SALT LAKE CITY — Dozens of people gathered outside the Wallace Bennett Federal Building to rally in support of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.
Sen. Romney was the lone member of the Republican Party who voted to convict President Donald Trump on one article of impeachment.
“I have no other words than what this sign says, ‘thank you,’” said Jamie Carter with Salt Lake Indivisible, one of the organizers of the rally. “He actually upheld his Constitutional duty to put country before party.”
Many people displayed handwritten signs and cheered when when Sen. Romney’s remarks were read to the crowd.
“We are across the political spectrum from far left to conservatives,” Carter said.
Sen. Romney’s vote has ignited both sides of this bitter and controversial debate.
One of his longtime supporters, now says she’d support a recall of the senator.
“I was bitterly disappointed,” said Katie Witt, the current mayor of Kaysville and a Republican candidate to replace retiring Congressman Rob Bishop.
Not long ago, Witt worked on Sen. Romney’s presidential campaigns.
“I knocked on doors for Mitt Romney in Iowa,” Witt said.
More recently, she voted for Sen. Romney in his 2018 Senate campaign. Witt now says she would support an effort to recall him.
“If he was listing to the people in Utah, he would understand that we support President Trump,” Witt said. “I think it was politically motivated. I think it was an opportunity to get back at somebody who had embarrassed him in the past.”
One vote from Sen. Romney in Washington, D.C., has inspired two opposite reactions back home.
“We want to show him Utah stands behind him,” Carter said at the rally.
“I think that he is not representing Utah,” Witt said.
