Romney was born in Detroit, Michigan. He was the fourth and last child of George W. Romney, a man of humble upbringing who by 1948 had become an automobile executive, and Lenore Romney; the three siblings before him were Margo Lynn, Jane LaFount, and G. Scott. Romney was named after hotel magnate J. Willard Marriott, his father's best friend, and the nickname of his father's cousin Milton Romney, who played quarterback for the Chicago Bears from 1925 to 1929. The youngster was called "Billy" until he reached kindergarten, when he indicated a preference for "Mitt".

When Mitt was five, the family moved from Detroit to the affluent suburb of Bloomfield Hills. His father became CEO of American Motors and turned the company around from the brink of bankruptcy with his promotion of the fuel-efficient, compact Rambler. By the time Mitt was twelve, his father had become a nationally known figure in print and on television. Mitt idolized him, read automotive trade magazines and kept abreast of automotive developments, and aspired to be an executive in the industry himself one day. His father also presided over the Detroit Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to which the family belonged.

Mitt went to public elementary schools, and then from seventh grade on, attended Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, an elite private boys school where he was the lone Mormon and where many students came from even more privileged backgrounds. He was an indifferent athlete and at first an underachieving student. While a sophomore, his father was elected Governor of Michigan. George Romney was a popular governor who was elected for three two-year terms; Mitt worked for him as a campaign aide and an intern in the governor's office, and was present at the 1964 Republican National Convention when his moderate father battled conservative party nominee Barry Goldwater over issues of civil rights and ideological extremism. Mitt did not flaunt the connection with his father to his friends nor did he trade in on his father's famous name to gain any advantages for himself.

Romney enjoyed partying and was known as a kinetic kid who loved to pull off non-malicious pranks, such as sliding down golf courses on large ice cubes, dressing as a police officer and tapping on the car windows of teenage friends making out, and staging an elaborate formal dinner in the center of a busy intersection. During his final years at Cranbook, he joined the cross country running team and improved academically but was still not a star pupil. His social skills were strong, however, and he won an award for those "whose contributions to school life are often not fully recognized through already existing channels." In March of his senior year, he began dating Ann Davies, two years behind him, whom he had once known in elementary school; she went to the private Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills, the sister school to Cranbrook. The two informally agreed to marriage after his senior prom in June 1965, which was shortly followed by his graduation.

Romney attended Stanford University for a year. Although the campus was becoming radicalized with the beginnings of 1960s social and political movements, Romney kept a clean-cut, Chamber of Commerce-style appearance, enjoying traditional campus events and in one case even protesting against a group of protesters staging a sit-in.

In 1966, Romney left for France for 30 months as a Mormon missionary, a traditional duty that his father and other relatives had done before him. He arrived in Le Havre with ideas about how to change the French Mission and better market their presence; he approached his duties with zeal, while facing physical and economic deprivation for the first time in his life in the mission's cramped quarters. Rules against drinking, smoking, and dating were strictly enforced. Like most Mormon missionaries, he failed to gain many converts, with the nominally Catholic but secular, wine-loving French people proving especially resistant. He became demoralized, and later recalled it as the only time in his life when "most of what I was trying to do was rejected." In one episode in Nantes, Romney suffered a badly bruised jaw in defending two female missionaries against a horde of local rugby players. He continued to work hard, however, and encouraged his colleagues to read and absorb Napoleon Hill's recently republished self-help tome Think and Grow Rich. Having grown up in Michigan rather than the more insular Utah world, Romney was better able to interact and relate to the local population. After gaining a promotion to zone leader in Bordeaux in early 1968, he was still looking to rise higher; he subsequently became assistant to the mission president in Paris, the highest position a missionary could assume. Romney's hawkish views about the Vietnam War were only reinforced when the French greeted him with hostility over his country's role in it and he debated them in return. He also witnessed first-hand the May 1968 general strike and student uprisings.

On June 16, 1968, Romney was involved in a serious automobile accident while driving fellow missionaries on dangerous roads in southern France. As they drove through the village of Bernos-Beaulac, a Mercedes that was passing a truck missed a curve and suddenly swerved into the opposite lane and hit the Citroën DS Romney was driving in a head-on collision. Trapped between the steering wheel and door, the unconscious and seriously injured Romney had to be pried from the car; a French police officer mistakenly wrote Il est mort in his passport. The wife of the mission president was killed and other passengers were seriously injured as well. George Romney relied on his friend Sargent Shriver, the U.S. Ambassador to France, to go to the local hospital and discover that Mitt had survived. The fault for the accident was attributed completely to the driver of the other vehicle. Romney had suffered broken ribs, a fractured arm, a concussion, and facial injuries, but recovered quickly without needing surgery. Romney and another assistant became acting presidents of a mission demoralized and disorganized by the May disturbances and the accident. Romney rallied and motivated the other missionaries and they met an ambitious goal of performing 200 baptisms for the year, the highest mark for the mission in a decade. By the end of his mission in December 1968, Romney was overseeing the work of 175 fellow members. Both the accident and the overall missionary experience changed Romney, giving him both an appreciation for the fragility of life and an ambition, capacity for organization and seriousness of purpose, and record of success that he had heretofore lacked. It also presented a crucible for his religious faith, after having been only a half-hearted Mormon growing up: "On a mission, your faith in Jesus Christ either evaporates or it becomes much deeper. For me it became much deeper."

While he was away, Ann Davies had converted on her own to the LDS Church during 1966, guided by George Romney, and had begun attending Brigham Young University. He was quite nervous that she had been wooed by others while he was away, and indeed she had dated others, but at their first meeting following his return they reconnected and agreed to get married as soon as possible. Romney married Ann Davies on March 21, 1969, in a Bloomfield Hills civil ceremony presided over by a church elder. The following day the couple flew to Utah for a wedding ceremony at the Salt Lake Temple.

In order to be closer to her, Romney began attending Brigham Young University as well. Romney had missed much of the American anti-Vietnam War movement and associated tumult while away, and was surprised to find out that his father had turned against the war during his ill-fated 1968 presidential campaign. The circumstances of his father's loss would grate on Mitt for decades. Regarding his own status in terms of the military draft, Romney had initially gotten a student deferment, then like most other Mormorn missionaries he had received a ministerial deferment while in France. Following his return, Romney got another student deferment. When those ran out and he became eligible for military service in 1970, his high number in the annual draft lottery (300) meant he would not be drafted.

At the culturally conservative Brigham Young, Romney continued to be sheltered from much of the upheaval of the era, and did not join in the few protests against the war or against the LDS Church's policy against giving full membership to blacks. He became president of an all-male social club and showed a newfound discipline in his studies. In his senior year he took time off to return to Michigan to work as a driver and advance man for his mother Lenore Romney in her eventually unsuccessful 1970 campaign for the U.S. Senate. He graduated from Brigham Young in 1971, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English and giving commencement addresses to both his own College of Humanities and to the university's entire graduating class.

The Romneys' first son, Tagg, was born in 1970 while both were undergraduates at Brigham Young, living in a $75-a-month basement apartment. They subsequently had Matt (born 1971), Josh (born 1975), Ben (born 1978) and Craig (born 1981). Ann Romney's work as a stay-at-home mom would enable her husband to pursue his career, first in business and then in politics.

Romney still wanted to pursue a business career, but his father, who by now was serving in President Richard Nixon's cabinet as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, recommended that a law degree would be valuable. Thus Romney became one of only 15 students to enroll at the recently-created joint Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration four-year program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. Fellow students noted Romney's strong work ethic and buttoned-down appearance; he lived in a Belmont, Massachusetts house with Ann and by now two children. He graduated in 1975 cum laude from the law school, representing a standing in the top third of that class, and was named a Baker Scholar for graduating in the top five percent of his business school class.

Romney was heavily recruited and, after graduation, chose to remain in Massachusetts and go to work for Boston Consulting Group, thinking that working as a management consultant to a variety of companies would prepare him for a future job as a chief executive. Romney's legal and business education proved valuable in this role, and he quickly became a rising star.

In 1977 he was hired away by Bain & Company, a hot new management consulting firm in Boston that had been formed a few years earlier by Bill Bain and other former Boston Consulting Group employees. Bain would later say of the thirty-year-old Romney, "He had the appearance of confidence of a guy who was maybe ten years older." With Bain & Company, Romney proved adept at learning the "Bain way", which consisted of immersing itself in each client's business, and not simply to issue recommendations, but to stay with the company until they were effectively changed for the better. With a record of success with clients such as the Monsanto Company, Outboard Marine Corporation, Burlington Industries, and Corning Incorporated, Romney became a vice president of the firm in 1978 and within a few years one of the its best consultants. Romney became a firm believer in Bain's methods; he later said, "The idea that consultancies should not measure themselves by the thickness of their reports, or even the elegance of their writing, by rather by whether or not the report was effectively implemented was an inflection point in the history of consulting."

Romney was restless for a company of his own to run, and in 1983 Bill Bain offered him the chance to head a new venture that would buy into companies, have them benefit from Bain techniques, and then reap higher rewards than just consulting fees. Romney was initially cautious about accepting the offer, and Bain re-arranged the terms in a complicated partnership structure so that there was no financial or professional risk to Romney. Thus, in 1984, Romney left Bain & Company to co-found the spin-off private equity investment firm, Bain Capital. Bain and Romney spent a year raising the $37 million in investment money needed to start the new operation. As general partner of the new firm, Romney was frugal and cautious, spending little on office appearance and finding the weak spots in so many potential deals that by 1986, very few had been done. At first, Bain Capital focused on venture capital opportunities. Their first big success came with a 1986 investment to help start Staples Inc., after founder Thomas G. Stemberg convinced Romney of the market size for office supplies; Bain Capital eventually reaped a nearly sevenfold return on its investment.

Romney soon switched Bain Capital's focus from startups to the relatively new business of leveraged buyouts: buying existing firms with money mostly borrowed against their assets, partnering with existing management to apply the "Bain way" to their operations (rather than the hostile takeovers practiced in other leverage buyout scenarios), and then selling them off in a few years. Bain Capital lost most of its money in many of its early leveraged buyouts, but then started finding successes with spectacular returns.Indeed, during the 14 years Romney headed the company, Bain Capital's average annual internal rate of return on realized investments was 113 percent. Romney excelled at presenting and selling the deals the company made. The firm initially gave a cut of its profits to Bain & Company, but Romney later persuaded Bain to give that up.

The firm's successfully invested in or acquired many well-known companies such as Accuride, Brookstone, Domino's Pizza, Sealy Corporation, Sports Authority, and Artisan Entertainment, as well as lesser-known companies in the industrial and medical sectors. Romney's cautious instincts were still in force at times; he wanted to drop a Bain Capital hedge fund that initially lost money, but other partners prevailed and it eventually gained billions. He also personally opted out of the Artisan Entertainment deal, not wanting to profit from a studio that produced R-rated films. Romney was on the board of directors of Damon Corporation, a medical testing company later found guilty of defrauding the government; Bain Capital tripled its investment before selling off the company, with the fraud being discovered by the new owners.

Leveraged buyouts such as those Bain Capital did sometimes led to layoffs. Of these, Romney later said, "Sometimes the medicine is a little bitter but it is necessary to save the life of the patient. My job was to try and make the enterprise successful, and in my view the best security a family can have is that the business they work for is strong." Bain Capital's acquisition of Ampad exemplified a deal where it profited handsomely from early payments and management fees, even though the subject company itself ended up going into bankruptcy. Bain was among the private equity firms that took the most such fees, and more cases happened as Romney was leaving the firm. He said in retrospect, "It is one thing that if I had a chance to go back I would be more sensitive to. It is always a balance. Great care has got to be taken not to take a dividend or a distribution from a company that puts that company at risk. [Taking a big payment from a company that later failed] would make me sick, sick at heart."

In 1990, Romney was asked to return to Bain & Company, which was facing financial collapse. He was announced as its new CEO in January 1991 (but drew only a symbolic salary of one dollar). Romney managed an effort to restructure the firm's employee stock-ownership plan, real-estate deals and bank loans, while rallying the firm's thousand employees, imposing a new governing structure that included Bain and the other founding partners giving up control, and increasing fiscal transparency. Within about a year, he had led Bain & Company through a highly successful turnaround and returned the firm to profitability without further layoffs or partner defections. He turned Bain & Company over to new leadership and returned to Bain Capital in December 1992.

During his years in business, Romney did not neglect his religious duties. He tithed constantly, giving millions of dollars to the LDS Church. He served as ward bishop for Belmont from 1984 to 1986, acting as the ecclesiastical and administrative head of his congregation. From 1986 to 1994 he presided over the Boston Stake, which included more than a dozen congregations in eastern Massachusetts.

Romney left Bain Capital in February 1999 to serve as the President and CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee. By that time, Bain Capital was on its way to being one of the top private equity firms in the nation, having increased its number of partners from 5 to 18, had 115 employees overall, and had $4 billion under its management. His experience at Bain & Company and Bain Capital gave Romney a world view that was business oriented — centering around a hate of waste and inefficiency, and a love for data and charts and analysis and presentation — that he would take with him to the public sector. As a result of his business career, by 2007 Romney and his wife had a net worth of between $190 and $250 million, most of it held in blind trusts. Although gone, Romney received a passive profit share as a retired partner in some Bain Capital entities. An additional blind trust existed in the name of the Romneys' children and grandchildren that was valued at between $70 and $100 million.

Romney had been thinking about entering politics for a while. He decided to take on longtime incumbent Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, who was more vulnerable than usual in 1994 — in part because of the unpopularity of the Democratic Congress as a whole and also because this was Kennedy's first election since the William Kennedy Smith trial in Florida, in which Kennedy had taken some public relations hits regarding his character. Romney changed his affiliation from Independent to Republican in October 1993 and formally announced his candidacy in February 1994. He stepped down from his position at Bain Capital during the run.

Romney came from behind to win the Massachusetts Republican Party's nomination for U.S. Senate after advertising on television heavily, gaining overwhelming support in the state party convention, and then defeating businessman John Lakian in the September 1994 primary with over 80 percent of the vote. In the general election, Kennedy faced the first serious re-election challenger of his career in the young, telegenic, and very well funded Romney. Romney ran as a fresh face, as a successful entrepreneur who stated he had created ten thousand jobs, and as a Washington outsider with a strong family image and moderate stands on social issues. Romney stated: "Ultimately, this is a campaign about change."After two decades out of public view, his father George re-emerged during the campaign as well.

Romney's campaign was effective in portraying Kennedy as soft on crime, but had trouble establishing its own positions in a consistent manner. By mid-September 1994, polls showed the race to be approximately even. Kennedy responded with a series of attack ads, which focused both on Romney's apparently shifting political views on issues such as abortion and on the treatment of workers at a paper products plant owned by Romney's Bain Capital. Kennedy and Romney held a widely watched late October debate without a clear winner, but by then Kennedy had pulled ahead in polls and stayed ahead afterward. Romney spent over $7 million of his own money, with Kennedy spending more than $10 million from his campaign fund, mostly in the last weeks of the campaign (this was the second-most expensive race of the 1994 election cycle, after the Dianne Feinstein—Michael Huffington Senate race in California).

In the November general election, despite a disastrous showing for Democrats overall, Kennedy won the election with 58 percent of the vote to Romney's 41 percent, the second-smallest margin in Kennedy's nine elections to the Senate.

Romney returned to Bain Capital the day following his senatorial campaign, but still smarted from the loss, and told a brother, "I never want to run for something again unless I can win." His father died in 1995 and his mother in 1998, and Romney felt restless as the decade neared a close; the goal of just making more money was losing its appeal to him. He had stepped down as Boston Stake president in order to run for the Senate, and while still teaching Sunday School, was largely uninvolved in the long and somewhat controversial construction of a Mormon temple in Belmont. Ann Romney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998; Romney described watching her fail a series of neurological tests as the worst day of his life. After two years of severe difficulties with the disease, she found in Park City, Utah (where the couple had built a vacation home) a mixture of mainstream, alternative, and equestrian therapies that gave her a lifestyle mostly without limitations. When the offer came for Romney to take over the troubled 2002 Olympic Winter Games, to be held in Salt Lake City in Utah, she urged him to take it, and eager for a new challenge, he did. On February 11, 1999, Romney was hired as the new president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.

Before Romney came on, the event was running $379 million short of its revenue benchmarks. Plans were being made to scale back the games to compensate for the fiscal crisis. The Games had also been damaged by allegations of bribery involving top officials, including prior Salt Lake Olympic Committee president and CEO Frank Joklik. Joklik and committee vice president Dave Johnson were forced to resign.

Romney revamped the organization's leadership and policies, reduced budgets, and boosted fund raising. He soothed worried corporate sponsors and recruited many new ones. He admitted past problems, listened to local critics, and rallied Utah's citizenry with a sense of optimism. Romney worked to ensure the safety of the Games following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by ignoring those who suggested the games be called off and coordinating a $300 million security budget. He became the public face of the Olympic effort, appearing in countless photographs and news stories and even on Olympics souvenir pins. Romney's omnipresence irked those who thought he was taking too much of the credit for the success, or had exaggerated the state of initial distress, or was primarily looking to improve his own image. Overall he oversaw a $1.32 billion budget, 700 employees, and 26,000 volunteers.

Despite the initial fiscal shortfall, the Games ended up clearing a profit of $100 million, not counting the $224.5 million in security costs contributed by outside sources. Romney broke the record for most private money raised by any individual for an Olympics games, summer or winter.

Romney and his wife contributed $1 million to the Olympics, and he donated to charity the $1.4 million in salary and severance payments he received for his three years as president and CEO. He wrote a book about his experience titled Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games. Romney was widely praised for his successful efforts with the 2002 Winter Olympics and it solidified his reputation as a turnaround artist. The role gave him experience in dealing with federal, state, and local entities, a public persona he had previously lacked, and the chance to re-launch his political aspirations. Indeed, Romney was mentioned as a possible candidate for statewide office in both Massachusetts and Utah, and also as possibly joining the George W. Bush administration.

2002 gubernatorial campaign

In 2002, Republican Acting Governor Jane Swift's administration was plagued by political missteps and personal scandals. Many Republicans viewed her as a liability and considered her unable to win a general election against a Democrat. Prominent GOP activists campaigned to persuade Romney to run for governor. One poll taken at this time showed that Republicans favoring Romney over Swift by more than 50 percentage points. Swift decided not to seek her party's nomination, and Romney was unopposed in the Republican party primary.

Massachusetts Democratic Party officials claimed that Romney was ineligible to run for governor, citing residency issues involving Romney's residency in Utah during his time as president of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee.Mcelhenny, John (Associated Press) "Romney defends right to run for governor" Portsmouth Herald", Tuesday, June 18, 2002. Retrieved November 1, 2006. In June 2002, the Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission unanimously ruled that Romney was eligible to run for office.

Romney ran as a political outsider again. Supporters of Romney hailed his business record, especially his success with the 2002 Olympics, as that of one who would be able to bring a new era of efficiency into Massachusetts politics. The campaign was the first to use microtargeting techniques, in which fine-grained groups of voters were reached with narrowly tailored messaging. Romney contributed $6.3 million to his own campaign during the election, a state record at the time. Romney was elected Governor in November 2002 with 50 percent of the vote over his Democratic opponent, Massachusetts State Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, who received 45 percent of the vote.

Tenure, 2003—2007

|newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]]}}  According to the [[Tax Foundation]], that [[per capita]] burden was 9.8% in 2002 (below the national average of 10.3%), and 10.5% in 2006 (below the national average of 10.8%).

Romney was at the forefront of a movement to bring near-universal health insurance coverage to the state, after a business executive told him at the start of his term that doing so would be the best way he could help people. After positing that any measure adopted not raise taxes and not resemble the previous decade's failed "Hillarycare" proposal, Romney formed a team that beginning in late 1994 came up with a set of proposals more innovative and ambitious than incremental ones from the Democratic legislature. His past rival Ted Kennedy, who had made universal heath coverage his life's work and who over time developed a warm relationship with Romney, gave Romney's plan a positive reception, which encouraged Democratic legislators to work with it. The effort eventually gained the support of all major stakeholders within the state, and Romney helped break a logjam between rival Democratic leaders in the legislature.

On April 12, 2006, Romney signed the resulting Massachusetts health reform law, which requires nearly all Massachusetts residents to buy health insurance coverage or face the loss of their personal income tax exemption. The bill also establishes means-tested state subsidies for people who do not have adequate employer insurance and who make below an income threshold, by using funds previously designated to compensate for the health costs of the uninsured. He vetoed eight sections of the health care legislation, including an employer assessment and provisions providing health coverage to senior and disabled legal immigrants not eligible for federal Medicaid. The legislature overrode all eight vetoes. Romney's communications director Eric Fehrnstrom responded saying "These differences with the Legislature are not essential to the goal of getting everyone covered with insurance." Romney said of the measure overall, "There really wasn't Republican or Democrat in this. People ask me if this is conservative or liberal, and my answer is yes. It's liberal in the sense that we're getting our citizens health insurance. It's conservative in that we're not getting a government takeover." The law was the first of its kind in the nation and became the signature achievement of Romney's term in office.

At the beginning of his governorship, Romney opposed same-sex marriage and civil unions. Faced with the dilemma of choosing between same-sex marriage or civil unions after the November 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision legalizing same-sex marriages (Goodridge v. Department of Public Health), Romney reluctantly backed a state constitutional amendment in February 2004 that would have banned same-sex marriage but still allow civil unions, viewing it as the only feasible way to ban same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. In May 2004 Romney instructed town clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but citing a 1913 law that barred out-of-state residents from getting married in Massachusetts if their union would be illegal in their home state, no marriage licenses were to be issued to out-of-state same-sex couples not planning to move to Massachusetts. In June 2005, Romney abandoned his support for the compromise amendment, stating that the amendment confused voters who oppose both same-sex marriage and civil unions. Instead, Romney endorsed a petition effort led by the Coalition for Marriage & Family that would have banned same-sex marriage and made no provisions for civil unions. In 2006 he urged the U.S. Senate to vote in favor of the Marriage Protection Amendment.

Since the 2004 Republican National Convention, Romney had been discussed as a potential 2008 presidential candidate.Midway through his term, Romney decided that he wanted to stage a full-time run for president, and on December 14, 2005, Romney announced that he would not seek re-election for a second term as governor. As chair of the Republican Governors Association, Romney travelled around the country, meeting prominent Republicans and building a national political network; he spent part or all of more than 200 days out of state during 2006, preparing for his run. He conceded that 2006 would be a difficult year for Republicans and that would likely lose gubernatorial seats, including possibly his own. Romney's failure to build up the Republican state party was one of several factors that led to Democrat Deval Patrick's lopsided win over Republican Kerry Healey in the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial election.

Romney filed to register a presidential campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission the next to last day in office as governor. Romney's term ended January 4, 2007.

Approval ratings as governor

Romney had a difficult time maintaining his approval ratings in office as governor of liberal Massachusetts in the wake of the legalization of gay marriage and the fall of Bush's approval ratings. Romney's frequent out-of-state travel also contributed towards declining ratings towards the end of his term. For the majority of Romney's term (until early 2006), however, his approval ratings were in positive territory. After Deval Patrick succeeded Romney as governor, he undid several of Romney's initiatives, including those related to budget cuts, policing of illegal immigration, and the state's automobile insurance system. Patrick ran into his own set of difficulties with the public; his approval rating was 34 percent in April 2009 and 49 percent of the state's voters said Romney had done a better job as governor than Patrick.

Romney formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 Republican nomination for president on February 13, 2007, at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. In his speech, Romney frequently invoked his father and his own family and stressed experiences in the private, public, and voluntary sectors that had brought him to this point. He said, "Throughout my life, I have pursued innovation and transformation," and casting himself as a political outsider, said, "I do not believe Washington can be transformed from within by a lifelong politician."

The assets that Romney's campaign began with included his résumé of success in the business world and his rescuing of the Salt Lake Olympics, which matched a received wisdom that American industry had star players who were ready and able to straighten out what was wrong in the nation's capital. Romney also had a solid political pedigree courtesy his father, a strong work ethic and energy level, and a large, wholesome-looking family. (Ann Romney, who had become an outspoken advocate for those with multiple sclerosis, was in remission and would be an active participant in his campaign.) Moreover, with his square jaw, handsome face, white teeth, and full head of dark hair greying slightly at the temples, Mitt Romney looked like a president. Romney's liabilities included having run for senator and governor in one of the nation's most liberal states, having taken positions there that were opposed by the party's conservative base, and subsequently shifting those positions. The candidate's Mormon religion was also viewed with suspicion and skepticism by some in the Evangelical portion of the party; polls indicated that about a quarter of Republican voters said they were less likely to vote for a candidate who was a Mormon.

Romney assembled for his campaign a veteran group of Republican staffers, consultants, and pollsters. He was little-known nationally, though, and stayed around the 10 percent range in Republican preference polls for the first half of 2007. Romney's strategy was to win the first two big contests, the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, and carry the momentum and visibility gained through the big Super Tuesday primaries and on to the nomination. He proved the most effective fundraiser of any of the Republican candidates, with his Olympics ties helping him with fundraising from Utah residents and from sponsors and trustees of the games. He also partly financed his campaign with his own personal fortune. These resources, combined with his August 2007 win in the Iowa Straw Poll and the mid-year near-collapse of nominal front-runner John McCain's campaign, made Romney a threat to win the nomination and the focus of the other candidates' attacks. Romney's staff suffered from internal strife and the candidate himself was indecisive at times, constantly asking for more data before making a decision. Persistent questions about the role of religion in Romney's life, as well as Southern Baptist minister and former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee's rise in the polls based upon an explicitly Christian-themed campaign, led to the December 6, 2007, "Faith in America" speech. In it, Romney said he should neither be elected nor rejected based upon his religion, and echoed Senator's John F. Kennedy's famous speech during his 1960 presidential campaign in saying "I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law." Romney largely avoided discussing the specifics tenets of his faith, instead stressing that he would be informed by it and that, "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone."

In the January 3, 2008, Iowa Republican caucuses, the first contest of the primary season, Romney received 25 percent of the vote and placed second to the vastly outspent Huckabee, who received 34 percent. Of the 60 percent of caucus-goers who were evangelical Christians, Huckabee was supported by about half of them while Romney by only a fifth. A couple of days later, Romney won the lightly-contested Wyoming Republican caucuses. At a Saint Anselm College debate, Huckabee and McCain pounded away at Romney's image as a flip flopper. Indeed, this label would stick to Romney through the campaign; his position changes on abortion, gun control, and gay rights especially led to accusations of opportunism and hypocrisy. Romney seemed to approach the campaign as a management consulting exercise, and showed a lack of political feel; journalist Evan Thomas wrote that Romney "came off as a phony, even when he was perfectly sincere." (Romney's staff would later conclude that competing as a candidate of ideological purity rather than pragmatic competence had been a mistake.)

Romney finished in second place by five percentage points to the resurgent McCain in the next-door-to-his-home-state New Hampshire primary on January 8. Romney rebounded to win the January 15 Michigan primary over McCain by a solid margin, capitalizing on his childhood ties to the state and his vow to bring back lost automotive industry jobs which was seen by several commentators as unrealistic. On January 19, Romney won the lightly-contested Nevada caucuses, but placed fourth in the intense South Carolina primary, where he had effectively ceded the contest to his rivals. McCain gained further momentum with his win in South Carolina, leading to a showdown between him and Romney in the Florida primary.

For ten days, Romney campaigned intensively on economic issues and the burgeoning subprime mortgage crisis, while McCain repeatedly and inaccurately asserted that Romney favored a premature withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. McCain won key last-minute endorsements from Florida Senator Mel Martinez and Governor Charlie Crist, which helped push him to a five percentage point victory on January 29. Although many Republican officials were now lining up behind McCain, Romney persisted through the nationwide Super Tuesday contests on February 5. There he won primaries or caucuses in several states, including Massachusetts, Alaska, Minnesota, Colorado and Utah, but McCain won more, including large states such as California and New York. Trailing McCain in delegates by a more than two-to-one margin, Romney announced the end of his campaign on February 7 during a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.Altogether, Romney had won 11 primaries and caucuses, received about 4.7 million total votes, and garnered about 280 delegates. Romney spent $110 million during the campaign, including $45 million of his own money.<

Romney endorsed McCain for president a week later.

 He soon founded the Free and Strong America PAC, a [[political action committee]] whose stated mission was to raise money for other Republican candidates and to promote Republican policies.  Romney became one of the McCain campaign's most visible surrogates, appearing on behalf of the GOP nominee at fundraisers, state Republican party conventions, and on cable news programs.  His efforts earned McCain's respect and the two developed a warmer relationship; he was on the nominee's short list for the vice presidential running mate slot, where his experience in matters economic would have balanced one of McCain's weaknesses.  McCain, behind in the polls, opted instead for a high-risk, high-reward "game changer" and selected [[Governor of Alaska]] [[Sarah Palin]].  Romney continued to work for McCain's eventually unsuccessful general election campaign.

Following the election, Romney paved the way for a possible 2012 presidential campaign by keeping much of his PAC's money to pay for salaries and consulting fees for his existing political staff and to build up a political infrastructure for what might become a $1 billion campaign three years hence. He also had a network of former staff and supporters around the nation who were eager for him to run again. In February 2009, Romney delivered a speech at the annual CPAC convention. There he won the 2012 presidential straw poll with 20%, leading many to think that he may emerge as the front runner in the 2012 race. The Romneys sold their main home in Belmont and their ski house in Utah, leaving them an estate in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, along Lake Winnipesaukee, and an oceanfront home in La Jolla, San Diego, California that they had bought the year before. Both locations were near some of the Romneys' grandchildren, who by 2010 numbered fourteen. The San Diego location was also ideal for Ann Romney's multiple sclerosis therapies and for recovering from her late 2008 diagnosis and lumpectomy for mammary ductal carcinoma in situ. Romney maintained his voting registration in Massachusetts, however, and was looking to buy a condominium in the Boston area.

In April 2009, Romney avoided questions about his political future by saying he was writing a book on "the challenges America faces". He continued to give speeches and raise campaign funds on behalf of fellow Republicans, but turned down many potential media appearances so as not to become overexposed.A June 2009 CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national poll showed Romney as the 2012 presidential co-favorite of the Republican electorate along with Palin and Mike Huckabee.The same month, a Pew Research Center poll found that among the general public, 40 percent viewed him favorably and 28 percent unfavorably. This was a marked improvement from the days of his 2008 presidential campaign, where his unfavorable ratings had been higher than his favorables. Romney also stood to gain from the Republican electorate's tendency to nominate candidates who had previously run for president before.

Following the August 2009 death of his past rival and sometime ally Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Romney declared that he had no interest in running in the special January 2010 election to replace him.Romney was an early supporter of Scott Brown, the successful Republican candidate in that race. Much of Romney's campaign staff was used by Brown and Romney proved to be instrumental in many fundraising efforts to help Brown. Brown was introduced by Romney prior to his victory speech on the night of the election. During the speech, Romney was singled out by Brown and thanked for all of the support he had given to the victorious Senate candidate. In February 2010, Romney had a minor altercation with LMFAO group member Skyler Gordy, known as Sky Blu, on an Air Canada flight from Los Angeles to Vancouver.

A January 2010 National Journal poll of political insiders found that a majority of Republican insiders, and a plurality of Democratic insiders, predicted Romney would become the party's 2012 nominee.Romney's book, The Case for American Greatness, was released on March 2, 2010; an 18-state promotional book tour was undertaken. Romney said he would work to elect Republican candidates in the 2010 elections, and would decide after that whether to stage a presidential campaign. Immediately following the March 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Romney attacked the landmark legislation as "an unconscionable abuse of power" and said the act should be repealed. The hostile attention it held among Republicans created a potential problem for the former governor, since the new federal law was in many ways similar to the Massachusetts health care reform passed during Romney's term; as one Associated Press article stated, "Obamacare ... looks a lot like Romneycare." While acknowledging that his plan was not perfect and still was a work in progress, Romney did not back away from it; he focused on its having had bipartisan support in the state legislature, while the Obama plan received no Republican support at all in Congress.

On April 10, 2010, Romney won the 2012 Southern Republican Leadership Conference Straw Poll, defeating second place finisher Ron Paul by one vote while Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich were tied for third.

Mitt Romney is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, colloquially known as the Mormon church. Religion played a role in the 2008 presidential campaign, with some polls indicating that a quarter of Republican voters were “less likely” to vote for a presidential candidate who was a Latter-day Saint. For privacy and religious reasons, Romney avoided speaking publicly about specific church doctrines, and pointed out that the U.S. Constitution prohibits religious tests for public office.

As a candidate for the Republican nomination for President, Romney increasingly expressed views in line with traditional conservatives on social and foreign policy issues. Romney asserts that he has learned from experience, and that supporters can rely on him to keep his campaign promises.

Abortion

Romney was photographed attending a Planned Parenthood fundraiser in 1994, and his wife made a $150 contribution to the organization. However, Romney maintains that he has always followed his Church teachings and has been personally pro-life. Romney has consistently opposed Partial Birth Abortion and supports restrictions on abortion such as parental notification provisions. Romney says that he believes that Roe v. Wade should be overturned, that "abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother," and that "states, through the democratic process, should determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate." As a candidate for office in Massachusetts, Romney held moderate to liberal views on abortion, and stated that the legislature should be the driving force behind policy decisions even though he personally opposed abortion. He explains his shift in views as a process of evolution, contending that he has gradually come to agree with the pro-life position. Romney opposes criminal penalties against women who undergo abortion and believes that society's "hearts and minds" must be changed for policy implementation to be successful. Some critics of Romney portray him as an opportunist. For example, Democratic U.S. Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts once said, "The real Romney is clearly an extraordinarily ambitious man with no perceivable political principle whatsoever" to which a Romney spokesman replied that "We’ve never really paid much attention to what Barney Frank is saying, and we see no reason to start now."

Second Amendment Rights

Romney has been a strong supporter of both Second Amendment rights as well as certain pieces of gun control legislation. He has backed the Brady Bill, a five-day waiting period on gun sales, and a ban on certain assault weapons that he viewed as posing a threat to Police. Romney has supported legislation that was endorsed by the National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners' Action League. Romney also says he believes that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, rather than merely protecting a right of states.

Illegal immigration

Romney welcomes more legal immigration and supports giving "a biometrically-enabled and tamperproof card to non-citizens and ... a national database for non-citizens" to reduce illegal immigration. Romney's lawn care company allegedly had illegal aliens working at his private residence but Romney fired the company soon after the fact was revealed to him in 2007. Romney has stated that his dealings were with a company manager who is a legal resident of the United States. He supports the deportation of illegal immigrants, prioritizes a secure border as well as employer verification, and opposes granting Amnesty to illegal aliens. While Governor, he has opposed granting in-state tuition and driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

Same-sex marriage

Romney opposes both marriage and civil unions between people of the same sex. He is a proponent of monogamous, heterosexual marriage. As a candidate for governor in 2002, Romney said: "Call me old fashioned, but I don't support gay marriage nor do I support civil union." During that 2002 campaign, he also supported hate crimes legislation and opposed other discrimination against gays, while supporting some partner benefits for gays, and he also opposed amending the state constitution to codify only traditional marriage because he believed the draft amendment would have outlawed other partner benefits. When the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of legalized same-sex marriage in 2003, Romney lobbied for a state constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage but allow civil unions. He explained in 2005: "From day one I've opposed the move for same-sex marriage and its equivalent, civil unions.... I am only supporting civil unions if gay marriage is the alternative." Romney has also called for the federal Constitution to be amended to limit marriage in the United States to unions of one man and one woman.

Civil rights

Romney cites both Martin Luther King Jr. and his father George Romney as role models. The senior Romney made headlines by walking out on nominee Barry Goldwater because of his opposition to federal civil rights legislation, despite opposition from some in the party. Governor Romney supports the Employment Nondiscrimination Act at state level. Romney supported Bill Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in 1994, and continued to do so in 2007. Romney has expressed support for decreasing barriers to entry into the workforce for women and minorities. He has expressed support for Muslims who face discrimination due to their religion.

Foreign policy

Romney supported the invasion of Iraq and the "troop surge". He however has criticized mismanagement of Iraq post invasion. He has stated that both diplomatic and military efforts should both be used to achieve success in the region. Upon hearing the testimony of David Petraeus, Romney reemphasized his agreement with current policy in Iraq and has called for a "Surge of Support" for the military. Romney has expressed support for an eventual reduction in military presence in Iraq but has strongly opposed a timetable for withdrawal.

Romney has called for increased military spending to at least 4 percent of the United States GDP and wishes to increase the size of the military by at least 100,000 troops. Romney has expressed concern over the growing suppression of democracy in Russia. He has supported dialogue and efforts to establish cooperation with the Muslim world to fight the war on terror. Romney has proposed a non-confrontational peaceful effort to welcome democracy into the Middle East.

Romney has opposed ratification of New START, a bilateral nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation, in part because he wishes to deploy defensive missiles on Submarines which Ivan Oelrich has called a lack of understanding of nuclear strategy and tactics.

Tax policy and economic issues

Romney has supported tax relief for "middle income Americans," and has advocated eliminating the capital gains tax for all those who earn less than $200,000 per year. Romney has also supported eliminating the estate tax, known by opponents as the Death Tax, signed a pledge to oppose "any and all efforts" to increase income taxes, and promises to control spending by Congress. Romney has supported a balanced budget amendment to deal with the burgeoning federal deficit. He has stated that deficit spending results in devaluation of the dollar and a decline in the economic stability of the United States. He has proposed reining in growth in entitlement programs. He has also proposed eliminating pork-barrell spending on unnecessary programs. Romney has supported efforts to expand trade with developing countries, and has pushed to renegotiate trade deals with China to help eliminate the Trade Deficit.

Healthcare

Romney supports increased health insurance portability, coverage of pre-existing medical conditions, a cap on malpractice lawsuits, the implementation of a streamlined electronic medical records system, an emphasis on preventative care, loosening restrictions on importation of prescription drugs, and tax benefits aimed at making health insurance more affordable for the uninsured and targeted to promote universal access. Romney opposes a federal government run, single-payer system, but supports state efforts to reduce the uninsured population. As Governor, Romney signed the Massachusetts health reform law into law. He opposes efforts to provide non-emergency health coverage for Illegal Immigrants, and supports the Hyde Amendment to ban government funding for elective abortion. In 2010, Romney opposed the health care legislation signed by President Barack Obama. He said "The act should be repealed. That campaign begins today."

Crime and punishment

Romney supports the death penalty and sentencing under the three strikes law. Romney opposes the use of torture; however, he supports the limited use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" to stop an imminent wide-scale terrorist attack. Romney supports mandatory increases in sentencing for repeat drunk drivers and has supported a federal effort to curtail the drug trade in Columbia.

Energy policy

Romney has supported a $20 billion package for energy research & new car technology. He opposes a unilateral US global warming policy and believes that worldwide solutions are optimal. He has supported the development of alternative energy such as nuclear, solar, wind, hydroelectric, and clean coal technology to break America's dependence on foreign oil. He has stated that large oil companies should reinvest profits in clean technology for oil refineries. He supports the popular measure of drilling in ANWR as short term measure to help the US achieve energy independence. As Governor, Romney supported clean environment initiatives.

Education

Romney supports increasing standards for education and quality based incentives for teachers. He proposes identifying failing schools, increasing school funding and accountability, greater choice, and English immersion. Romney has supported private and government efforts to increase merit scholarships for high school students. He has supported reforming under-performing schools with charter schools. Romney has supported means-tested vouchers for public and private schools as Governor. He has opposed efforts to teach creationism in schools, but believes that there should be more of an emphasis on family values in the educational system. Romney has supported efforts to fund nanotechnology and materials science education.

Romney believes that a proper role for government in encouraging economic growth is ensuring that students receive the best education possible. After fostering a highly-educated workforce and lowering taxes, he asserts that the "best thing the country can do is unleash the power of entrepreneurs and get out of the way."