Romney ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1968 but lost to Richard Nixon. He later resigned as governor in 1969 to serve as Nixon's Housing and Urban Development secretary. Romney left politics after stepping down as HUD secretary in 1973.

George Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (better known as the "Mormons"), was born in a church colony in Chihuahua, Mexico. His family was forced to flee to the United States in 1912 because of the Mexican Revolution, and ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In 1926, Romney left the United States to spend two years as a Mormon missionary in England and Scotland. After he returned, he took coursework at the University of Utah and George Washington University, but never finished a college degree.

In the early 1930s, Romney married his high school sweetheart, Lenore LaFount, and became a Washington, DC lobbyist for Alcoa, where he stayed for nine years. During World War II, Romney headed the Automotive Council for War Production, which worked to optimize automotive companies' war production.

After the war, Romney worked as an executive for the manufacturing firm Nash-Kelvinator. When that firm merged in 1954 with Hudson to become American Motors, Romney became the chairman of the combined company. His insistence that the company follow on a then-untried strategy of focusing on making compact cars led to unexpected financial success for AMC. That success made Romney's name widely known, and he capitalized on it in his successful 1962 campaign for governor of Michigan.