I'm saddened at his exit, but I respect his decision. I bet Gov. Romney still has some exciting things ahead of him, and so it will be interesting to see what the future holds. I certainly don't think we've seen the last of Mitt Romney. — Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah

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It's a sad day. It's tough. It's tough. ... You put time and effort into this and you want to see your guy do well, and there's nothing I wouldn't do to get him elected. Nobody likes to say it's better to step aside. — Spencer Zwick, Romney's national finance director

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He came up a little bit short, but here's a man who didn't really have any national name identification ... and he really came very close to becoming the party's nominee. — Utah Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert

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I would say it's been a reasonably capable campaign but certainly not an inspired campaign. — Tom De Luca, political science professor at Fordham University

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It was inevitable. If he wants to live to fight another day in a way that is viable, he needs to step aside." — Rick Wilson, Republican strategist who isn't affiliated with any campaign

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Obviously, we're all disappointed that Mitt Romney would withdraw from the presidential race. He did a couple of things that were really, really important. One of those is he brought forward an agenda of leadership that I think the coutnry finally started to recognize in the end ... . He also put to bed the Mormon issue." — Utah Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem

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I'm disappointed about his withdrawl, but that is one of the realities of poltics. There were a lot of good people in the race and only one can bubble to the top. ... I won't say that it was because of religion. But his religion and he were looked at more than all the others in the booth put tgeother, and he represented himself well." — House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy

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