What if Mitt had run for the GOP nomination in 2016?

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Could he have taken down Trump?  What about Hillary in the general?

[Mr. Smith]

The guy who couldn't beat Obama and looks exactly like the type of elitist Trump has been railing on the whole time and striking a chord? Ha! He'd do about as well as Kasich or Rubio if he were so lucky.

And if he somehow got the nomination, he'd lose to Hillary, whom now looks charismatic in comparison. He'd definitely lose The Rust Belt for sure.

[Kingpoleon]

I assume he mostly takes from Trump and Rubio in the Northeast. I don't quite know what the map would look, but I suspect NH would be a three way heat between Trump, Romney, and Kasich, with whoever wins quickly coalescing the Northeast vote around them.

[mvd10]

I actually think he would have been the nominee and president. He probably would have consolidated the establishment vote faster and he would have handled Trump better than Jeb! or Little Marco. He actually was more in touch with the Trump base than you would expect. There are a lot of Romney/Trump voters, don't forget Romney's stances on immigration and China in 2012 (and even 2008). Trump primary voters were less socially conservative than the average Republican primary voter. And Romney was taking more populist/reformocon stances (sure, he still would have been a supply-sider, but I think his campaign tax plan taught him than slashing both income and corporate tax rates across the board mainly was popular with the WSJ editorial board, you need something to seduce middle-class voters).

After winning the nomination I don't think defeating Hillary would have been a huge problem. Romney isn't the best campaigner but he does looks presidential, and I don't think his record at Bain weighs up against all the Clinton conspiracy theories and the emails.

The thing is that in January everyone was expecting a classic GOP race, and that one actually would have been a lot harder to win for Romney. The GOP establishment probably would have rallied around Romney much sooner than they rallied around Rubio (and Romney would have handled the pressure better). He's already tried and tested, and he has experience with sinking people like Trump and Cain. Remember all the talk about Romney as a white horse establishment candidate during the campaign. But without Trump entering the GOP primaries the primaries wouldn't have gone as fast as they did. Other people would have gotten more attention which would cause Romney losing his two main advantages: name recognition and strong relations with big donors. Then he's just a boring 69-year old guy who already failed twice.

[Lechasseur]

I actually think he would have been the nominee and president. He probably would have consolidated the establishment vote faster and he would have handled Trump better than Jeb! or Little Marco. He actually was more in touch with the Trump base than you would expect. There are a lot of Romney/Trump voters, don't forget Romney's stances on immigration and China in 2012 (and even 2008). Trump primary voters were less socially conservative than the average Republican primary voter. And Romney was taking more populist/reformocon stances (sure, he still would have been a supply-sider, but I think his campaign tax plan taught him than slashing both income and corporate tax rates across the board mainly was popular with the WSJ editorial board, you need something to seduce middle-class voters).

After winning the nomination I don't think defeating Hillary would have been a huge problem. Romney isn't the best campaigner but he does looks presidential, and I don't think his record at Bain weighs up against all the Clinton conspiracy theories and the emails.

The thing is that in January everyone was expecting a classic GOP race, and that one actually would have been a lot harder to win for Romney. The GOP establishment probably would have rallied around Romney much sooner than they rallied around Rubio (and Romney would have handled the pressure better). He's already tried and tested, and he has experience with sinking people like Trump and Cain. Remember all the talk about Romney as a white horse establishment candidate during the campaign. But without Trump entering the GOP primaries the primaries wouldn't have gone as fast as they did. Other people would have gotten more attention which would cause Romney losing his two main advantages: name recognition and strong relations with big donors. Then he's just a boring 69-year old guy who already failed twice.

This

[The Govanah Jake]

Even if he did win the nomination i really don't see how Mitt could win in November. The Rustbelt aren't really on the table for him and states like Virginia and Colorado were already lost by him in 2012 and have grown much more blue since.