Romney: I Will Back GOP Candidates

Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney told supporters on Friday that he was staying in politics.

“We lost, but I’m not going away,” Romney told a group of financial backers and top campaign leaders at a private meeting at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, according to someone who attended the session. The person shared Romney’s comments with Politico. “I will continue to help,” Romney added.

While the former Massachusetts governor made clear that his political days were over, he pledged to aid GOP gubernatorial candidates this year, those legislators running in the 2014 midterm elections, as well as candidates seeking the White House in 2016, Politico reports.

Outside of a meeting with President Barack Obama not long after the November election, Romney has kept a low profile.

That, however, was deliberate, the person told Politico.

“[Romney] explained that he had been out of the news and that was purposeful,” the individual told Politico. “He didn’t want to say something on the fiscal cliff and have the president use that as a wedge between the speaker and the minority leader,” referring to GOP House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

“He said it wasn’t going to last for long and that he was going to come back and start talking about the things that matter to him,” the person told Politico.