In a 1962 video interview Mitt Romney’s mother, Lenore Romney opens up about her husband’s modest beginnings and his time on “welfare relief.”
Lenore Romney was the First Lady of Michigan from 1963 to 1969 and the Republican Party nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1970 from Michigan, the first female ever.
The interview was given on behalf of her husband, George, who was then making his first run to be Michigan’s governor.
The wealthy chief executive of American Motors Company, the interviewer asked Mrs. Romney how her husband could relate to ordinary working-class people:
“There are those who say that since he’s a man of considerable means, he really doesn’t care about people.”
Lenore Romney responded “You know, we’ve only owned our home for the last few years. He was a refugee from Mexico. He was on welfare relief for the first years of his life but this great country gave him opportunities.”
As a matter of background, Romney’s great-grandfather went to Mexico in the late 1880s to establish a colony where Mormons could practice polygamy. It was there in Mexico that Romney’s father, George was born and later fled to the United States in 1912 as a result of the Mexican Revolution and were forced by Mexican rebels to leave their family wealth behind.
According to the biography, The Real Romney,
“Fortunately for the Romney, the U.S. government, which had once chased Miles to Mexico due to his polygamy, now welcomed the Romneys and other Mormons to the United States. Congress established a $100,000 relief fund that enabled the Romneys and other Mormon exiles to receive food and lodging. Initally, the [Romneys] stay on U.S. soil was to be temporary. The El Paso Herald reported on October 25, 1912, that Gaskell Romney and his family, including little George, had gone to Las Angeles ‘until it is safe for his family to return to the colonies in Mexico.’ But Gaskell’s family would never return to live there and made only a sentimental trip years later. Had they returned for good, Mitt Romney may never have been in a position to run for president.”
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