An Open Letter to Mitt Romney

It is Time, Sir

Dear Senator Romney,

Knowing full well the toll that past runs have taken on you and your family, I am writing to ask that you announce your candidacy for the 2024 GOP Presidential nomination with all dispatch. The country is in a difficult place, and as the field develops for the next election, it seems clear that the blight of Trumpism—while somewhat dissipated—will almost certainly prevail in the GOP without a clear choice. Trump himself or one of his enabling lesser lights must be opposed by a candidate of principle, virtue, poise, and demonstrated success. You are that candidate, and if the Presidency of Joe Biden proves anything, it is that the American people are ready to reward persistence.

Your loss to Barack Obama in 2012 was heartbreaking. I worked on your campaign—to include spending a week in Iowa calling cranky precinct captains who complained about not having had a personal visit from you in 2008—and in the intervening years, I cannot tell you how many people have told me that we (the electorate) made a mistake in that election. You lost then to a uniquely transformational and popular figure, but his Presidency and his policies fueled the pathologies that delivered us Donald Trump and the whirlwind we have reaped since. That includes the current President—for whom I voted out of national security concerns—whose policies are making America poorer and weaker.

It is easy for me to sit behind this computer screen and urge another man to do what I cannot or will not. It is easy for me to urge you and your family back into the blinding limelight. It is easy for me to urge you to face another possible crushing disappointment. You have earned better than what I urge upon you, and your grandchildren’s claim upon your time is of course, of inestimable importance.

But the country must have better than a 2020 rematch, or Biden vs. Trumpwannabee. The 2012 election had its low moments for sure, and there were regrettable attacks on your character that even then rational people dismissed. But Americans chose between two intelligent, civil, accomplished, and trustworthy men. I fear that choice will not be before them in 2024 unless someone with your virtues, record, and recognition steps up and reminds the GOP what character and discernment look like, and how much this country misses it.

To Mrs. Romney, I apologize in advance for even the moment of consideration your husband spends on this in the off-chance that it comes to his attention through the wonders of the internet. I imagine your husband’s decision to run for Senate had you shaking your head and wondering if this will ever end, and I have a sense that another Presidential run is not on your priority list. But as you know better than anyone, your husband is unique, and his country needs him.

In closing Senator Romney, I want to thank you for continuing to show what principled conservatism looks like and for giving the GOP an example of where it must aim. The field will be awash with the show-ponies of the splitscreen; your presence will provide a critical sign that the angry, unmoored, NatPop right does not represent modern American conservatism and modern American virtue.

You have my sword.

Sincerely,

Bryan McGrath

Easton MD