He’s not expected to do well this weekend in SC, but Ohio Governor John Kasich’s presidential bid may be catching steam nationally.
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The billionaire developer picked a massive venue for his 4 p.m. speech: The Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta.
At a Thursday gathering before Kasich volunteers began knocking on doors in Mount Pleasant, Kasich leaned in for several long bear hugs with supporters buoyed by his second-place showing in New Hampshire last week.
Kasich, 63, appears better at getting to the heart of a personal matter or exchanging knowing words with a voter, all part of his projection as the optimism candidate. Kasich also sat with Chris Matthews on MSNBC yesterday, and seems to be the Republican candidate most inclined to earn support from voters who do not identify as far-right of the aisle.
“We go to the deep south – as you know, in MS we’ve got [former Senate Majority Leader] Trent Lott and really the whole establishment pretty much locked down in MS”, he said. “So we’ll see if we come out of here strong because, if we do, it’s a new chapter, maybe, in American politics”.
Kasich, the governor of OH, was confronted by a student who identified himself as gay at a town hall at Michigan State University.
But he also said he also expects to be competitive in states like Virginia and Tennessee, which vote on March 1.
If he pulls out a third place finish Saturday in conservative, largely evangelical SC it would be a victory.
Kasich ranks at six percent. Those numbers are trending up. Hypothetical contests showed Rubio (48 percent) over Clinton (42 percent) and Kasich (49 percent) leading Clinton (38 percent).
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Registration for Kasich’s stop in Worcester is free and can be done through eventbrite.
