Ohio’s Kasich: I can win GOP 2016 nomination if I get enough money

Ohio’s Kasich: I can win GOP 2016 nomination if I get enough money

Kasich could be a dark horse in the 2016 GOP nomination campaign due to his position as governor of a key battleground state and his extensive experience in politics.

It’s been 15 years since Ohio Gov. John Kasich last dropped out of the race for president, back when Bill Clinton was leaving office — but this time around, he thinks he has the funds to compete with the big dogs for the GOP 2016 presidential nomination.

Kasich said his ability to keep in 2016 will depend on whether he can raise enough money to compete with the big spenders, and the 62-year-old governor of a key battleground state believes he can do it, according to media reports.

Kasich could be an underrated competitor for the Republican nomination. Although he hasn’t been named one of the frontrunners for the nomination, it’s a long campaign and the race appears to be relatively wide open.

It’s a crowded field, however, and Kasich knows he’ll need to raise a lot of money to win the nod. Kasich has had a long career in politics, serving at the state level before belong elected to Congress as a representative of Ohio’s 12th district, a post he held from 1983 to 2001. He launched a short-lived campaign in 2000 for the Republican nomination — eventually won by George W. Bush — but dropped out and then took a 10-year hiatus from politics.

He came back with a bang in 2010, knocking off incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland in the Ohio gubernatorial election, and he won reelection last fall, defeating his Democratic opponent handily.

His position as governor over perhaps the most important battleground state other than Florida could be a pivotal factor in whether or not he can make waves in the presidential race.

Kasich does have some things Democrats — and perhaps his Republican counterparts — would be eager to hammer him on, particularly his position as an investment banker and managing director of Lehman Brothers’ Columbus, Ohio office, the company that collapsed in 2008 and helped lead about to the Great Recession that the country is only just digging out of now.

Kasich is likely to attempt to try to sell the American people on his experience. Voters can expect him to try to pound that point home, touting his credentials as a longtime Congressman and an executive of an important state.

But he has said all along that he needs to have the resources to win, and if he doesn’t have that funding, he won’t push forward with a campaign.

However, Kasich apparently believes that that’s not out of the realm of possibility despite the stiff competition he faces from a crowded Republiucan field, saying that he was optimistic he would move forward with a presidential campaign, although he set no timetable for the decision. Once he satisfactorily answers the question for himself on whether or not he’ll have the resources he needed, he is likely to make that decision.

Kasich identifies himself as a fiscal conservative who is not afraid to act independently, and he wants to present himself as someone who is a solution to problems.

He’s taken some actions that have irritated conservatives, including a move to expand Medicaid in Ohio for the poor via the controversial — and unpopular, at least among conservatives — healthcare law known as Obamacare. Other Republican governors have chosen not to expand Medicaid out of their dislike of the law.

However, Kasich said he wanted to use the money to help treat 10,000 mentally ill inmates in prisons across the state. He said he wanted to take advantage of money that could be brought into his state and away from the federal government.

Be social, please share!

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail