Romney
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
  • Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said on Wednesday that he did not cast a ballot for President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, according to CNN.
  • Romney was a leading GOP presidential candidate in 2008 and served as the party’s standard bearer in 2012.
  • Romney was the only Republican senator who voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the GOP presidential nominee in 2012, said on Wednesday that he did not cast a ballot for President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, according to CNN.

When asked by CNN’s Manu Raju about his voting status, Romney confirmed that he had already voted, but would not say if he supported Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden or a write-in candidate.

“I did not vote for President Trump,” he said.

Romney did not vote for Trump in 2016 and instead opted to write-in his wife Ann’s name on the ballot.

While both men ascended to the top of the Republican party during the same decade, Trump and Romney have had a famously testy relationship.

Despite Trump's endorsement of Romney in 2012, the president has been a longtime critic of Romney's presidential campaigns. Their feud escalated during the 2016 GOP presidential primaries when Romney called Trump "a phony" and "a fraud."

"Looks like two-time failed candidate Mitt Romney is going to be telling Republicans how to get elected," Trump tweeted in March 2016. "Not a good messenger!"

"Failed candidate Mitt Romney, who ran one of the worst races in presidential history, is working with the establishment to bury a big 'R' Win," he continued.

After Trump was elected in 2016, Romney was briefly considered to become Secretary of State and the two famously dined together at Jean Georges, the upscale restaurant at Trump International Hotel in New York.

The position instead went to former ExxonMobil CEO and chairman Rex Tillerson.

In 2018, Trump endorsed Romney for a Senate seat in Utah that was opening up with the retirement of longtime GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch.

"Mitt Romney has announced he is running for the Senate from the wonderful state of Utah," Trump wrote on Twitter. "He will make a great Senator and a worthy successor to Orrin Hatch, and has my full support and endorsement!"

Romney was easily elected to the seat in November 2018.

In February 2020, Romney played a pivotal role in the impeachment proceedings of Trump, becoming the only Republican senator who voted to convict the president in his Senate trial.

Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives after a formal House report alleged that he sought to "use his powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election."

"I will only be one name among many, no more, no less, to future generations of Americans who look at the record of this trial," Romney said on the Senate floor at the time. "They will note merely that I was among the senators who determined that what the president did was wrong, grievously wrong."

The Senate later voted to acquit Trump on both impeachment articles.

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