on common goals. To bring civility to a dysfunctional Congress. To utilize management skills in solving deep bureaucratic problems. To apply principles of free enterprise to get our nation’s economy back on track. To demonstrate principles of maturity and dignity in D.C. In a word, to be a leader.
It is appropriate for this leadership to come from Utah, because Utah has stayed true to those principles. As a result, Utah stands apart as an island of tranquility in a sea of chaos. These principles have made Utah the fastest growing economy, the best place for business and careers, and the state with the top economic outlook in the nation.
Many will reasonably ask, why would Romney want to run for the U.S. Senate? Why would he want to put himself through the rigors of another campaign? Why would he want to subject himself to public scrutiny and criticism? Why would he want to give up a comfortable life with his family to swim in the cesspool of D.C. politics? All fair questions, but they miss the point. Mitt Romney doesn’t need these challenges. The challenges need him.
The problems our country faces are real. They are serious. They are institutional. They have festered over decades of shortsighted decisions driven by political expediency, self-preservation and special interests — all the insidious influences that a Sen. Romney would not be beholden to. The problems will not be easy to solve. Not even close. But if anyone can do it, Mitt can. Let’s hope he will.