page_title: Mitt Romney
section_title: Beginning of the campaign
hierarchical_section_title: Mitt Romney / Political life / 2012 presidential campaign / Beginning of the campaign
caption_attribution_description: English: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan wave at a campaign stop.
context_page_description: Willard Mitt Romney, usually called Mitt Romney, is an American businessman. Romney is the junior United States senator from Utah since January 3, 2019. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts serving from 2003 to 2007. He ran for the Republican Party nomination in the 2008 election, but lost the nomination to United States senator John McCain of Arizona.
  Romney would run again for the nomination only this time winning the nomination beating former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and former Speaker Newt Gingrich. His running mate was U.S. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. He ran against the incumbent President Barack Obama. He lost the election winning 206 of the electoral college to Obama's 332.
  In the aftermath of the election, Romney remained low in politics and in the 2016 presidential election, Romney was a critic of Donald Trump and would endorse former Governor Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party. After the election of Trump, it was thought that Trump would pick Romney as Secretary of State, but the position went to businessman Rex Tillerson.
context_section_description: After winning the Republican Party presidential primaries in 2012, Mitt Romney took part of the United States presidential election. He won the primaries against its major rivals Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich. Right after his winning in the republican primaries and access to the 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney has been critiqued by the Democratic Party (United States) for being part in the board of directors for the company Bain Capital Inc. from 1999 to 2002. During these three years, purchases of different companies by Bain Capital led to relocation of high-tech jobs in the United States to Mexico and China. In these uncertain economic times, this charge was unpopular with the average American. The Democratic Party (United States) also revealed with the help of the American Broadcasting Company that Mitt Romney has bank accounts in the Cayman Islands which would allow him to stare money over U.S. tax laws . About this guilt, Mitt Romney said during his campaign in New Hampshire :"{…} if there's an opportunity to save taxes, we like anybody else in this country will follow that opportunity.”.
caption: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in the presidential campaign, 2012
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