The field remains wide open for the Republican Party candidacy in the 2016 presidential election. The lack of a frontrunner has boosted the conversation around 2012 GOP candidate Mitt Romney and another run by the former Massachusetts governor.
Romney's wife Ann quickly denied that possibility at the launch of the Romneys' new research facility, the Ann Romney Center for Neurological Diseases, on Oct. 13.
"Done," Romney told the Los Angeles Times about a possible 2016 run for her husband. "Completely. Not only Mitt and I are done, but the kids are done. Done. Done. Done."
She reiterated her position on the "Today" show, speaking with Maria Shriver about the facility at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
"We are having no serious conversation about it," Romney said. "Because we said at the end we will never do this again. It was hard. We've done it. We've had our turn."
Romney does feel confident about other names in the mix for the GOP candidacy. She listed off "really interesting" potential contenders including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and the Mitt Romney's 2012 running mate, Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, according to the L.A. Times.
"We're going to see a nice field shake out," she told the L.A. Times.
The Romney couple has set a $50 million goal for their new research facility. The center will focus on finding cures and treatments for Alzheimer's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease (or ALS), Parkinson's disease, brain tumors and multiple sclerosis. Ann Romney was diagnosed with the latter in 1998, but she is now in remission.
"I never would have imagined myself being in a position to have an impact," she told "Today." "I don't think of myself as anyone except just as a little girl that rides her horse. And then grew up and was a mommy. And now all of a sudden, I can have a voice."
