The growing number of Republican critics weighing in against another Mitt Romney run for the White House now includes former Rep. Vin Weber, who served as a co-chair of 2012 GOP nominee's presidential campaign.
"I'm not happy, frankly, with the way that he's chosen to re-enter presidential politics, and I think his friends need to be honest with him about that," Weber said of Romney, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008 and 2012.
In an interview with
Bloomberg Politics, Weber added that while Romney is "a great man" who "would be a great president," history suggests that another bid is unlikely to be successful.
"There's not a lot of good precedent for somebody losing the election and coming back four years later and becoming the nominee," Weber said.
Weber, a Minnesota congressman for 12 years, pointed to the case of former New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, who ran unsuccessfully for president three times. His third and final run came in 1948, when he won the Republican nomination for the second consecutive time. He was heavily favored to defeat the incumbent, Democratic President Harry Truman.
Instead, Truman pulled off what some see as the
greatest upset in the history of presidential elections.
"It didn't work out too well," Weber said of Dewey's 1948 race.
Meanwhile,
CNN reported that Brett Doster, Romney's former Florida campaign manager, is supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2016.
Floridapolitics.com reported Friday that in an email, Doster said "Mitt Romney was a great leader for our party in 2012 ... but Jeb is my man, and Florida is Jeb Bush country."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.