The Senate next year will be more Republican, more-Trumpian, and more likely to genuflect to the White House with the absence of the late Arizona senator John McCain, R-Ariz., as well as less dogmatically pro-Trump Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona. But it doesn't mean the body is consigned to knee-jerk support of Trump and the amplification of the president's pro-Russia, pro-tariff, anti-immigrant message.
Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and a former Massachusetts governor, has often disappointed supporters, evidencing a willingness to fall into party orthodoxy and downplay his own heterodoxy (e.g., RomneyCare).