Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) told Republicans on Wednesday that former President Donald Trump has the momentum to be the party’s nominee for the 2024 election.
Romney, a frequent Trump critic, added that the only way to derail his candidacy is to rally behind one alternative to go head-to-head with him.
“I think President Trump is by far the most likely to become our nominee,” Romney said, according to NBC News. “If there’s an alternative to that, it would be only realistic if it narrows down to a two-person race at some point.”
Romney’s statement occurred after former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley announced her presidential bid on Wednesday. Other GOP figures are expected to launch their own campaigns in the next few months.
Romney was voicing concern, echoed by other anti-Trump Republicans, that a crowded field would enable the former president to coast through the primaries and secure the nomination.
“There’s always a personal interest on the part of the campaign – particularly the campaign staff, and consultants, as well as the candidate – to stay in. And to say, ‘Hey, look, I came in second. So I’m the person that really ought to get the nomination four years from now,’” Romney said. “And so it really is up to the donors and and other influence people that know the candidate, his family or her family, to say, ‘Hey, time to move on.’”
Romney, who lost the presidential election in 2012 to President Barack Obama and tried to stop Trump from winning the primaries in 2016, joked about his own interest in running in 2024.
“I’m just a lowly senator from Utah,” he said. “I can’t stop anybody.”