Allies of Mitt Romney are involved in the Utah campaigns of two relatively centrist Republican candidates to take over his Senate seat.
Senate primary election, a fine line to walk as the rivals seek to distance themselves from the outgoing senator and portray themselves as the conservative option.House Speaker Brad Wilson — with Wilson inheriting a notable portion of Utah’s donor class, according to a review of campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission.
According to the FEC filings, many of Wilson’s campaign contributors are some of Romney’s most well-known supporters. The donors include Utah real estate developer Kem Gardner,, along with his wife Carolyn Barnes Gardner and other members of the prominent Gardner family, who have given $39,600 in total. Dan Hemmert, a former Republican state senator who recruited Romney to run for Senate in 2017, donated the maximum of $9,900, along with his wife, Natalie Hemmert.
But Romney’s camp is not just involved in Wilson’s campaign. A number of alumni staffers and donors tied to the Utah Republican held aas Romney’s finance chairman for his 2012 presidential bid. Other people listed on the fundraiser include Matt Waldrip, Romney’s former campaign manager and previous chief of staff in the Senate, and Alex Dunn, who served as Romney’s chief of staff during his governorship in Massachusetts.
“Anyone who knows Mitt Romney and anyone who knows Brad Wilson knows that they are much more aligned on issues than what the public perception is,” a state lawmaker told the“I think Brad is trying to distance himself from Mitt Romney right now … and the only reason why he’s doing that is because Mitt is not very popular in Utah. But he wants the machine of Mitt Romney behind him.”
“If people are expecting me to be Mitt Romney, I’ll disappoint them. And if they’re expected me to be Mike Lee, I’ll disappoint them,” he told Utah publicationin March, Romney mentioned that while he was not in favor of one candidate over the other, he would be “happy to see Brad Wilson or John Curtis” in the Senate.
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