Son says Romney was reluctant to run for president again: report

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney answers a question during the second U.S. presidential debate in Hempstead, New York, October 16, 2012.

(Reuters) - Republican Mitt Romney's family had to convince him to make a second bid for the presidency because he was reluctant to run again after failing to secure his party's nomination in 2008, Romney's son told the Boston Globe on Sunday.

In an article that examined what went wrong with Romney's losing 2012 presidential campaign, Tagg Romney said his father Mitt said he had no intention of running again after he did not become the Republican presidential nominee in 2008.

Arizona Senator John McCain secured the Republican nomination that year and lost to Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential election.

In order to overcome his father's reluctance, Tagg Romney told the Globe he and his mother Ann worked to change his mind.

"He wanted to be president less than anyone I've met in my life," Tagg Romney told the paper. "If he could have found someone else to take his place ... he would have been ecstatic to step aside."

Despite predictions that the 2012 election would be close, Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and businessman, fell well short of the 270 electoral votes needed to defeat President Obama.

In November, Obama won re-election with 332 electoral votes and won most of the battleground states, including Ohio and Florida.

(Reporting By Nick Carey; Editing by Stacey Joyce)