Romney for President in 1968

SeacoastNH.com Presents  
Historic Portsmouth #386

No need to change your glasses prescription. These are Portsmouth boys holding up ROMNEY signs in 1968. They were not psychic. This Romney was the dad of 2012 presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts. I thought it might be fun to check the Athenaeum archives for Republican candidates from bygone days. (Continued below)

 

George Wilcken Romney (1907- 1995) was a former chairman of American Motors Corp and the sitting governor of Michigan when he ran for President in 1968. Romney quit the race soon after this photo was taken and ended up as Secretary of Housing an Urban Development under President Richard Nixon. George Romney’s parents, interestingly, were American citizens who lived in a Mormon colony in the Mexican state of Chihuahua where George was born. Technically, these polygamous families migrated to Mexico like the Mayflower Pilgrims seeking “religious freedom” in this case from prosecution and imprisonment by the United States government. They fled back to the USA during a Mexican uprising in 1912. By the way, I got the facts above directly from Wikipedia, so there is a 4.5 percent margin of error for accuracy. (Photo courtesy of the Portsmouth Athenaeum)

George Romney courtesy Wikipedia