Utah Sen. Mitt Romney revealed Tuesday that he has encouraged several of his Democratic Senate colleagues to challenge President Biden for the party’s 2024 nomination.
Romney, the Republican nominee for president in 2012, specifically named Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) as lawmakers that he has approached with his proposal, both of whom declined to entertain the idea of primarying the 80-year-old incumbent.
The former Massachusetts governor’s remarks came during an event for Republican donors in Utah, according to Deseret News, where he also told the audience that Democrats have informed him that anyone replacing Biden would need to be “more progressive,” like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) or Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
“And they don’t want that — they don’t think that’s right for the country, either,” Romney said of the response from them to the prospect of a far-left Democrat becoming president.
Booker, who was elected to the Senate in 2013, endorsed Biden for president in January 2020 after an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination that year.
He endorsed Biden again in April, shortly after the president announced that he would seek re-election in 2024.
Warner, who has served in the Senate since 2009 and is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, does not appear to have publicly endorsed Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign.
The Post has reached out to Booker and Warner’s offices for comment.
Biden’s only competitor for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination is self-help guru Marianne Williamson, after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Monday that he’s dropping out of the Democratic primary race and will instead run for president as an independent.
During his remarks, Romney also encouraged Republicans to rally behind a single candidate that can challenge former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination.
He noted that he would be happy if any of the GOP candidates that attended Tuesday’s event — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — were to receive the nomination.