According to recent reported comments, Mitt Romney may actually decide to run again for president in 2016 despite statements he made after his 2012 election loss that he was done campaigning for the White House.
Here are seven facts about the political background of the once and future GOP presidential hopeful.
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1. Romney was registered as an independent, but switched to the Republican Party before the 1994 campaign. He ran as a political outsider and lacked the backing of the Republican Party fundraising machine. In a state where just 13 percent of the voters were registered Republicans, he tried to convince voters that he was a moderate,
according to an NPR report.
2. After working to save the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Romney considered running for governor of Massachusetts, partly to follow in his father George’s footsteps. His father served as governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969.
Then-Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift was vulnerable, and Romney, who did a lot of business in the state, started polling voters. He learned that he could defeat Swift and most of his potential Democratic opponents.
3. During his 2002 campaign for governor of Massachusetts, Romney appealed to voters as an executive who would cut wasteful programs and run government more economically. He also used a strategy of getting as many Republicans to the polls as possible. He succeeded.
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4. He took office as Massachusetts governor in 2003, with the economy still suffering from the tech bust and the Sept. 11 attacks. Job growth had halted and unemployment was rising. Romney has said he helped turn things around. “Even with a legislature that was 85 percent Democrat, I cut taxes 19 times and balanced the budget all four years,” he said during the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2012. “I cast over 800 vetoes and cut entire programs. I erased a $3 billion budget shortfall and left office with a $2 billion rainy-day fund."
5. When he ran against Arizona Sen. John McCain in 2008, Romney again drew upon his own money. He won Nevada, but lost in Florida and New Hampshire. He wound up winning 11 states, including Michigan and Massachusetts. McCain, however, earned 13 states to secure the Republican nomination.
6. During the 2008 race, Romney touted his skill at passing a universal health care program for Massachusetts residents while he was governor. At that time, he said it would bring him some Democratic votes.
7. By 2012, the growing lack of public support for Obamacare led Romney to point out that the Massachusetts plan was only tailored for that state and his approval of it didn’t mean he supported a federal health care insurance directive.
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