Born in Michigan on March 12, 1947, Mitt Romney is the son of former Michigan Governor George Romney. He founded the investment firm Bain Capital and later ran for the Massachusetts Senate in 1994, losing to incumbent Ted Kennedy. Romney took over the Salt Lake Organizing Committee and helmed a successful 2002 Olympic Games. He became governor of Massachusetts in 2003 and made a run for the Republican nomination in the 2008 election, losing to candidate John McCain. Romney made a second run for the U.S. presidency in 2012, with U.S. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate, but was ultimately defeated by President Barack Obama in a tight race.
The son of George Romney, a former governor of Michigan who ran for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 1968 (he was defeated by Richard Nixon), Mitt Romney began his career in business. He worked for the management consulting firm Bain & Company before founding the investment firm Bain Capital in 1984. A decade later, in 1994, he ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts but was defeated by longtime incumbent Ted Kennedy.
Romney stepped into the national spotlight in 1999, when he took over as president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. He helped rescue the 2002 Winter Olympic Games from financial and ethical woes and helmed the successful Salt Lake City Games in 2002.
Romney parlayed his success with the Olympics into politics when he was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2003. During Romney's term as governor, he oversaw the reduction of a $3 billion deficit. He also signed into law a health-care reform program to provide nearly universal health care for Massachusetts residents.
After serving one term as governor, Romney declined to run for re-election and announced his bid for the U.S. presidency. He made it through Super Tuesday, winning primaries in Massachusetts, Alaska, Minnesota, Colorado, and Utah before losing the Republican nomination to Senator John McCain of Arizona. According to reports, Romney spent about $110 million on his campaign, including $45 million of his own money.
Romney continued to keep his options open for a possible future presidential run. He maintained much of his political staff and political action committees and raised funds for fellow Republican candidates. In March 2010, Romney published the book No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, which debuted on The New York Times' best-seller list.
At a farm in New Hampshire on June 2, 2011, Mitt Romney announced the official start of his campaign for the 2012 presidential election. During his campaign, Romney took many standard Republican positions on taxes, the economy and fighting terrorism, while consistently and vocally criticizing his opponent, Democrat President Barack Obama. Specifically, Romney denounced President Obama's health-care reform program—a stance that earned him criticism from the press, as the president's health-care plan is similar to the Massachusetts plan that Romney supported as governor. Additionally, throughout the 2012 presidential race, critics charged Romney with changing his position on several key issues, including abortion; Romney supported Roe v. Wade—the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a woman's right to an abortion—while campaigning for a Senate seat in 1994, but maintained an ardent pro-life stance throughout his 2012 campaign for the presidency.
From the start of his campaign, Romney emerged as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. He showed more mainstream Republican appeal than Tea Party-backed competitors like Texas Governor Rick Perry. In January 2012, Romney scored a decisive victory in the New Hampshire Republican primary. He captured more than 39 percent of votes, way ahead of his competitors, including Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman. As the race continued, Rick Santorum became his greatest competition, winning several states. However, Romney secured a substantial lead in the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
In April 2012, Romney benefitted from a narrowing of the field when Santorum announced that he was suspending his campaign. Romney publicly paid tribute to his former rival, saying that Santorum "has proved himself to be an important voice in our party and in the nation." Following Santorum's departure, Romney only had two opponents left—Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich. Gingrich threw in the towel that May.
Romney's campaign met with negative publicity in July 2012, when President Obama's campaign ran ads claiming that Romney was the head of Bain Capital until 2001, not until 1999 as Romney had previously stated. Around that same time, news reports began to circulate regarding economy-stifling practices by Bain Capital; according to the reports, Romney's company had invested in several businesses that specialized in relocating jobs overseas. The reports, along with Obama's ads, were huge blows to the Romney campaign. But Romney's campaign fired back with its own political ads, which claimed that Obama was more interested in helping his donors than looking out for the American public. This was only the beginning of the slinging of barbs and arrows that would occur between the two candidates along the campaign trail.
Later in July 2012, Romney made headlines again, this time for comments he made while attending the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London; in an interview with NBC, Romney stated that London's preparations for the Games were somewhat "disconcerting," spurring outrage from citizens of the city and viewers worldwide. According to The Guardian, following the NBC broadcast, Prime Minister David Cameron rebuked Romney's remarks, stating, "We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities in the world. Of course, it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere," referencing Romney's lead over the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
In response to the criticism, Romney later retracted, stating, "I am very delighted with the prospects of a highly successful Olympic Games. What I have seen shows imagination and forethought and a lot of organization and [I] expect the Games to be highly successful," according to The Guardian.
In August 2012, Romney announced 42-year-old U.S. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate for vice president. The announcement ended months-long speculation over the potential vice-presidential candidates of the 2012 election, as media attention began to heavily focus on Ryan, a fiscal conservative and chair of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.
On August 28, 2012, Romney became the Republican Party's official presidential nominee, receiving 2,061 delegate votes—nearly double the required 1,144—on the first day of the 2012 Republican National Convention, held in Tampa, Florida. During the convention, election candidates Romney and Ryan received support from several fellow Republican politicians, including Romney's competitor in the 2008 Republican presidential primaries, John McCain. "For four years, we have drifted away," McCain said at the convention. "People don't want less of America, they want more. What they want to know is, whether we still have faith ... Mitt Romney has that faith, and I trust him to lead us."
Romney made headlines after the first presidential debate with Barack Obama in early October 2012. He gave a strong performance, receiving praise for his speaking skills from citizens and critics alike. Most critics agreed that Romney won the debate and that his performance significantly boosted his public perception and status in the presidential race. However, Obama was praised for his performance during the second and third debates, with many critics claiming that the president had won both.
As each state announced its election results on November 6, 2012, many Americans clung to the edge of their seats. Just before midnight, the results were announced: In a tight race, Romney was defeated by Barack Obama, with the president receiving just over half of the popular vote and around 60 percent of the electoral vote.
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