Mitt Romney is trying to extend his winning streak as GOP kingmaker to New Hampshire, where he is endorsing Scott Brown in that key U.S. Senate race.
Mr. Brown, who is the front-running Republican candidates vying to challenge Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, announced the endorsement Tuesday in an email to supporters.
“It gives me a great deal of pride to announce that Governor Mitt Romney will be in New Hampshire on Wednesday, July 2nd to formally endorse my campaign for U.S. Senate. Together, we will rally with Republicans and those who want to make a difference in this election,” Mr. Brown said in the email, first reported by CNN.
“Right now, I know a lot of you feel the same way I do: Our country would be in much better shape if Governor Romney were in the White House today,” he said. “Governor Romney was right about so many things, whether the subject is the still-sputtering economy, an aggressive Russia moving to expand its sphere of influence, or the vacuum left in Iraq by the failure to leave behind a residual force to secure our hard-fought gains.”
Since losing the 2012 presidential race to President Obama, Mr. Romney has assumed the role of a GOP elder statesman. He made several endorsements in Republican primary races this year but rarely appeared on the campaign trail.
He did stump with state Sen. Joni Ernst in Iowa in the run-up to her winning the state’s Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, which is another key race in the GOP’s quest to capture majority control of the upper chamber this year.
Mr. Romney’s endorsement should carry weight in New Hampshire. He owns a vacation home there and was governor in neighboring Massachusetts.
He easily won the 2012 Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire, but lost the Granite State to Mr. Obama by six percentage points in the general election.
New Hampshire voters now pick Mr. Romney as the early favorite to win the state’s 2016 GOP primary, though Mr. Romney is not expected to run, found a Boston Herald/Suffolk University poll last week.
Mr. Brown, who moved to New Hampshire after losing his U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts in 2012, could use a boost to his struggling campaign. Recent polls show him trailing Mrs. Shaheen by about 10 percentage points.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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