A Democratic Romney in the White House?

From the *Deseret News* of April 14, 2000:

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/754964/Services-for-SL-politician-LC-Romney-on-Saturday.html

"Funeral services will be at noon Saturday for L.C. "Rennie" Romney, former Salt Lake City commissioner who also served in state and federal positions.

"Mr. Romney, 85, had been in reasonably good health in recent years but was admitted to Salt Lake Regional Medical Center on Sunday evening with pneumonia and died Monday, April 10, 2000, of a heart attack...

"Mr. Romney was a 1937 graduate of the University of Utah. He was a city commissioner from 1944 to 1963, when he was actively involved in policies shaping the Salt Lake International Airport and other city facilities and programs. At one time, the airport bore the name L.C. Romney Field. He was commissioner of public health and safety, responsible for the police and fire departments and numerous public housing and assistance programs.

"Also, he was commissioner of parks and public property, helping to acquire land for many city parks and golf courses, including Mountain Dell and Rose Park. Until the early 1990s he served as a trustee for the Sugarhouse Park Authority. In 1959, he was honored for his contributions to local baseball.

"A Democrat, Mr. Romney was candidate for governor in 1956, losing the election to the late George D. Clyde. He was Utah director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Housing Administration. Earlier in his public service career he was employed as a social worker from 1937 to 1941 for the Salt Lake County Welfare Association. He was director of social services and administrator of the Salt Lake County General Hospital. He was elected in 1942 to the Utah Senate, where he served one year before being elected to the City Commission. Mr. Romney retired in 1986."

Now the interesting thing is that Rennie Romney came surprisingly close to winning the governorship race in 1956, due in part to incumbent governor J. Bracken Lee's independent candidacy splitting the usual Rrpublican vote:

George Dewey Clyde (R) 127,164 (38.20%)
L. C. "Rennie" Romney (D) 111,297 (33.43%)
Governor J. Bracken Lee (I) 94,428 (28.37%)

https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=171534

(See my post at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/soc.history.what-if/o_eFfGmQa4U/aCS7Al-tMlUJ on J. Bracken Lee, a right-wing maverick whom Murray Rothbard called "the closest thing to a libertarian in political life." https://books.google.com/books?id=H5l3Q1hGwnoC&pg=PA142)

Suppose L. C. "Rennie" Romney had won? He might go on to run for the Senate in 1958, and if he rather than Frank Moss were the Democratic candidate, he might win for the same reason Moss did--J. Bracken Lee was again dividing the ususal Republican vote. The results in OTL:

Frank E. Moss (Democratic) 38.7%
Arthur V. Watkins (Republican) 34.8%
J. Bracken Lee (Independent) 26.4%

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_1958 And if elected senator in 1958, Romney might be re-elected in 1964, as Moss was--Goldwater did better in Utah than in most other non-Deep South states, but he did lose, and hurt down-ballot GOP candidates.

So--can we get a Democratic Romney on a national ticket? (Which, even as VP, always involves some chance of his becoming president.) I suppose that Romney is just barely conceivable as Democratic vice-presidential candidate in 1960, but it seems unlikely that the Democrats will nominate a ticket of a Catholic *and* a Mormon--breaking one taboo at a time is enough. But maybe if JFK isn't the nominee... (Incidentally, JFK did respectably in Utah in 1960, with over 45 percent of the vote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Utah,_1960 So maybe an attempt by Democrats to target Utah wouldn't be crazy--except that it then had only four electoral votes.)

Or (yes, this is pretty unlikely) LBJ selects him as his running mate in 1964 to appeal to the Mormon vote and to have a VP without a national base to challenge him the way RFK or even Humphrey potentially could? Then in 1968, we could even see a presidential contest between Rennie and his cousin George...
 
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