The Hill News

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) will join Mitt Romney's team as a special policy adviser, the six-term senator announced Wednesday on Twitter.

With Mitt as Pres & me leading Finance Cmte, we’ll be able to lay the groundwork & hit the ground running to turn our economy around #utpol

â€" Orrin Hatch (@OrrinHatch) May 2, 2012

As the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Finance, Hatch is in a position to assume the chairman's gavel if Republicans retake the majority in the Senate in November.

A Romney aide confirmed that Hatch will come on board and said he would be advising the former Massachusetts governor across a wide range of issues.

Hatch, a fellow Mormon who has faced attacks that he's not sufficiently conservative, has long been a dutiful and vocal supporter of Romney. Hatch backed Romney when he ran for president in 2007 and has been with him ever since.

Romney returned the favor in September when he endorsed Hatch, who faces major primary opposition in Utah. Hatch fell short of the 60 percent needed at a state GOP convention in April to clinch his party's nomination. Hatch will face former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist in a GOP primary in June.