Utah’s Hatch to retire from Senate
Move could open path for Romney to fill seat
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the longest-serving Senate Republican, announced Tuesday that he will retire at the end of the year, rebuffing the pleas of President Donald Trump to seek an eighth term and paving the way for Mitt Romney, a critic of Trump’s, to run for the seat.
Hatch made his decision public Tuesday afternoon via a video announcement.
“When the president visited Utah last month, he said I was a fighter. I’ve always been a fighter,” he said. “But every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves. And for me, that time is soon approaching.”
Hatch, 83, was under heavy pressure from Trump to seek re-election and block Romney, who has been harshly critical of the president. But Hatch, who emerged as one of the president’s most avid loyalists in the Senate, decided to retire after discussing the matter with his family over the holidays.
The veteran senator has amassed a distinguished record over his four decades in Washington and has become a fixture in a body once noted for its bipartisanship and now deeply polarized. Once considered an institution in his home state, Hatch was facing sobering poll numbers in Utah, where 75 percent of voters indicated in a survey last fall that they did not want him to run again.
Hatch’s decision comes just weeks after Trump signed a comprehensive tax overhaul into law, a measure that the senator helped write as chairman of the Finance Committee.
Hatch’s decision clears the way for the political resurrection of Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee who is now a Utah resident and is popular in the Mormon-heavy state. Romney has told associates he would likely run if Hatch retires.
As the president prodded Hatch to stay, voices in his home state were urging him to go. On Christmas Day, The Salt Lake Tribune named the senator “Utahn of the Year,” but not for flattering reasons.
“It would be good for Utah if Hatch, having finally caught the Great White Whale of tax reform, were to call it a career. If he doesn’t, the voters should end it for him,” the editorial concluded.
In announcing his retirement, Hatch joined an exodus of Republican heavyweights in what promises to be a difficult election season. Also on Tuesday, Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, told the Washington Examiner that he planned to retire at year’s end. Shuster, 56, was facing a possible primary challenge from the right.
Other retiring House chairmen include Robert W. Goodlatte, R-Va., of the Judiciary Committee; Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, of the Financial Services Committee; and Lamar Smith, R-Texas, of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
In all, 33 House Republicans have announced they will retire or run for another office, compared to 16 Democrats. Hatch joined Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona in announcing an end to his Senate career.
Hatch defeated a Democrat 42 years ago this November, arguing that the incumbent had stayed in Washington too long, and became one of the country’s most prominent senators for a generation.