Mitt's son says no to 2nd District run

Josh Romney said Saturday he has decided not to run for Congress so he can spend more time with his young family after being away for much of the past year campaigning for his father, former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

"It's been a lot of excitement for the family, but it's been a tough year for us as well," Josh Romney told the Deseret Morning News. "We're just not quite ready to hop into another tough race."

His decision comes just over a week after he told the Deseret Morning News that he'd been approached to run as Republican against 2nd Congressional District Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and was seriously considering entering the race.

But on Saturday, Josh Romney said it was just too soon after his father's campaign. Mitt Romney, the former leader of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, dropped out of the presidential race last month after a disappointing Super Tuesday showing on Feb. 5.

"I'm not too disappointed, not at all," Josh Romney said of not getting into what would have been a competitive race for the only Utah congressional seat held by a Democrat. "I think this is a decision that is right. I definitely don't want to rush into anything."

Josh Romney, the only one of Mitt Romney's five sons who lives in Utah, said he received some fatherly advice about entering politics. "He's always been encouraging for me to be involved in my community but at the same time, he wanted me to make sure I put the needs of my family first."

But, Josh Romney said, his father did not tell him what he should do.

"He didn't say yes or no, go or don't go," Josh Romney said. "He said this was something I had to decide on my own."

In the end, Josh Romney said, he realized he wanted to be able to spend more time with his wife, Jen, and their three children, Owen, 1; Wyatt, 3; and Gracie, 5; and return to full-time work as a real-estate developer. He works for his father's longtime friend, Kem Gardner.

Plus, he said, it would have been "pretty quick to start up another campaign."

Josh Romney said he was first approached about two months by a close friend about the party's interest in seeing him enter the congressional race, at a time when his father's bid for the White House was still going strong.

"Originally, when I thought my dad would still be in the race and I'd be campaigning for him, it was more difficult to visualize," he said. "Once my dad dropped out, I thought about it some more."