He briefly represented moderate Republicans against conservative Republican Barry Goldwater during the 1964 U.S. Romney was a strong supporter of the American Civil Rights Movement. Re-elected by increasingly large margins in 19, he worked to overhaul the state's financial and revenue structure, greatly expanding the size of state government and introducing Michigan's first state income tax. Having entered politics in 1961 by participating in a state constitutional convention to rewrite the Michigan Constitution, Romney was elected Governor of Michigan in 1962. Devoutly religious, he presided over the Detroit Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Romney mocked the products of the " Big Three" automakers as "gas-guzzling dinosaurs" and became one of the first high-profile, media-savvy business executives. There he turned around the struggling firm by focusing all efforts on the compact Rambler car. He joined Nash-Kelvinator in 1948, and became the chief executive of its successor, American Motors Corporation, in 1954. In 1939, he moved to Detroit and joined the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, where he served as the chief spokesman for the automobile industry during World War II and headed a cooperative arrangement in which companies could share production improvements. Romney worked in a number of jobs, served as a Mormon missionary in the United Kingdom, and attended several colleges in the U.S. The family lived in several states and ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they struggled during the Great Depression. Romney was born to American parents living in the Mormon colonies in Mexico events during the Mexican Revolution forced his family to flee back to the United States when he was a child. Senate candidate Lenore Romney and the paternal grandfather of current Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel. He was the father of Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and 2012 Republican presidential nominee who currently serves as United States senator from Utah the husband of 1970 U.S. He was chairman and president of American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962, the 43rd governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969, and 3rd secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1969 to 1973. George Wilcken Romney (July 8, 1907 – July 26, 1995) was an American businessman and Republican Party politician.