Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) has a plan to take down former President Donald Trump in the GOP primaries, and it requires the cooperation of the 2024 Republican presidential field to pull it off.
In an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Romney urged Republican donors and party influencers to unite behind a single candidate who can face Trump one-on-one to clinch the GOP nomination. If every candidate and megadonor is able to coalesce around one candidate, it could be possible to defeat Trump despite his front-runner status, according to Romney.
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“Despite Donald Trump’s apparent inevitability, a baker’s dozen Republicans are hoping to become the party’s 2024 nominee for president,” he wrote. “That is possible for any of them if the field narrows to a two-person race before Mr. Trump has the nomination sewn up.”
In order to do so, each candidate must be willing to drop out of the race once it becomes clear their path is “effectively closed,” Romney said. Not only that, but the Utah senator is also establishing a set deadline for that requirement to be met.
“That decision day should be no later than, say, Feb. 26, the Monday following the contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina,” he wrote.
Romney, once a presidential nominee himself, acknowledged there can be major incentives to stay in the race even when one knows their chances are bleak. Candidates could be motivated by gaining national name recognition for future runs, or others could be purely interested in getting high-profile jobs in the next administration.
Doing so, however, would merely split the “non-Trump vote," Romney wrote, effectively ensuring the former president would win the nomination.
For his plan to work, Romney is calling on anyone who has sway over a candidate’s decision to step in — everyone from megadonors to family members.
“Family, friends and campaign donors are the only people who can get a lost-cause candidate to exit the race,” he wrote. “After Feb. 26, they should start doing just that.”
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Romney did not specify who he would prefer as the candidate to face Trump head-on, and the Utah Republican has largely refrained from endorsing anyone in the primary election.
Romney’s plea comes as Trump continues to dominate the primary field, with national polling showing the former president at least 30 points ahead of his closest challenger, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). An average of roughly 51% of voters say they’d back Trump compared to just 19% for DeSantis, according to data from FiveThirtyEight.