Romney says he did not vote for Trump, as some Republicans distance themselves from the president.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/us/elections/romney-says-he-did-not-vote-for-trump-as-some-republicans-distance-themselves-from-the-president.html

Version 0 of 1.

Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who was the Republican nominee for president in 2012, said Wednesday that he had already voted in this year’s presidential election — and not for his party’s nominee, President Trump.

“I did not vote for President Trump — that’s all I’ve got for you,” Mr. Romney said in the Capitol on Wednesday, declining to say whom he did support.

Mr. Romney’s vote, which was confirmed by an aide, was not exactly a surprise: He did not vote for Mr. Trump in 2016 either, writing in the name of his wife, Ann Romney. Earlier this year, he was the lone Republican to vote to convict the president at his impeachment trial.

But the news put him in the company of a growing number of prominent Republicans who are publicly making it plain that they do not intend to support Mr. Trump.

Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, who holds an office once occupied by Mr. Romney, said at a news conference earlier this month that he was considering abstaining in the presidential election. “You know, I think I may take a pass on that one,” he said.

Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, who has clashed with Mr. Trump on his response to the coronavirus pandemic, wrote in the name “Ronald Reagan” this year when he cast his ballot for the 2020 election, acknowledging at a news conference earlier this week that it was a “symbolic” gesture.

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska castigated Mr. Trump in a telephone town hall with constituents last week, accusing the president of bungling the response to the coronavirus pandemic, cozying up to dictators and white supremacists and offending voters so broadly that he might cause a “Republican blood bath” in the Senate.

And Cindy McCain, whose late husband, Senator John McCain of Arizona, was the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. last month, citing Mr. Trump’s disparagement of members of the armed forces, and she later campaigned with Mr. Biden in Arizona.