Romney was in no way moderate. He was the only Republican they could get to make it to the general election.

Where I live (rural Tennessee) he was definitely considered a moderate. I can't tell you how many times I heard him called the lesser of two evils during the run-up to the presidential election. There were a lot of people here who voted for him even though they didn't really like him. Southern Baptists are not big fans of Mormons, tbh.