Profile: Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney failed in a 2008 bid for the Republican nomination, but gained valuable experience

Mitt Romney entered the 2012 Republican presidential race as the presumed front-runner. And he maintained that status as one challenger after another rose to meet him only to self-destruct.

Mr Romney, a former one-term governor of Massachusetts, brought to the race wealth, business experience, a national profile and a broad network of fundraisers and supporters left over from his failed 2008 White House bid.
With his square jaw, gleaming eyes and immobile hair greying at the temples, some see him as a presidential candidate straight from central casting. And he has been married to the same woman, Ann Romney, for more than four decades.
Mr Romney lost the party's 2008 nomination race to Arizona Senator John McCain but took only a brief break from the campaign trail. Almost as soon as Barack Obama was in the White House, Mr Romney began building support for the 2012 contest.
He hopes that his background in business will help him convince voters he can manage America's halting economic recovery better than President Obama.
Suspicion of Mormons To win the Republican party nomination, he sought to convince primary voters of the authenticity and depth of his conservative principles. He also sought to persuade them to overlook his relatively liberal record as governor of Massachusetts, a solidly Democratic state.
Another obstacle was the suspicion about his Mormon faith held by many of the religious conservatives influential in the nominating process.

The candidate's wife, Ann Romney, is often by his side on the campaign trail

Willard Mitt Romney was born in 1947 in Michigan. His father, George Romney, was later that state's Republican governor and himself ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968.
Mitt Romney served two years as a Mormon missionary in France, then went to Brigham Young University and studied law and business at Harvard.
Later, Mr Romney took a senior position in the Mormon church and joined Boston management consulting firm Bain and Company, soon rising to chairman. He also founded Bain Capital, a venture capital firm affiliated with Bain.
In 1994, Mr Romney attempted to unseat veteran Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy. He lost but raised his profile in the state and among Republicans nationally.
Haunted by healthcare And in 1999, he was tapped to run the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. The preparations had been mired in scandal, and organisers were attracted to Mr Romney's deep connections within the Mormon church, his business acumen and his reputation for honesty.
The 2002 Olympics were widely viewed as a success. Later that year Mr Romney ran for governor of Massachusetts as a pragmatic centrist, allaying fears he would foist right-wing social policies on the liberal state. He won.
As governor, he signed into law a comprehensive healthcare overhaul that required all Massachusetts residents to obtain health insurance and provided subsidies to those who could not afford it or who did not receive it from their employers.
That policy has thrown Mr Romney on the defensive time and again during his bid for the White House.
Critics have accused the former governor of responsibility for Mr Obama's 2010 healthcare plan, which is detested by Republicans, and conceptually similar to the programme Mr Romney signed into law in 2006.
Even before he officially announced his candidacy this time round, Mr Romney made a speech defending the Massachusetts policy while attacking Mr Obama's programme.
Mr Romney has also faced questions about his commitment to social conservative principles.
During his tenure as Massachusetts governor, a court ruling made the state the first to allow same-sex marriage.
Mr Romney gave a qualified criticism of that decision, saying marriage laws should only be altered by a vote of the people, and sought to build support for a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
The real thing? Mr Romney opted not to seek re-election in 2006 to explore a presidential run.
In the 2008 race, Mr Romney sought to cast himself as a conservative whose success in Massachusetts indicated he could win over Democratic and independent voters.
But Mr Romney was never able to overcome doubts about his authenticity and accusations he had shifted his positions on abortion and gay rights merely to appeal to the more conservative national Republican electorate.
He pulled out of the race in February after spending $35m (£21.4m) of his own money.
This time around, Mr Romney sought to remain above the fray by training his fire on the president rather than on his rivals for the Republican nomination.
And his experience from the 2008 race proved valuable, in particular in a gruelling series of televised debates.
He consistently led the pack in fundraising and in the polls, though his overall level of support has remained tepid.
Doubting Mr Romney's ideological purity, some Republican voters egged on other candidates to challenge him from the right.
The Romney campaign and its backers spent large sums - $53m by early April - on advertising in the primary season.
After a string of primary wins, Mr Romney built up a significant lead in delegates and the Republican establishment coalesced behind him.
One by one his challengers left the race, and he was able to secure the nomination after the Texas primary.
Mr Romney was officially selected as the Republican presidential nominee at the party's national convention in Tampa, Florida, on 28 August.
He is set to challenge Barack Obama on 6 November.