SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Senator Mitt Romney (R), Utah, is urging Republican megadonors and candidates to do what they can to keep former President Donald Trump from getting the party nomination.

He made his pitch with an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

“This is the great thing about having a primary. We get to see all the candidates come forward, make their case to the voters, and Senator Romney has every right to come out and say what he thinks and lobby people to support the way he wants to see it, but the beauty of this is we get to hear all the candidates and see which one rises to the top,” said former Utah GOP Chair Thomas Wright.

The senator is calling on donors to cut off candidates who aren’t gaining ground and wants the candidates to get out of the race in favor of the candidate that has the best chance against the former president.

Wright says that can be a tough sell.

“It’s hard when you have supporters and people on your campaign who are out working hard. You want to see it through, you want to see it through to the end,” he said.

It’s a strategy Democrats deployed in 2020 when candidates backed out of the primary to support President Biden.

“When I looked at what could have been the possibility to have a Bernie in there, or someone else of that ilk, I think that President Biden was the right choice and it really worked for us,” said former State Senator Scott Howell.