George Romney presidential campaign, 1968

George Romney presidential campaign, 1968
Campaign	United States presidential election, 1968
Candidate	George Romney Governor of Michigan (1963-1969)
Affiliation	Republican Party
Headquarters	Detroit, Michigan
Slogan	For a Better America!

George Romney ran for the 1968 Republican Party nomination in the 1968 United States presidential election.

Romney was the Governor of Michigan and automaker who focused his campaign on the issues of fiscal responsibility, welfare reform, and the Vietnam War. If elected, he would have been the first Mormon president.

Questions were occasionally asked about Romney's eligibility to hold the office of President due to his birth in Mexico, given an asserted ambiguity in the United States Constitution over the phrase "natural-born citizen". His Mormon paternal grandfather and his three wives had gone to Mexico in 1886, but none of them ever relinquished U.S. citizenship. Romney's parents chose U.S. citizenship for their children, including George. The family left Mexico and came to the United States in 1912 during the Mexican Revolution.

By February 1967, some newspapers were questioning Romney's eligibility given his Mexican birth. In May 1967, the Democratic chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Emanuel Celler, said he had "serious doubts" about whether Romney was eligible, but had no plans to formally challenge the matter. Another member of Congress made a case against Romney the following month. In response, the New York Law Journal published an article by a senior attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell arguing that Romney was, in fact, eligible. The Congressional Research Service also came down on Romney's side, as did most other constitutional experts at the time.

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