--- title: Mitt Romney Surprised People By Arriving at the 2018 Met Gala description: Social media is confused by Republican politician Mitt Romney's attendance at the 2018 Met Gala. canonical: https://time.com/5268886/met-gala-2018-mitt-romney/ author: Casey Quackenbush article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-08T03:00:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:52:42.916Z og:title: Mitt Romney Surprised Some By Rolling Up to the 2018 Met Gala og:description: Mitt Romney is no Rihanna or Donatella Versace og:url: https://time.com/5268886/met-gala-2018-mitt-romney/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc93bcfa78293d27/69892fc1cf40a827fbc4c255/gettyimages-955742828.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3066 og:image:height: 1725 og:image:alt: Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mitt Romney Surprised Some By Rolling Up to the 2018 Met Gala twitter:description: Mitt Romney is no Rihanna or Donatella Versace twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc93bcfa78293d27/69892fc1cf40a827fbc4c255/gettyimages-955742828.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # People Are Surprised That Mitt Romney Rolled Up to the 2018 Met Gala > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=2f9fb346-8da0-4cf1-a2b0-a1804920a53b&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Casey Quackenbush](https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush May 8, 2018 3:00 AM UTC  Ann Romney and Mitt Romney attend the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on May 7, 2018. Ann Romney and Mitt Romney attend the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on May 7, 2018. Dia Dipasupil—WireImage/Getty by [Casey Quackenbush](https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush May 8, 2018 3:00 AM UTC The most iconic of celebrities get invited to fashion’s biggest night, [The Met Gala](http://time.com/5256466/met-gala-2018-details-theme-date/), which kicked off in New York City on Monday night. From [Rihanna](http://time.com/5257694/rihanna-met-gala-dress-pope-2018/) to [Donatella Versace](http://time.com/5258513/donatella-versace-met-gala-2018/), fashionistas show off their wildest costumes in line with the night’s theme, which this year is [_Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination_](http://time.com/5015330/rihanna-met-gala-2018/). So when 2012 Republican nominee for President Mitt Romney rolled up on the red carpet, some observers reacted with confusion. The former Governor of Massachusetts, who is currently running for a Utah senator seat, arrived with his wife, Ann Romney. He’s not the first politician to attend fashion’s biggest event, but he was unexpected. So unexpected that people took to Twitter to call it the most surprising sighting of the night. > [](https://twitter.com/lindysegal/status/993620351375593472) > [](https://twitter.com/StyleWriterNYC/status/993616553919811584) > [](https://twitter.com/michcoll/status/993622185846759425) > [](https://twitter.com/Cosmopolitan/status/993630396133888001) > [](https://twitter.com/InStyle/status/993629538054795266) Romney is favored to replace long-serving Sen. Orrin Hatch in November and recently said he was ready to continue campaigning hard, according to the [Associated Press](http://time.com/5249621/mitt-romney-republican-primary-utah-senate/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5268886/met-gala-2018-mitt-romney/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5268886/met-gala-2018-mitt-romney/"},"headline":"People Are Surprised That Mitt Romney Rolled Up to the 2018 Met Gala","datePublished":"2018-05-08T03:00:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:52:42.916Z","description":"Mitt Romney's attendance seems out of step with A-listers like Rihanna and Donatella Versace","url":"https://time.com/5268886/met-gala-2018-mitt-romney/","keywords":["Newsfeed","onetime","overnight","Met Gala 2018"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc93bcfa78293d27/69892fc1cf40a827fbc4c255/gettyimages-955742828.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Casey Quackenbush","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc93bcfa78293d27/69892fc1cf40a827fbc4c255/gettyimages-955742828.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala","caption":"Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala","creditText":"Dia Dipasupil—WireImage/Getty","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5268886/met-gala-2018-mitt-romney/","name":"People Are Surprised That Mitt Romney Rolled Up to the 2018 Met Gala"}}]}] ```