Romney explored creating new political party with Manchin: book

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) explored creating a new political party with fellow centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), according to an excerpt released Wednesday in Romney’s forthcoming biography.

“They’d talked about the prospect before, but it was always hypothetical. Now Romney wanted to make it real,” the book excerpt reads. “His goal for the yet-unnamed party … would be to promote the kind of centrist policies he’d worked on with Manchin in the Senate.”

Romney’s plans for the party, according to the biography excerpt, would not be to support a separate candidate, but to “pledge support to the candidate who came closest to aligning with its agenda.”

The “working slogan” for the party, Romney said in the book, was “stop the stupid.”

“We’d say, ‘This party’s going to endorse whichever party’s nominee isn’t stupid,’” Romney told the biographer.

The excerpt claimed that Romney had still been in the “brainstorming phase” when they last talked about the prospect of the new party. The biographer said, however, that it was clear Romney did not feel he fit in the party.

The excerpt was published Wednesday after Romney announced he would not seek reelection in 2024.