Governor George Romney of Michigan announced his candidacy for President of the United States at the Veteran’s Memorial Building in Detroit on November 18, 1967.
"One was aspires to the Presidency should be confident he can be useful and capable of providing the needed leadership.
I decided to fight for and win the Republican nomination and election as President of the United States. I have made my decision with a great earnestness.
We can, we must, solve the problems on which the Federal bureaucracy has so obviously failed. Our national government must lead in identifying national problems, establishing priorities, and encouraging maximum state, local, and private effort in their solution. To succeed we must decentralize problem-solving responsibility and action.
If we do those things at home, we will have taken the first giant step for re-establishing the influence of the United States in the World.
To apply these principles, to achieve these goals, to build a new America, we must have a Republican President.
The Republican Party has the faith in the individual, and voluntary cooperation, private competitive enterprise, free collective bargaining, and state and local government needed to apply these principles at home. A Republican President can work for a just peace in Vietnam unshackled by mistakes of the past. A Republican President can restore truth to government and regain the confidence of the people.
We need leadership that can elevate religion and morality to their position of paramount importance and thus eliminating growing selfishness, and immorality, and materialism. We must end the spirit of “anything goes,” and restore the importance and quality of our personal lives.
A New America requires leadership which, by word and deed, merits the confidence of the people and is worthy of God’s blessing.
Because I believe that, working together, we can build a New America, I will work toward this goal with all my heart, mind, and new spirit. I pledge energy and honesty to the task."
