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Romney: ‘No one’ should say no if drafted by GOP

Posted at 12:48 PM, Mar 06, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-06 12:48:59-05

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Sunday would not rule out once again leading his party into the general election should Republicans nominate him this summer in a brokered convention.

Still, Romney insisted that he is “not a candidate” and is “not going to be a candidate,” but instead plans to endorse one of Trump’s rivals for the Republican nomination.

“I can’t imagine anything like that happening,” Romney said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” when asked about his name being put forward in the event of a contested convention. “I don’t think anyone in our party should say, ‘Oh no, even if the people in the party wanted me to be the president I would say no to it.’ No one’s going to say that.”

Romney added, “I’m not running and I’m not going to be running.”

The former Massachusetts governor also dismissed the suggestion of entering his name into the running in an recent interview with CNN’s chief political analyst Gloria Borger.

“That’s not going to happen,” Romney said in that interview. “What’s going to happen in a contested convention is that people who are running for president and who have delegates are going to be able to battle with one another.”

Romney’s name has been repeatedly floated by some establishment Republicans who believe the 2012 party’s nominee could unify the GOP after a divisive primary campaign, in the event none of the GOP primary candidates snag a majority of available Republican delegates before the party’s summer convention.

While ruling out putting his name into the mix, Romney has suggested a primary strategy that could lead to a brokered convention — calling on Republican primary voters opposed to Trump to vote for the non-Trump candidate with the best chance of winning in their state.