After more than four decades on Capitol Hill, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah announced he will retire at the end of this term, his seventh, which expires this year. If that sounds like a long time, that’s because it is – Hatch is the longest serving senator in the chamber.
It is ironic because Hatch, when running for office in the 1970s, rand on a platform that included term limits for congress. Perhaps he meant a 43 year term limit?
Former governor of Massachusetts and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is expected to run for the Hatch seat, having roots in Utah. While Romney is hardly a conservative, he could fall to the right of Hatch, who has consistently been an embodiment of an Establishment Republican that made himself at home in the Swamp.
Hatch is a RINO who voted for the TARP bailout, and even lobbied to keep Obamacare’s individual mandate in place until 2020, though he did voice support for Donald Trump before most others.
“Romney has not said anything publicly about his plans to run, but on Tuesday afternoon offered a clue. Following Sen. Hatch’s announcement he changed his home base on his Twitter profile from “Massachusetts” to “Holladay, UT.”
In a video posted on Twitter, Sen. Hatch referenced his early days as an amateur boxer as he revealed his plans to leave the political ring.
“After much prayer and discussion with family and friends, I’ve decided to retire at the end of this term,” he said.
As chair of the Finance Committee, Sen. Hatch spearheaded last month’s passage of the GOP tax cuts and was one of the earliest senior Republicans to support President Trump.”
Romney served as one of those Republican critics of Trump that the Leftist media just loves to give air time. He repeatedly criticized Trump. He berated the President for his “blame on both sides” response to the deadly Charlottesville protests, and generally represents the sort of milquetoast Republicans that oppose Trump’s bellicose nature and fail to demonstrate loyalty to conservative principles.
“At a briefing Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would not say whether President Trump is committed to campaign for whomever the Republican nominee would be. She also said that she hasn’t spoken with him about potentially supporting Romney if he announces a run for Hatch’s seat.”
Either way, Romney would likely be a shoe-in for the Utah seat in the U.S. Senate.
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