GOP Senator Mitt Romney of Utah said he won't seek a second term, sidestepping a 2024 primary that would have tested his popularity with voters in a year that political foe Donald Trump vies to be the Republican standard bearer.

Romney, 76, cited his age as a reason behind the decision.

"At the end of another term, I'd be in my mid-eighties,” Romney said in a statement. "Frankly, it's time for a new generation of leaders. They're the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in.”

In the Senate, Romney has demonstrated a strong independent streak. He's the only Republican to vote to convict Trump in both of his impeachment trials.

He was the sole Republican to break with Trump in the first trial in 2019, voting to convict him on a charge of abusing power by pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to produce political dirt on Joe Biden.

Two years later, he was one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, citing Trump's drive to overturn the 2020 election results as the spark that triggered the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

Senator Steve Daines of Montana, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Romney told him he wants to spend more time with his family.

"I thank him for his service, and I'm also confident we'll keep Utah's seat red,” he said.

He said the party committee hasn't decided yet whether it will endorse a GOP primary candidate in that race.

Romney was a member of the "gang” of 10 Republicans and Democrats who negotiated a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that cleared the Senate in 2021.

While he takes conservative stances on many fiscal issues, he's differed with GOP colleagues on other matters including immigration, supporting a path to citizenship for young adults brought to theas kids.

Heavily Republican Utah is unlikely to play a role in 2024 in determining which party governs the Senate, which is now controlled by Democrats with a 51-49 majority.

Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs said in May he would run in Utah's GOP primary in June next year, and allies of Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and formerRepresentative Jason Chaffetz also have told news organizations they could run.

If he enters the race, Reyes would be the most formidable contender and he's one of Trump's closest allies in the state. He's had his controversies, though.

In a move that drew consternation from a number of top Utah Republicans, Reyes backed Trump's efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results.

That included signing onto a lawsuit filed by more than a dozen GOP attorneys general seeking to overturn the results in key battleground states, an effort that failed.

Trump's brash brand of populist conservatism has alienated many Mormons in Utah, who make up a majority of voters there. But Utah Republicans have moved a bit toward Trump since his 2016 election.

The 2012 GOP presidential nominee and a former Massachusetts governor, Romney is a Mormon and Brigham Young University graduate who gained significant ground in Utah in 2002 when he led Salt Lake City's organizing committee for that year's Winter Olympic games.

He was credited with helping to save the 2002 Winter Olympics for Utah after a bribery scandal.

In 2018, he ran for theSenate after Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch retired, winning his primary election with 73% of the vote. In the general

election, he easily beat Democrat Jenny Wilson and three minor party candidates with about 63% of the vote.

Voters in the state were split over whether Romney should run again, according to a Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll. The May 22-June 1 poll found that 41% of voters in the state approve of the job he's doing while 49% say they disapprove and 10% of voters say they don't know.

That approval rating is down 11 points since March. The June poll also found that 51% of Republican voters say they strongly or somewhat disapprove of Romney's performance.

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