Biography
American businessman and
politician, Republican Party candidate who won the November 2002
gubernatorial election in Massachusetts and who threw his hat in the
2008 race for the White House. With his thin good looks, youthful and
energetic appearance, strict moral emphasis, business triumphs, a lovely
wife and five successful sons by his side, Romney presents himself as
the answer to a conservative’s prayers.
Romney is the youngest of four sons of George Romney, a former Governor
of Michigan who was also an accomplished business executive, Cabinet
Secretary and church elder. Young Mitt grew up in a religious Mormon
household and idolized his dad. In the summer of 1966 he left college
and went to France as a missionary for his faith. There he suffered two
painful experiences that deeply affected him. In 1967, his father, then
Governor of Michigan, was a popular candidate to be the Republican
Party’s nominee in the 1968 presidential election. But in August 1967,
he reversed his pro-Vietnam war position, making a statement that he had
been “brainwashed” into believing that the war was justified. The elder
Romney lost his party’s approval, and Richard Nixon won the nomination
and election. Young Mitt was devastated at his father’s reversal of
political fortune. Several months later, in June 1968, Mitt was driving
some of his fellow missionaries on a mountain road in France. An
oncoming car struck Romney’s, killing one of Mitt’s colleagues and
severely injuring the other passengers. Mitt himself was so badly hurt
that the initial police reports declared him dead. He spent several
months recovering physically from the accident and turned to his faith
for emotional healing. It was in his hospital bed that he vowed to make
something of his life.
On his return to the states, Romney went on to graduate from Brigham
Young University in 1971 and earn his law and business degrees from
Harvard. In 1978, Romney joined consulting firm Bain & Co. In 1984, he
started an offshoot, Bain Capital, a venture-capital firm. There he made
his financial fortune. He returned to Bain & Co. in 1991 in a move to
keep the now financially-troubled company afloat. Again he found great
success.
In 1994, Mitt ran against the entrenched incumbent Democratic Senator
from Massachusetts where, at the time, only 13% of the voters were
Republican. He took 40% of the state's votes but lost the election after
his opponent, the liberal Ted Kennedy, showed ads that Bain and Co. had
backed an Indiana company that had initiated employee layoffs. In 1999,
Romney bounced into national attention when he took the helm of the
Olympics planning committee that was then bogged down in financial
mismanagement and charges of corruption and bribery. As President and
CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, Mitt is credited with saving
the day. Under his leadership, the dire financial situation was
reversed, and the 2002 Olympics were successfully staged.
Returning to politics, Romney waged a winning campaign to be Governor of
Massachusetts. He was installed in office in January 2003 and has become
fond of pointing out that he won as a Republican in a largely liberal
state. Mitt pledged to take no salary as Governor, earning him kudos
from some, but his one-term record was given mixed reviews. During his
term, a health care bill was passed and gay marriage was legalized; both
measures were praise-worthy. But the kudos were countered by frequent
opposition from a Democratic state congress and criticism from the
press, especially for excessive absences from office as he traveled to
other states and countries in an apparent attempt to set the stage for
larger political ambitions. In 2006 he was elected to Chair of the
Republican Governors Association. Not long afterward, on the morning of
February 13, 2007, he announced his candidacy for the Republican Party’s
nomination in the President’s race. He made his announcement at the
Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, the state in which he had grown
up.
Mitt met his wife, Ann, when he was 16 and said that he never seriously
dated anyone else. They have five children, all boys. In 1998, she was
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis but credits her faith, her family and
an active lifestyle with helping her ward off potential ravages of the
disease.
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