Romney says he's weighing 2016 run Mitt to donor gathering: "Everyone in here can go tell their friends"

Mitt Romney told a group of longtime supporters on Friday that he is considering running for president, a major turnaround for a past GOP nominee who just a year ago categorically ruled out a 2016 run.

If he follows through, it would be Romney’s third White House campaign, and it would shake up the already large field of Republicans eyeing the presidency. But even many Romney supporters are skeptical he will ultimately jump in and risk losing three times.


“Everybody in here can go tell your friends that I’m considering a run,” Romney said at a private meeting in New York with about 30 former donors, according to one source.

The former Massachusetts governor, who was the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, said he had a number of ideas about how to help the country, and that one of the issues he’d like to address is poverty, two people on hand at the meeting said. He also pledged that if he does decide to join the race, he would run a much different campaign than he has in the past.

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Romney’s 2012 race was plagued by complaints about insularity and a lack of a clear, defining message beyond being the anti-President Obama. He was caricatured by Democrats as a cold-blooded jobs killer during his private equity days, and was never able to relate to voters.

The gathering was called a few weeks ago and was held in midtown Manhattan. Romney’s remarks were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

People on hand included financier Patrick Durkin, and Alex Nabab, both of whom have committed to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is also exploring a 2016 run, and were involved in events with him earlier in the week in New York City and Connecticut. That both are already on the Bush bandwagon underscores the challenge Romney would face in trying to ensure his donor network remains intact if he runs.

For Romney’s former backers, the news wasn’t a complete surprise. For weeks, he has been slowly ratcheting up his rhetoric in conversations. But his decision to informally test the waters came as Bush has dominated media coverage and donor interest for the last several weeks, including the two New York-area events. And a number of the attendees, who said they were invited to a confidential meeting with Romney and were given no heads-up that he would use the gathering to make a more direct case for himself, were frustrated to find word of it had leaked.

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Bush has been moving to engage the extensive donor network that backed his father and his brother in their White House campaigns. That means that for Romney, the window is closing. One source close to Romney said he will likely decide within the next two months about his next move.

Romney allies and former staffers have spent much of the past two years lamenting that he should have won in his 2012 campaign against President Barack Obama. Romney also ran for the White House in 2008, but lost the GOP nod to Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Just a year ago, in an interview with The New York Times, Romney ruled out a presidential run in a most emphatic manner: “Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no,” he said.

But Romney supporters have argued that there’s a clamor for people who would like to see someone emerge as a leader for the Republican Party during a particularly fractious time, and Romney recently began making clear to donors and supporters that such talk was affecting his thinking.

In addition, Romney told those gathered Friday that his wife, Ann, was now very encouraging toward his running again, a source said — a change from her past protests. The couple’s five sons, however, were split on the notion.

Bush’s decision to move quickly to draw a line in the sand was in part because of Romney’s overtures to donors. Bush allies had privately grown frustrated that Romney was freezing some donors who hoped he would launch a campaign of his own.

Bush announced in December that he is considering a 2016 run, and he has moved quickly since to set up a leadership PAC, dubbed “The Right to Rise” to accept donations. A super PAC with the same name has also been set up to help Bush.

The former Florida governor has repeatedly said he won’t make a stark pitch to the Republican Party’s more conservative base by bending his positions to appease voters. He also has lamented that no recent GOP nominee has tried to avoid taking positions to win over GOP primary voters who are more conservative, stances that end up turning off general election voters.

Bush and Romney are looking to occupy the center-right establishment lane. A sprawling array of senators, governors and former officials who appeal to different segments of the conservative base are also in the GOP’s potential 2016 mix. Among those seriously laying the groundwork for a presidential campaign are Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Ted Cruz of Texas. Also a possibility is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, would likely vie for the same center-right support that Romney and Bush would seek.

Romney drew flak for his overtures to the right in 2012, especially on the subject of immigration. Bush has criticized the way Romney allowed himself to be defined negatively by Democrats during that campaign. Democrats at the time cast Romney, who made a fortune in the financial sector, as a heartless businessman.

Romney, in turn, has argued privately that Bush, should he run in 2016, will face some of the same criticism over his own extensive business ties. Bush has recently taken steps to reduce his private sector links. And Bush allies privately point out that Romney made his business record as a private equity executive a centerpiece of his rationale for running, something the former Florida governor isn’t planning to do.

At Friday’s gathering, there was a consensus among Romney supporters that he needs to reintroduce himself to the voters, in a complimentary way like the video aired about him at the GOP convention in 2012. Romney responded by saying that the damaging portraits of him are now old news and therefore less harmful.

For Romney, the prospect of another campaign also is a potential boon to business: Many of his donors are also potential investors in his son Tagg’s firm, Solamere Capital.

But Romney, whose late father also ran for president, has dreamed of the White House for years.

His increased interest comes not just as Bush has been trying to seize the establishment lane, but as Hillary Clinton, the undeclared but overwhelming Democratic favorite, has seen her approval numbers fall in recent months.

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