On Tuesday, the Senate's longest-serving Republican member, Utah's Orrin Hatch, announced that he'd be stepping down from his position at the end of 2018. He made the announcement with this video that could probably double as a sleep-aid. As a slightly livelier alternative, a fairly important quote from it is below (transcribed by the New York Times):
"When the president visited Utah last month, he said I was a fighter. I’ve always been a fighter. I was an amateur boxer in my youth, and I’ve brought that fighting spirit with me to Washington," he said. "But every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves. And for me, that time is soon approaching."
According to the New York Times, Hatch was being pressured by Donald Trump to run for re-election for the sake of blocking Mitt Romney from taking his spot. However, despite that pressure, the 83-year-old made a decision to retire after talking it over with his family during the holidays. According to a recent poll, 75 percent of Utah voters stated they did not want Hatch to run for yet another re-election. Hatch has been a U.S. senator since 1977.
Of course, Hatch's resignation opens the door for Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate who's currently a Utah resident. Romney is reportedly popular in the state and has also told associates there's a good chance he'll run if Hatch steps down, which could be a detriment for Trump because of their once-contentious history. As you may remember, during the 2016 campaign Romney referred to Trump as a "fraud," and in response, Trump said Romney "choked like a dog" during his own 2012 campaign. Following Trump's election, however, Romney was spotted dining with Trump when there were rumors he was being considered as 45's secretary of state:
I join the people of Utah in thanking my friend, Senator Orrin Hatch for his more than forty years of service to our great state and nation. As Chairman of the Senate Finance and Judiciary Committees and as the longest-serving Republican Senator in U.S. history, Senator Hatch has represented the interests of Utah with distinction and honor. Ann and I wish Senator Orrin Hatch and his loving wife Elaine all the best in their future endeavors.
On Tuesday, Romney made no mention of running, but he did put up a fairly standard statement on the matter by posting the following message to Facebook:
As with literally anything in existence, Twitter had some thoughts.
Anyways, we'll have to wait to see if Romney will run for the open seat (and actually win).
