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If people close to Mitt Romney want to find a Republican to challenge Sen. Mike Lee in 2016, they will need to find someone other than Alex Dunn.

Dunn, president of Provo-based alarm company Vivint, issued a statement Tuesday saying he is not prepared to launch a Senate campaign.

"I'm honored that people have encouraged me to consider running for the U.S. Senate representing a state I love," said Dunn, who cited his work and his young family as reasons not to pull the trigger.

The people nudging him were Josh Romney, one of former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's sons, and Spencer Zwick, who was Romney's 2012 finance director.

Dunn has his own Romney ties. He was the deputy chief of staff when Romney was Massachusetts governor. Dunn also helped Romney in his presidential campaigns.

He has had little political experience in Utah, and he wasn't mentioned as a potential candidate until Friday, when Zwick told the Deseret News that he wanted Dunn to challenge Lee.

Zwick cited Lee's involvement in the 2013 government shutdown as his reason why he was seeking a challenger.

People close to Romney are also annoyed that Lee didn't endorse his 2012 candidacy until it was a sure thing.

Zwick has yet to respond to a request for comment.

Dunn had donated to Lee's 2010 Senate campaign and hadn't explained why he would contemplate a run against the senator. He tried to answer that question in his statement Tuesday.

"Our elected officials in D.C. are completely gridlocked," he said. "Somehow compromise has become a dirty word, and taking ideologically rigid stands on every issue is celebrated on both sides of the political spectrum."

A Brigham Young University analysis showed Lee is the most conservative member of the Senate.

A tea party favorite, Lee has never had a strong relationship with business-minded Republicans. Zions Bank President Scott Anderson tried for more than a year to find someone to challenge Lee. He conducted polling to show that former Utah Govs. Mike Leavitt and Jon Huntsman Jr. stood a chance, as did Kirk Jowers, the director of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, and Josh Romney.

All declined to run.

In March, Anderson and Huntsman endorsed Lee. At this time, it doesn't appear that any well-known Republican or Democrat is preparing to run against Lee.