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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — When he previously ran for U.S. Senate 24 years ago in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney lost handily to the late liberal lion Ted Kennedy.
Now in Utah, Romney is facing a new challenge from someone who shares his old opponent's name but little else: State Rep. Mike Kennedy.
The conservative lawyer and family doctor from small-town Alpine, 30 miles south of Salt Lake City, narrowly bested Romney for the Senate nomination among far-right leaning delegates at Utah's Republican convention on Saturday, setting up a June 26 primary battle with Romney.
Romney, 71, remains the heavy favorite to eventually win the Senate seat and replace outgoing Sen. Orrin Hatch. As a former presidential candidate, Romney has national name recognition, deep pockets and will be campaigning for the votes of more moderate primary voters throughout the state than those who attended the party convention.
Romney has reported campaign funds totally about $1.6 million while Kennedy has $289,000.
Kennedy's upset win at the convention proves that Romney still needs to earn the trust of a sizeable portion of state voters.
Kennedy, 49, a charismatic three-term state lawmaker and practicing physician, is considered more conservative than Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts.
Kennedy, a father of eight children, has framed himself as a homegrown underdog taking on the "Romney machine" and has suggested Romney is an interloper in Utah, a state in which he did not live full-time until after his failed 2012 presidential campaign.
"I have not read the cliff notes version of Utah, I've read the full book of Utah," Kennedy said Monday in an emailed statement, stressing his deep ties to the state.
Kennedy has avoided making scathing broadsides against Romney.
But like many conservatives, he has attacked the Affordable Care Act, taking a sublet jab at Romney's tenure as governor of Massachusetts, when he oversaw state health care reform that has been called an inspiration for the federal health law.
"We have a lot of conservative voters in this state and I don't always think that (Romney) understands those conservative principles," said Matthew Green, 44, a GOP delegate from Kennedy's district who supported his nomination.
Romney's oscillating relationship with President Donald Trump — whom he once blasted as a "fraud" and "phony" — might not sit well with supporters of the president in Utah, said State Sen. Todd Weiler, a Romney supporter. Trump has endorsed Romney's campaign for Senate but Romney won't say if he would support a Trump re-election bid in 2020.
In the weeks to come, Kennedy will impress a lot of people, Weller said. "But ultimately, I think by the end of June when the numbers are all counted he'll have only maybe set himself up for a future run."
As he campaigns in diners and farms across the state, Romney will try to persuade voters that his national profile will give Utahans an outsized voice in Washington.
Kennedy, however, sees that approach as Romney's vulnerability.
"I'm tired of business as usual in Washington, D.C.," he told delegates Saturday. "If you want things to change, you need to vote for change. If you want business as usual, you've got an option."
Centrist Republicans have a history of losing at Utah's convention but then coming back to win in the primary.
Gov. Gary Herbert, Hatch and freshman Rep. John Curtis all failed to win nominations at recent conventions, just to turn around and secure the party's bid in a primary.
When he previously ran for U.S. Senate 24 years ago in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney lost handily to the late liberal lion Ted Kennedy.
Now in Utah, Romney is facing a new challenge from someone who shares his old opponent's name but little else: State Rep. Mike Kennedy.
The conservative lawyer and family doctor from small-town Alpine, south of Salt Lake City, narrowly bested Romney for the Senate nomination among far-right leaning delegates at Utah's Republican convention on Saturday, setting up a June 26 primary battle with Romney.
Romney remains the heavy favorite to eventually win the Senate seat and replace outgoing Sen. Orrin Hatch.
However, Kennedy's upset win at the convention proves that Romney still needs to earn the trust of a sizeable portion of state voters.
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