Morning Digest: Mitt Romney on his son Josh running for Utah governor: 'Ha ha ha ha ha'

_{The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.}

Leading Off

●UT-Gov: Businessman Josh Romney said Tuesday that he was still talking to his family about a possible bid for the GOP nod for governor of Utah, but hours later, the most prominent member of his family laughed the idea off. As in, literally laughed to a reporter—well, if you can call the noises that come out of Mitt Romney’s central face orifice"laughter."

The National Journal's Zach Cohen reports that Sen. Romney said that his son had "absolutely" told him that he wouldn't seek the governorship, but the elder Romney didn't stop there. Mitt dismissed the idea of Josh, the middle-most of his five sons, running next year by saying, "Oh, that's not gonna happen, hahaha. No no no, he's not running for governor of Utah, that's for sure." As of Wednesday afternoon, neither Romney has said anything new about what Josh Romney is or isn't doing next year.

Perhaps the senator found the idea of his son running for governor so hilarious because he's aware of Josh Romney's perennial flirtations with campaigns for high office. Back in 2008, he considered running against then-Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson but passed. In 2009, he was in talks to become Gov. Gary Herbert's lieutenant governor, and later that year, there were rumors that Romney would serve as the running mate on a rival Republican candidate's ticket, but he ultimately never appeared on the ballot in 2010. In 2015, Romney was mentioned for months as a possible primary candidate against Sen. Mike Lee, but again, he never went for it.

Romney began talking about a 2020 run for governor all the way back in January of 2016, and he's periodically said he was still considering over the years. He still hasn't jumped in, though, and if his father is right, this will just be yet another Josh Romney non-campaign. Ha ha ha ha ha.