Freshman Republican Sen. Mitt Romney was booed at his home state GOP convention in Utah this weekend, while delegates cheered the state’s other U.S. senator, Mike Lee.
“Now you know me as a person who says what he thinks and I don’t hide the fact that I wasn’t a fan of our last president’s character issues,” Romney said as attendees interrupted the senator on stage with overwhelming boos. “I understand that I have a few folks who don’t like me terribly much.”
Republican Senator Mitt Romney was met with a chorus of boos when he addressed a GOP convention in his home state of Utah pic.twitter.com/cnbnI6euQW
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 2, 2021
The junior senator was also booed when he appeared in an introductory video Saturday, according to Utah reporter Ben Winslow, of a local Fox affiliate.
.@MittRomney just appeared on an introductory video and the crowd at the @UtahGOP convention BOOED loudly. @fox13 #utpol #utgop
— Ben Winslow (@BenWinslow) May 1, 2021
Those in the crowd screamed that Romney, the only Republican in the upper chamber to vote in favor of former President Donald Trump’s conviction twice, was a “traitor” and a “communist” in a scene The Salt Lake Tribune described as accusations “flew from the crowd like so many poison darts.”
Lee, on the other hand, the Tribune reported, received a welcome standing ovation as he took the stage. Romney narrowly survived a vote to censure him for his support of Trump’s impeachment by 711-798, with delegates ultimatley rejecting the measure.
Other Republicans who voted to impeach or convict Trump in the second trial have not been as fortunate. House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, who undermined her caucus by leading a futile effort to corral GOP support for Democrats’ exploitive impeachment in January, was successfully censured by her home party in Wyoming and provoked a primary challenger for next year. In the end, only nine Republicans in the lower chamber joined Cheney in her vote with Democrats for Trump’s impeachment, several of whom had announced their impeachment support before Cheney weighed in.
While Cheney survived a referendum on her role in leadership in February, brought about in part by her ineptitude with candidate recruitment and campaign fundraising in addition to her persistence at undermining the conference she leads, some House Republicans have threatened to pursue a second vote while she continues to divide the GOP.
Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski has also suffered political consequences in her home state for her vote to convict Trump in his second trial. The Alaska Republican Party censured Murkowski and pledged to support the incumbent senator’s primary challenger in an upcoming contest. Republican Kelly Tshibaka, the state’s former commissioner of administration, launched her candidacy to oust Murkowski, enjoying early poll numbers with a double-digit lead over the two-decade senator.
