OK, Mitt Romney Did Not File Papers To Run For President Last Month

False Alarm

Last year Mitt Romney teased America, and maybe himself, with a prolonged suggestion that he was getting ready to announce another run for president. In the end, he announced he would not run.

Last week, in an unprecedented move, Romney took to the stage and delivered a scathing – and justified – attack on Donald Trump.

Romney and his former running mate, Paul Ryan, reportedly met for dinner the night before Romney’s speech, and some have been saying that Romney is hoping to create a scenario where, at the GOP convention, he, or they, get nominated.

Activist Scott Wooledge has learned that last month Mitt Romney filed an application with the Federal Election Commission to run for president. 

Of course, it doesn’t mean he is running, or plans to run – just that he left the door open. Just in case.

The form, dated February 1, is signed by Darrell Crate, the 2008 and 2012 Treasurer and Executive Committee Member of the Romney for President campaign. It also lists Paul Ryan as his running mate.

Last week Ryan, who also issued a strong attack against Donald Trump, said he would not enter the race, although the two had dinner in Salt Lake City last weekend. There is a separate effort to draft Ryan to run for president as well.

Bloomberg last week reported Romney “isn’t interested in being the nominee,” although “he would support an effort to deny Donald Trump the nomination at the party’s convention in July.”

UPDATE:
The Inquisitr adds: “In the Romney 2016 presidential election filing, it shows that Romney has been spending money actively on the campaign budget for legal consulting and data management. The full list of Romney’s expenditures for the Romney-Ryan campaign can be seen here.”

UPDATE II: 3:31 PM EST –
As a reader notes, the box that reads “Check if address is changed” is checked. It could merely be the campaign is letting the FEC know they have changed their address, but why would they need to? Also, as the Inquisitr (above) notes, “Romney has been spending money actively on the campaign budget for legal consulting and data management. The full list of Romney’s expenditures for the Romney-Ryan campaign can be seen here.”

UPDATE III: 3:40 PM EST –
A message left for the campaign has not yet been returned.

UPDATE IV:
We’re going to assume this is an amended filing and not for 2016, as we have not been able to locate a candidate statement from Romney for 2016. Thanks to readers Brian Francis and Ben Wheeler for their help via Twitter!

UPDATE V: 5:52 PM EST –
Turns out Wooledge wrote about this at Daily Kos, and there posts this from Bradley Crate, the founder and president of a group the Romney campaign uses:

Case closed. 

 

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