Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said that he encouraged Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Mark Warner of Virginia to run for president against Joe Biden in 2024, Deseret News reported Wednesday.
The former GOP presidential nominee’s remarks came Tuesday evening during an E2 summit in Park City, Utah, with his former running-mate Paul Ryan, where he took questions from a room full of Republican donors, according to Deseret News. Democrats have told Romney that Biden’s successor would likely be a more progressive candidate, like independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont or Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, he said.
“And they don’t want that — they don’t think that’s right for the country, either,” Romney said. (RELATED: Mitt Romney Calls On GOP Donors To Avoid Another Trump-Plurality Win)
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 26: Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) speaks during a news conference with Democratic lawmakers about the Biden administrations border politics, outside the U.S. Capitol. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The former running-mates also expressed concern over the future of the Republican Party during the summit, during which four GOP presidential hopefuls spoke — former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, according to Deseret News.
“What does the Republican Party, the conservative movement, look like after this?” Ryan asked.
The RealClearPolitics average for a 2024 national Republican primary, based on polls conducted between Sept. 18 to Oct. 9, indicates former President Donald Trump is leading the crowded field by over 40 points, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 12.8%, Haley with 7.3%, conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy with 6%, Pence with 3.5%, Christie with 2.6%, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott with 2.3% and Burgum with 0.7%.
Romney, who frequently encourages the party to coalesce around an alternative to Trump, said he’d be pleased if any of the four contenders who spoke at the summit were to secure the GOP nomination in 2024, according to Deseret News.
“I think our party has multiple personality disorder,” said Romney. “And I think the Democratic Party does as well. I think we’re schizophrenic. We don’t know what we are or what we stand for within our party right now.”
The senator recently announced he would not seek another term in the upper chamber, and acknowledged it was time for “a new generation of leaders.”
Romney, Booker, Warner and Biden did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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