Munroe said Kasich is the most-experienced and well-rounded candidate in the Republican presidential field that will grow to 16 with his official announcement at Ohio State University. But the message he’s adding stands out from the pack. During a March appearance in New Hampshire Kasich blasted “all the divisions in America” and said leaders should “cross their own interest groups and reach out to unite and lift Americans”. “If we’re doing things like that, to me that is conservatism”.
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Kasich endured years of litigation, political resistance and media investigations after he privatized Ohio’s economic development department, designing the nonprofit JobsOhio to “move at the speed of business”. But in early Republican nominating states, Kasich’s been preaching a message of social welfare rooted in faith that contrasts with numerous go-it-alone pitches coming from other GOP candidates.
But Kasich laid out a case for a compassionate conservatism that would help drug addicts, the working poor and the disabled, as well as keep the mentally ill out of prison. Is that an odd Republican position?
That has been a common refrain for Kasich as he explored a potential presidential bid earlier this year.
John Kasich declaring today he’s officially running for the Republican nomination for president, some of his biggest supporters in the Mahoning Valley say he needs to rise in national polls relatively soon if his candidacy is to succeed. “You get your moment, but it tends to be pretty ephemeral”.
Kasich is the only Republican governor – in a field with three other current or recent governors – to have expanded the federal Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.
Kasich pushes on. He boasts about his state’s budget, which projects 2 percent spending growth the next two years, in line with his previous budgets.
“I’m here to make sure that the nation knows, as John Kasich announces his run for president, that he is not an advocate for anybody that is vulnerable”, said Melissa Svigelj, 42, an educator from suburban Cleveland.
Last December, fresh off his 2014 re-election victory, Kasich launched what he dubbed a “crusade” to adopt a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which included travel to the key early voting states of South Carolina and New Hampshire, as well as others such as Idaho and Utah. However, enthusiasm and financial support for George W. Bush forced Kasich to end his campaign months before the 2000 primaries.
Mr Kasich tops many lists of potential vice-presidential nominees because of his experience and popularity in the crucial state of Ohio. However, his world would be rocked when his parents were killed by a drunk driver in 1987 while they were pulling out of Burger King after a coffee run. That’s good news for Dems.
Kasich hopes Republican primary voters will factor his Ohio background into their calculations of which Republican is most likely to beat a Democrat.
At a New Hampshire forum when asked to give three reasons Mrs Clinton would make a bad president, he replied: “If I’ve got to spend my time trashing people to be successful in this, you can count me out”.
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“I was too young, I didn’t have any money and hadn’t accomplished much”, Kasich told msnbc in an interview last month. (For what it’s worth, Kasich has indeed met the singer multiple times.). But the governor and his advisers see his candor as a positive – something around which a campaign can be built if handled the right way. National surveys of Republican voters show real estate billionaire Donald Trump, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who is the son and brother of USA presidents, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in the top tier of candidates. “And she’s like that better not be John”.
