(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Mitt Romney is perhaps the last name mentioned among potential 2028 presidential candidates. Even so, the former Utah senator recently responded to a question about a potential third presidential campaign.
Romney, a former Utah senator and Massachusetts governor, quipped during a July 8 interview on the Deseret Voices podcast that he “would love” to run again but suggested that his age was a deterrent.
“I wanted to announce that I am running one more time,” Romney joked when asked whether he was running in 2028. He added: “And the reality is sure, I would love to do it again. And this time I might get it right, you know, third time’s a charm. But no, I’m not.”
Mitt Romney:
I am not running for president in 2028.
The human brain shrinks by about 20% by the time you're 80 years of age. Twenty percent smaller—the size of the brain itself.
So I basically think people who are 80 and above really should not be running the world or… pic.twitter.com/2X347NrgF7
— Clash Report (@clashreport) July 10, 2026
The 79-year-old politician unsuccessfully ran for president twice, first in 2008 and then in 2012. He lost the Republican primary to late Sen. John McCain in 2008 and the general election to then-President Barack Obama in 2012.
On the podcast, Romney said that he did not think “people who are 80 and above really should not be running the world or running the country.”
Romney also referred to The Body: A Guide for Occupants, in which author Bill Bryson wrote that the human brain shrinks by 20% at age 80.
The Republican served as a U.S. senator for Utah from 2019 to 2025. He declined to seek a second term to make way for a “new generation of leaders.”
“They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in,” Romney said in 2023, referring to younger politicians.
My message to Utahns on my Senate reelection plan: pic.twitter.com/kgbsfIxMeR
— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) September 13, 2023
In his retirement announcement, Romney omitted that his reelection bid would have likely faced an uphill battle after he voted to convict President Donald Trump in his second impeachment in 2021.
Trump welcomed Romney’s retirement from public office, saying in 2024 that the country “will be a better place.”
