The Drew Forum presents: Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney is a statesman, businessman, and former Republican presidential nominee known for his bold leadership and independent voice. A singular figure in American politics, Romney brings deep insights into leadership, policy, and our nation’s most pressing challenges.

As Governor of Massachusetts from 2003-2007, Romney pioneered a landmark healthcare law responsible for insuring millions of residents. Romney also led the 2002 Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Winter Olympics, turning the struggling Games into a success story. Before entering public service, Romney was a successful management consultant at Bain & Company and co-founded the highly successful private equity firm Bain Capital.

As U.S. Senator for Utah, Romney was a leading voice for fiscal discipline, climate action, America’s role in the world, and the need for a comprehensive U.S. strategy to counter China’s ascendance. He played a key role in historic bipartisan legislation on improving the nation’s physical infrastructure, emergency COVID relief, marriage equality with religious liberty protections, and gun safety.

He has been married to his wife Ann for 55 years, and together they have five sons, 25 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

---

Dana Bash is CNN’s chief political correspondent, anchor of Inside Politics with Dana Bash, and co-anchor of State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, the network’s Sunday morning newsmaker show. Bash is an award-winning journalist who plays a key role in the network’s political coverage, conducting high-profile interviews with candidates, serving as an anchor for CNN’s Election Night in America special coverage and frequently moderating presidential debates and town hall specials. In 2024, she co-moderated CNN’s historic Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump.

Bash’s first book “America’s Deadliest Election,” which she co-authored with David Fisher, details the 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election. It debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2021, Bash launched her CNN series, Being…, which features in-depth conversations with individuals affecting American policy, politics, and culture, giving viewers an understanding of the human being behind the public face. Her digital CNN series, Badass Women of Washington, profiles women from various backgrounds and generations to show how they have shattered glass ceilings on their way up the ranks. Her CNN Special Report Rising Hate: Antisemitism in America is an in-depth look at how antisemitism, once the hate of extremists, became mainstream and explores ways to curb it.

During the 2024 election cycle, Bash secured the first joint interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz. She also moderated CNN’s Republican Presidential Primary town hall with former Vice President Mike Pence.

Bash moderated CNN’s first debate of the 2020 election cycle in Detroit, as well as the last Democratic Presidential Debate of the cycle in Washington. She played a key role in CNN’s 2016 presidential primary debates, serving as a moderator for six of the network’s seven primary debates on both sides of the aisle. As part of her coverage of the 2016 presidential campaigns, Bash conducted sit-down interviews with majority of the candidates including Donald Trump, Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Bernie Sanders, and Governors Jeb Bush and John Kasich.

Bash also continues to be instrumental in the network’s Capitol Hill coverage. In 2015, she broke news on live television that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy would not be running for Speaker of the House and conducted Speaker John Boehner’s final interview on his last day in office. Bash also served as the lead correspondent covering former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 11-hour testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

Bash won the Radio and Television Correspondents Association’s Joan S. Barone Award for her original reporting on a STOCK Act loophole that led Congress to pass legislation to close it. She is also a winner of the National Press Foundation’s Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism and a three-time recipient of the Foundation’s Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress.

Bash graduated cum laude with her bachelor’s degree in political communications from George Washington University.