Secret Meeting Suggests Ex-GOP Nominee May Try Third-Party Run

By Scott Mason
May 7, 2016 at 8:30am

There have been rumors about former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney jumping into the presidential race since late last year.

Thus far, Romney has denied he will seek the Republican nomination at every turn.

But could he jump into the race as a third-party candidate?

Longtime conservative stalwart William Kristol, founder of the Weekly Standard, confirmed to CNN that he met with Romney on Thursday to discuss third-party options.

Kristol, who is leading the charge to find an alternative to presumptive Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, joins many other prominent conservatives who have pledged to not support Trump’s bid for president under any circumstances, a movement that has now become known as #nevertrump.

The meeting, Kristol said, was to gauge Romney’s thoughts about the logistics of running a strong third-party candidate, who it might be and whether or not he “might be the candidate himself.”

That said, Kristol made clear that while he did seek Romney’s advice, he is not “actively working to get him to run.”

For his part, not only has Romney said he would not seek the GOP nomination, he says he will not run as a third party, either.

However, it is worth wondering whether the former Massachusetts governor will ultimately change his mind now that Trump has all but won his party’s nomination. After all, it was Romney, the last man to run for president under the Republican banner, who delivered a blistering speech in March, in which he strongly derided Trump, calling him a “phony,” a “fraud,” and that he did not have the judgment or temperament necessary to be president.

h/t: CNN

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