How to Succeed at Politics Without Really Trying: Mitt Romney Defies His Party, and Gets Away With It

After months of investigations, trials, and high political drama, the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump are over. For better or worse, the President was acquitted of all charges brought against him by the House of Representatives.  The final votes to decide the fate of his administration were unsurprisingly partisan.  All Democrats voted to convict, while all Republicans voted to acquit. 

All Republicans except for one that is.  Mitt Romney, the freshman senator from Utah voted against the President. According to The Atlantic, He did so out of a sense of duty to uphold an oath to God to administer impartial justice through his vote.  The Senator has faced harsh criticism from his party after standing alone to defy its leader.

              
               Senator Romney Announcing His Intention to Vote to Convict
                          Photo Credit: USA Today

Senator Romney’s vote seems out of place when seen in the context of increasingly partisan American Politics.  Almost unanimously, Republicans have rallied around President Trump, and Democrats have condemned him with one voice.  The high stakes of the impeachment proceedings have only exasperated these trends.  So what lead Senator Romney to defy this trend by defying his party?

According to the Atlantic, the Senator cites his religious convictions.  These likely played a large role in shaping his sense of what the correct vote was, but other Republican senators espouse the same belief in justice and in duty to God as Senator Romney.  However, these Senators did not break party ranks and vote to convict the President.

Even some of our recent readings could be used to suggest that Senator Romney should have voted along with the president.  Bawn argues that parties are formed and influenced by a coalition of outside interest groups that strive to nominate those who have demonstrated loyalty to their interests and will vote the party line.  Masket shows how in most cases, strong partisan groups formed in the California Legislature, especially when strong interests played a role in nomination. With these arguments in mind, it seems Strang that Senator Romney would break with his party on something so important as a Presidential impeachment trial.

But Masket’s argument is also the key to why Senator Romney felt free to vote against the Republican Party. Masket also showed that when cross filing prevented interest groups from dominating the nomination process, party discipline in the legislature completely broke down.  Law makers preferred to vote moderately rather than as “partisan warriors.” Without pressure from the interest groups who got them their nominations, members of the legislature were free to act more in line with what they thought was best (perhaps what they believed personally but more likely, at least according to Masket, in a moderate way that helped them win reelection)

The situation surrounding Mitt Romney’s nomination to his current seat is more analogous with Masket’s account of cross filing. Like many of the politicians in Masket’s account, Senator Romney gained the Utah Republican Party’s nomination seat without the support of the establishment party.  According to the Washington Post, in June of 2018 the former presidential candidate, still hugely popular with the conservative Latter-Day Saint base of voters in Utah, was able to secure his nomination after losing a nomination vote at a Republican state convention.  Despite efforts by more radical members of the party establishment to control the nomination process, Mitt Romney was able to gain the support of his party.  This is similar to the way California legislature candidates were able to circumvent their party faction’s gatekeeping role.

Senator Romney may therefore feel less beholden to a group of more radically partisan state interests.  This could explain the difference in vote between Senator Romney and his fellow Utah Senator Mike Lee.  Both men are conservative Republican Latter-Day Saints with the same constituency.  But the difference in the way they came to power could explain the difference in how they voted.  Senator Lee may have felt the same conflict between party loyalty and duty to God but was not free to act without pressure from party interests the way Senator Romney was. Of course, this is not necessarily the case, Senator Lee may have felt that President Trump was indeed innocent. However, Lee’s similar religious convictions to Senator Romney suggest he may have experienced the same tug-a-war.

Because he was not beholden to special interests who had helped him gain power, Senator Romney was free to vote his mind in the impeachment proceedings of the President.  This suggests that efforts should be made to limit the ability of special interests to dominate legislative bodies, thus freeing congressmen and women to vote more in line with the truth, or at least more in line with their districts.

Atlantic Article: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/02/romney-impeach-trump/606127/

Washington Post Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/live-updates/midterms/live-primary-election-results/mitt-romney-wins-senate-nomination-in-utah/?arc404=true

USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/02/06/mitt-romney-speech-senator-explains-vote-trump-impeachment-trial/4676921002/

Bawn Article:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/theory-of-political-parties-groups-policy-demands-and-nominations-in-american-politics/2F7996D5365C105C3B91CD56E6A1FAA3

Masket Article:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00263.x