The Mitt Romney presidential campaign of 2008 began on January 3, 2007, two days before Mitt Romney left office as governor of Massachusetts, when he filed to form an exploratory committee with the Federal Election Commission to run for President of the United States as a Republican in the 2008 election. Subsequently, on February 13, 2007, he formally announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president in 2008. He did so at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, as an emblem of American ingenuity.
Romney was considered a top-tier candidate in his bid for the Republican nomination, despite hurdles such as low name recognition and questions about his Mormon faith. Romney partly financed his campaign with his own personal fortune, having contributed over $35 million of the $90 million raised by his campaign. Despite that, he also raised more money than any other Republican primary candidate.
In a nationwide poll conducted on January 2, 2008, Romney placed first among Republican voters nationally. However, he came in second in the Iowa caucuses to Mike Huckabee. Romney followed up with his first win of the campaign season in the Wyoming caucus, although it received little media attention. He then lost the New Hampshire primary to John McCain, but won the Nevada caucuses with 51 percent of the vote, with Ron Paul in second place and John McCain third, and won the Michigan primary by 9 percentage points, leaving the nomination result up in the air. He then finished fourth in the South Carolina primary and finished second to McCain in the hotly contested Florida primary, a result which gave McCain the lead in delegates and the status of "frontrunner" heading in to Super Tuesday.
On February 7, 2008, two days after McCain posted strong gains in the Super Tuesday primaries, Romney announced the end of his campaign. A week later he endorsed McCain.
Before the announcement Romney spent a considerable amount of time giving political speeches in key primary battleground states. Romney traveled the country during the 2006 election cycle to campaign for gubernatorial candidates as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, spending over 200 days outside Massachusetts. While he did not run for reelection as governor, in 2004 Romney set up a federal political action committee (PAC) called the Commonwealth PAC,Commonwealth Political Action Committee which raised $2.71 million during the 2006 election cycle.Commonwealth PAC Report, 2006 PAC Summary Data OpenSecrets.Commonwealth PAC Report, 2004 PAC Summary Data OpenSecrets
While testing the waters for his campaign in 2005 and 2006, then Governor Romney was accompanied by Massachusetts state troopers on his cross-country trips. The cost of the governor's security detail for out-of-state trips increased from $63,874 in fiscal year 2005 to a cost of $103,365 in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2006. Romney's use of state troopers for security during his campaign trips was criticized by former Governor Michael Dukakis, who never traveled with state troopers during his 1988 presidential run, and Mary Boyle of Common Cause who complained that "[t]he people of Massachusetts are essentially funding his presidential campaign, whether they like it or not." A Romney spokesman noted that Romney did not accept a salary while he was governor and that he paid for his personal and political travel, while the superintendent of the State Police pointed out that the governor never requested the security and that the security detail followed the governor on all trips in the post 9/11 world.
On January 3, 2007, his next-to-last day in office as governor of Massachusetts, Romney filed to form a presidential exploratory committee with the Federal Election Commission. Via the campaign committee press release announcing the establishment of the exploratory committee, Romney made it clear that it is a mere formality to announce a run for president, and that an announcement merely entails changing the name of the existing reporting entity, from "Romney for President Exploratory Committee, Inc." to "Romney for President Committee, Inc." and that money raised by the exploratory committee is the same account and entity as the money raised after any announcement, and of no consequence to the Federal Election Commission.
Announcement On February 13, 2007, Romney formally announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president in 2008. Romney made his announcement at The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village of Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan.
In his speech, Romney frequently invoked his father, former Michigan Governor George W. Romney (whose own presidential campaign had come undone forty years earlier), and the stage included a Nash Rambler, the car his father had made famous as an automobile executive. Romney stressed the variety of his own experiences that brought him to this point:
Throughout my life, I have pursued innovation and transformation. It's taught me the vital lessons that come only from experience, from failures and from successes, from the private, public and voluntary sectors, from small and large enterprise, from leading a state, from actually being in the arena, not just talking about it.
Overall, Romney struck an optimistic tone for his candidacy and for the future of the country. His wife Ann Romney also spoke at the announcement event.
Campaign developments 2007 Romney on March 3, 2007, won the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Straw Poll. He received 21% of the vote. Rudy Giuliani received 17%, Senator Sam Brownback received 15%, and Senator John McCain received 12%. 1,705 attendees voted.
Romney held numerous "Ask Mitt Anything" sessions in his 2008 campaign. The first "Ask Mitt Anything" session was held on April 3, 2007, in Derry, New Hampshire, and his second the following day in Urbandale, Iowa.Governor Mitt Romney To Hold "Ask Mitt Anything" Town Hall Events The sessions were open forums that allowed opportunities for locals to ask Romney questions pertaining to his views and policies. One of the first "Ask Mitt Anything" events in New Hampshire was held at Saint Anselm College as seen in the adjacent image.Former Gov. Mitt Romney: New Hampshire Visits, George Washington University. Retrieved January 14, 2012. Sessions were held in almost every state Romney visited, including locations such as town halls, restaurants,Romney Brings 'Ask Anything' Tour to County Tipton Conservative. August 15, 2007. universities, hotels, and music halls.2 leading GOP hopefuls coming back for more Nashua Telegraph. August 16, 2007. In preparation for the Ames Straw Poll, Romney held a three-day, 14-city "Ask Mitt Anything" Iowa tour leading up to the poll.
In June 2007, a section of a four-part series on Romney from The Boston Globe documented how during a family vacation taken in 1983, Romney strapped a kennel with his dog Seamus to the roof of his station wagon for the 12-hour trip from Massachusetts to Ontario. Presented in the articles as an example of Romney's ability to deal with trying circumstances, the incident received nationwide media attention when journalists and animal activists criticized Romney's strapping of the dog to the roof for a 12-hour summer trip. Romney said that the dog had a windshield and he "jumped right in" and loved the ride.
On July 4, 2007, the Romney campaign officially launched the "Mitt Mobile, A Five Brothers Bus", referring to Romney's five sons and his official campaign blog, Five Brothers. When asked why his sons were not fighting in Iraq, Romney replied that his sons were supporting America by riding from town to town in the "Five Brothers Bus," saying "One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected." Romney later apologized and said he misspoke and that there is no comparison to the sacrifice that military persons make. The RV, a Winnebago made in Iowa, had a large map of Iowa on the back and a Romney family portrait on the side with the label "Mitt Mobile", "A Five Brothers Bus". The Mitt Mobile was planned to visit all of Iowa's ninety-nine counties. Each county was checked off on the large map on the back of the RV once it was visited. On August 11, 2007, the Mitt Mobile visited Iowa's ninety-ninth county at the Ames Straw Poll. The Mitt Mobile was planned to also tour Florida, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and other key primary states.Craig Romney, "On the Road Again ". Five Brothers, August 21, 2007. The Mitt Mobile has been a large success in attracting attention, and was even featured on Fox News' On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. Susteren interviewed Matt, Josh, and Craig Romney and toured and drove the Mitt Mobile.
On August 11, 2007, Romney won the Ames Straw Poll. He received 31.5% of the vote at the Straw Poll. Mike Huckabee came in second and received 18%, a larger margin than that of George W. Bush and Steve Forbes in the 2000 election, which had a margin of 10%. However, by December 7, 2007, Romney had slipped behind Mike Huckabee in polls conducted nationally as well as in Iowa.
In his "Faith in America" address, Romney claimed "I saw my father march with Martin Luther King." In a December 16, 2007, interview with Tim Russert, Romney repeated his claim that his "dad marched with Martin Luther King." An article published by The Phoenix on December 19, 2007, argues that while David S. Broder "references a 1967 book he co-authored on the Republican Party, which included a chapter on George Romney [...with] a one-line statement that the senior Romney 'has marched with Martin Luther King through the exclusive Grosse Pointe suburb of Detroit'," historical sources found by The Phoenix found no references to George Romney having marched with Martin Luther King and that it was unlikely that a governor and former presidential candidate would go unnoticed. The Phoenix also discovered that Dr. King did not visit Grosse Pointe until after Broder's book was published.David S. Bernstein, "Was it all a dream", The Phoenix, December 19, 2007. The Detroit Free Press reported on December 20, 2007, that the Romney campaign later asserted that when Romney made these two statements to a national audience about his father marching with King that he was "speaking figuratively, not literally." Subsequently, Politico reported that at least two witnesses did remember George Romney and King marching together. and the Romney campaign put out a string of citations affirming them appearing together and George Romney's commitment to civil rights in general. In November 2007, The New York Times reported that Romney had participated with his father in civil rights marches.
Advertisements Romney was the first candidate in the 2008 election to begin airing TV and radio advertisements, beginning in February 2007. His advertisements, most of which focused primarily on Romney's conservative credentials, have aired mainly in Iowa and New Hampshire, which experts credit with helping his early lead in those and other early primary states. Romney's campaign advisors explained that their early advertisement push was to make up for Romney being relatively unknown compared to contenders Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Fred Thompson. On September 4, 2007, Romney was estimated to have spent $2 million in advertisements in Iowa and New Hampshire.