**File
by, Caryn Freeman
Mitt Romney, the leading GOP candidate for the republican nomination for president and winner of Tuesday night’s primaries in both Arizona and Michigan has a long and established career in politics. Mitt Romney was born in Detroit Michigan in 1947 and attended the prestigious Cranbrook School in Michigan before receiving his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in 1971. He later attended Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School and received both a law degree and an M.B.A. in 1975. Mitt Romney is also member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. His religious affiliation has made it difficult for Romney’s campaign to capture voters on the far-right, evangelical Christians and other groups traditional associated with neo-conservative political leanings.
Mitt Romney’s political life began in the sixties when his father, George Romney became Governor of Michigan in 1963 and later ran for the GOP presidential nomination himself in 1968 where he would go on to lose against Richard Nixon. Mitt Romney began his formal career in business working for the management consulting firm Bain Capital. Romeny would go on to start the hugely successful investment firm also named Bain Capital. Since Bain’s investment firms inception it has invested in or acquired hundreds of companies including such notable companies as AMC Entertainment, Brookstone, Burger King, Burlington Coat Factory, Clear Channel Communications, Domino's Pizza, DoubleClick, Dunkin' Donuts, Warner Music Group and The Weather Channel.
Romney’s first political campaign was in 1994 when he ran for and lost a bid for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts to longtime incumbent Edward Kennedy. Romney would soon return to the political scene in 2002 in a run for Governor of Massachusetts. Romney would go on to win and became Governor of Massachusetts for four years. As Massachusetts Governor he engineered deficit reclamation of 3 billion dollars bringing the state out of financial upheaval. Romney also signed into law a healthcare reform bill pioneering universal health care at the state level that would later become the blueprint for Obama care. He did not seek re-election for Governor in 2006.
Romney was also influential in making the 2002 winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah a success, analogously bringing the 2002 winter games out of a financial turmoil as head of its steering committee.
Romney’s first attempt at the GOP nomination for President was in 2008 where he won several primaries and caucuses but would eventually concede to John McCain, who would go on to run and lose against President Barack Obama.
With last night’s win in both the Arizona and Michigan primaries Mitt Romeny now holds 145 delegates nearly double the amount of delegates of the runner up Rick Santorum.