“On the Holmes Front,” with Frank Holmes
One of President Donald Trump’s biggest opponents may soon be swept out of politics.
Even as Trump came out of an Atlanta jail vowing to fight for his political future to the end, one of his loudest critics may soon bow out of politics with his tail between his legs… or go down to a humiliating defeat.
Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, has been described as a “Never Trump” Republican, and he’s still going all-out to try to destroy Trump… with little success.
Last month, Romney wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal asking GOP megadonors to pressure longshot candidates into ganging up on Trump.
“Donors who are backing someone with a slim chance of winning should seek a commitment from the candidate to drop out and endorse the person with the best chance of defeating Mr. Trump by Feb. 26,” Romney wrote.
He also threw mud at Trump this week, saying “there’s no question but” that all four indictments issued by Democratic prosecutors against President Trump “were brought upon him because of his own actions,” instead of Democrats trying to spike Joe Biden’s strongest 2024 opponent.
For that, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., personally asked Romney to seek a second term. McConnell has had a frosty relationship with Donald Trump, and he called Romney “an incredibly effective senator.”
But the record shows that Romney has been effective for Joe Biden.
Romney votes with the Biden-Harris administration about 60 percent of the time, according to an analysis from the FiveThirtyEight blog. He’s been one of the only Republicans to side with Democrats on issues from immigration to impeachment and so much more.
But Biden may lose one of his most dependable “bipartisan” votes. Romney isn’t sure about whether he wants to run for a second term in solid-red Utah, one of the safest seats in the entire country.
Romney told national press earlier this week he’ll make up his mind this fall, “based upon my assessment of what I would be able to accomplish in the second term.”
Romney sides with the other party so often that he had to reassure himself, “Just because I’m alone doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
But he’s not alone in the Senate race anymore. He’s got at least two challengers for the Republican nomination.
He’s facing two primary opponents: Brad Wilson and Trent Staggs.
Brad Wilson is the state of Utah’s speaker of the House. After Romney voted to impeach Trump, Wilson decided Romney’s days in office should be numbered. Although Wilson quashed an effort to censure Romney in 2020—and Romney even bragged about touring the state with Wilson in 2022—Wilson slowly ramped up his campaign’s “exploratory committee” in April.
“Utah needs a bold, conservative fighter in the U.S. Senate,” Wilson said.
Already, Wilson has piled up endorsements. He announced that he’d been endorsed by more than 60 state Republican leaders earlier this month, saying he was “honored and encouraged to have the support of so many leaders from all corners of this great state.”
That includes three out of four members of the state House of Representatives and two-thirds of the state Senate.
But there’s something even harder to believe.
Not only does Wilson have the state party’s top leaders behind him, but he has an advantage over Romney in the one area that’s always made Romney seem invincible: money.
Right now, Romney’s campaign has $1.8 million—compared to Wilson’s $2.2 million.
Romney tried to catch up, supercharging his fundraising efforts over the summer. He pulled in a cool $1.1 million… but he still has a lighter war chest than Wilson.
Then there’s Trent Staggs, the mayor of Riverton, Utah.
“A few years ago, Mitt Romney moved to Utah” and promised to fight for the values conservative Utah holds dear,” said Staggs. “The only thing I’ve seen him fight for are the establishment, Wokeness, open borders, impeaching President Trump, and putting us even deeper in debt.”
Staggs also earned endorsements from radio host Mark Levin, Turning Point USA, as well as the Utah Republican Veterans’ caucus and the Utah State Fraternal Order of Police.
Utah residents feel “100 percent” by Romney, Staggs told Breitbart News shortly before he called on Romney to debate and be held to account “for the destructive things he’s done.”
Utah’s Romney-Republican governor, Spencer Cox, said he still thinks “there’s a path for him to win. But it will certainly be harder this time.”
Romney seems to wear out his welcome early. A native of Michigan, he lost a Senate race to Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy in 1994, and then got elected to one term as governor in his adopted state.
By the end of his term, Romney had alienated members of both parties and stepped down… to concentrate on running (and financing) two campaigns for president in 2008 and 2012.
He won the nomination in 2012 but lost the election to an unpopular incumbent, Barack Obama.
Now, he may be cruising for another electoral bruising.
Some of Romney’s foes would like to see more than a primary challenge or a GOP debate. Earlier this week, fellow Republican Congressman George Santos, R-N.Y., told a Manhattan party he’d like to square up with Mitt Romney in a cage match!
A guest at the ritzy event suggested Santos step into the octagon against Romney, just as billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are thinking of doing.
“I’d do that, but it wouldn’t be fair,” said Santos, because “I’d beat his butt because I studied jiu-jitsu for five years.”
It remains unclear whether the Santos, a congenital liar, ever studied the martial arts, since he has a well-earned reputation as someone whose word means nothing.
But that would make him a perfect tag-team partner for Romney.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”