SALON

Monday, Feb 4, 2013 8:42 PM UTC

Tagg Romney considering Senate run for some reason

UPDATED: Mitt Romney's eldest son may carry on the family legacy of losing elections

By

Topics: Politics, U.S. Senate, Mitt Romney, Tagg Romney, Editor's Picks,

Tagg Romney considering Senate run for some reason (Credit: AP/Pat Wellenbach)

Remember Mitt Romney? He was this rich guy who ran for president because his dad wanted to be president, a long time ago. He didn’t win. Running for president to fulfill your dad’s legacy and then losing is, you would think, the sort of thing that would sour your family on electoral politics, but it might’ve just inspired an endless cycle of running-for-things-to-honor-your-dad. That is really the only explanation I can come up with for this news:

Is the next generation of Romney politicians beginning? Despite press reports that Tagg Romney will not be running for Senate, a source close to Tagg Romney tells National Review Online that Tagg, the oldest son of Mitt and Ann Romney, and a prominent surrogate for his dad during the election, is seriously considering making a Senate run in Massachusetts — and expects to decide one way or another soon.

OK, Tagg, sure.

Taggart Romney currently helps run a private equity firm — yes, “private equity,” that thing that made Mitt Romney both rich and unelectable — called Solamere Capital. He started the firm right after the 2008 election, when smart people knew that Tagg’s dad, Mitt, was almost definitely going to be the next Republican nominee for president. And like his father, who likes to imagine himself a self-made man, Tagg simply does not understand why people insist that it’s weird that someone with no private equity experience at all managed to start a firm that got a lot of rich investors right away.

Solamere’s founders dispute any notion that they have cashed in on their political connections, arguing that Solamere, like any fund, has had to persuade investors on its merits.

“No one we went to as an investor said, ‘Oh, your dad is Mitt Romney, I’m going to give you $10 million,” Tagg Romney said, noting that his father’s political future was uncertain when the firm began. He added, “Our relationships with people got us in the door, but that did not get us investors.”

Even so, Mitt Romney was the featured speaker at Solamere’s first investor conference in Deer Valley in January 2010. Mr. Romney, who made his fortune in private equity at Bain Capital, also gave early strategic advice.

The Romneys are all so good at self-deception. That is like the thing they are second-best at, after “getting rich people to give them money because they are named Romney.”

Anyway, as the Weekly Standard points out, Tagg Romney has no political history to speak of, and has never expressed any sort of political opinion at all beyond wanting his dad to be president. Running for office would simply be a vanity project, because the Romneys are all convinced that their holding elected office constitutes noble public service. Their only political conviction is that a person named Romney is so uniquely talented and virtuous that putting him in charge of stuff would be good for everyone. That’s why it’s fun to watch them lose elections. Tagg Romney is perfect for the job of “person who will lose the Massachusetts Senate election, to a Democrat.”

UPDATE: Tagg’s not running. I very much recommend this NRO post reporting that fact, because it’s very fawning. “Romney, a sharp and amiable surrogate for his father, had conservatives excited.” Oh well, there’s always 2014.

Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 34 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation
60 points61 points | 3 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator who voted against federal funding for Hurricane Sandy victims: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
38 points39 points | comment
vote
"Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation": long, detailed narrative of legal and historical complications in red-white-black relations
22 points23 points | comment
vote
Obama opposes GOP bill on Keystone XL oil pipeline: The White House said Tuesday that the bill “seeks to circumvent longstanding and proven processes” by removing a requirement for a presidential permit. The legislation also says no new environmental studies are needed.
20 points21 points | 2 comments
vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
8 points9 points | comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations