GOP Senators Baffled By Mitt Romney’s Ploy To Oust Mike Lee — And Maybe Thwart a Majority

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If Democrats could pull off an upset in Utah, it would have profound consequences for the control of the Senate — and the rest of the country.

Republican senators are growing concerned by colleague Mitt Romney’s refusal to help fellow Utah Republican Mike Lee decisively win his re-election campaign — a posture that could potentially keep their party from gaining a majority in the November elections. Unlike every other Republican senator, the 2012 failed Republican presidential candidate is declining to express a preference in Republican Lee’s re-election effort against Democrat-endorsed Evan McMullin.

“I respect [Romney], and I understand that each state has its own dynamics, but I do not understand why he is remaining neutral,” said one Republican senator who asked not to be identified. “Whatever our differences, we all try to support each other around election time.”

Both moderate and conservative senators confirmed the grumbling in the conference. “We should not have to be worried about Utah in any way. I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing, but it’s not going over well, particularly with the [senators] who are up for chairmanships,” said another Republican senator. Neither Lee nor Romney responded to inquiries by press time.

A new poll from Deseret News and the Hinckley Institute of Politics claims McMullin is only 2 percentage points behind Lee, with a full 16 percent of respondents unsure who they will vote for. The poll is admittedly somewhat difficult to believe, and not just because it was conducted by a pollster with a history of dramatically overstating the electoral appeal of McMullin. The group’s final 2016 poll, for example, showed McMullin losing Utah’s presidential contest by only 2 points to Donald Trump. The final result was that Trump bested McMullin, who actually came in third behind Hillary Clinton, by 25 points.

Even so, the poll suggests the strategy McMullin shared with left-wing allies at The Washington Post and other corporate media — building a coalition of Democrats, independents, and Romney and his supporters — is working at least somewhat according to plan.