[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
United States News Title: John Kasich projected to win Ohio John Kasich is projected to win Ohio’s primary, a result that the governor has contended for weeks will reshape the 2016 presidential campaign. The race was called about 8:46 p.m., with Kasich leading Donald Trump by about 9 points, 44 to 32. Hundreds of the governor’s supporters at the Lou Higgins Center at Baldwin Wallace University erupted in loud cheers when the news hit. “We’re going to be working all across this country,” Kasich said shortly after the race was called. Meanwhile, Trump won Florida and was looking strong in the other three states voting today: Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina. The duo had competed strongly on Kasich’s home turf, with Trump pouring in campaign cash for a blitz of anti-Kasich ads and changing his schedule to add a late stop in northeast Ohio. Combined with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s withdrawal from the race after being swamped in his home state, both of Kasich’s main needs were fulfilled today. As far as Kasich is concerned, it’s now a three-person race. Of course Trump’s main challenger so far, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, is trying to deny Kasich a spot among the frontrunners. “It’s a two-candidate race. This is certain,” the Texas senator said in a fund-raising missive even before the polls closed. “After today, if we don’t have the resources, it could be down to one.” In his withdrawal speech, Rubio said that from a political standpoint, it would have been easiest to play on Americans’ fears. “I chose a different route and I’m proud of that,” he said. “The politics of resentment against other people is not just going to leave us a fractured party, it’s going to leave us a fractured nation. … After tonight it is clear that while we were on the right side, this year we will not be on the winning side.” So with Kasich now having a single victory in the 30 contests so far, how does that translate into the 2016 Republican presidential nomination? Kasich is counting on two factors. One is the “to know me is to love me” presumption. Winning in Ohio and performing well last month in the New Hampshire primary indicates that the more people hear from Kasich, the better he does – although a third-place finish in oft-visited Michigan might counter that spin. Exit polls in Ohio and other states show many late-deciding voters come his way – 54 percent in the Buckeye State, compared to 28 percent for Trump. And Kasich says he is finally getting national attention to make his case in a campaign whose frenetic pace will slow over the next couple of months. Two is the “only I can beat Hillary” rationale. Surveys show Trump and Cruz losing to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In contrast, Kasich runs best in trial heats of any Republican, including Rubio. Make no mistake, this is more than a wish and a prayer; the Kasich team already is laying the groundwork to win a strenuously contested convention when Republicans gather in Cleveland this July. They already are scrutinizing arcane rules and reviewing who is on delegations for candidates such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush who have withdrawn from the race. “The rules committee will be all powerful,” said Kasich’s top campaign strategist, John Weaver. That’s a 112-member panel chosen later this year by each state delegation that can decide, for example, how many ballots delegates must remained pledged to support “their” candidate – if any. Kasich will bid for the top spot even though he may remain behind both Trump and Cruz in the delegate count. “This (a brokered convention) happened eight times before in American history, and six times the people who had the most delegates didn’t win their party’s nomination,” Weaver said. “The grassroots delegates, activists, party leaders, will make a decision about who the nominee is. Of the three people running, only one, demonstrably, provably, can win a general election.” If Trump is short of a majority coming into the Cleveland gathering, he won’t get the party’s nod, Weaver predicted. “A convention of Republicans will not nominate the man unless he has 1,237 delegates,” he said, citing the number needed to mathematically clinch the nomination. And what’s Kasich’s argument at the convention? “Why are we there? We’re there to nominate someone who can beat Hillary Clinton. There’s only one of the three who can beat Hillary Clinton. That’s a pretty powerful argument,” Weaver said. While he wouldn’t forecast whether Kasich can overtake Cruz in the pre-convention delegate hunt, much less Trump, Weaver said sunny days are ahead for his client. If Kasich comes through in Ohio and Rubio departs, in the next few days the governor’s campaign has “a lot of commitments from pretty significant people who are going to sign on board,” Weaver said. “We already have national momentum. Our numbers are already going up across the country 5 to 15 points a state. Once we win Ohio, we’ll have more money coming in, and Marco Rubio will be out of the race. “So the people that we’ve kinda been sharing this space with … they’re all gone. It’s a three-person race, running into the most Kasich-fertile territory on the map: Pennsylvania, the mid-Atlantic states, the New England states, Washington, Oregon, California. “And we will win some of those states and we will accumulate a lot of delegates. No one will go to the convention anywhere near 1,237. Nowhere near. And we will have an experience that very few people can remember.” Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 2.
#1. To: cranky (#0)
This should please Pebbles a k a Stone. I noticed that Trump took lots of pot shots at Kasich during his visit to Dayton/Vandalia, OH. Was Vandalia named for vandals?
Painting '65 Mustang's on the line without wearing masks for protection. They're dead now for sure.
There are no replies to Comment # 2. End Trace Mode for Comment # 2.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest |
|
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|