Electors’ effort to pick Kasich is expected to fail
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Some Democratic electors from two Western states are trying to prevent Republican Donald Trump from becoming president by encouraging some GOP members of the Electoral College to change their votes to Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Though regarded as farfetched, the movement has the potential to revive the Ohio chief executive’s dashed hopes to become president.
A group calling itself “Hamilton Electors,” who at least publicly are made up entirely of Democrats, see the former Republican primary candidate as the leading compromise pick for persuading Republican electors to join their cause, the national publication Politico reported Monday.
Mr. Trump won 306 electors, so the Hamilton Electors must persuade 37 Republican electors to vote for someone other than Mr. Trump to keep him from garnering the necessary 270 electoral votes.
“A consensus is beginning to form that Gov. Kasich would be best positioned to unite America,” Democratic Colorado elector Michael Baca said in a statement to Politico.
Mr. Kasich, a McKees Rocks native, does not appear to be participating in the effort. He did not return calls for comment from The Blade.
John Weaver, Mr. Kasich’s chief strategist and one of Mr. Trump’s most vocal Republican critics, told The Blade he has not talked to the governor about the Hamilton effort and knows of no attempt by the group to reach out to Mr. Kasich. He noted the effort is being undertaken by Democrats.
“President-elect Donald Trump won with 306 electoral votes three weeks ago, and when the Electoral College meets in two weeks I think that will be affirmed,” Mr. Weaver said.
Politico said Hillary Clinton’s team and the Democratic National Committee have steadfastly refused to endorse the efforts spearheaded by a group of electors in Colorado and Washington state.
Mr. Kasich was the last Republican to drop out of the primary campaign and leave the GOP nomination to Mr. Trump after Mr. Trump won the Indiana primary.
The Hamilton group claims to have persuaded one Republican elector to abandon Mr. Trump, but won’t name the person, Politico reported.
GOP strategist Mark Weaver, who is not related to John Weaver, also doesn’t give the effort much of a chance.
“Throughout history there have been random faithless electors, people pledged to one candidate who then switched their vote,” he said. “That part’s not new. But the left is so unhappy with Donald Trump’s victory that many of them are scrambling to find one last shred of hope before Trump’s presidency becomes reality.
“I gave up predicting things in 2016 … but I don't see any possibility that the Electoral College will do anything but elect Donald Trump president,” he said.
Matt Borges, Ohio Republican chairman, said the state’s 18 electors were chosen in consultation with the Trump campaign after he won the Republican nomination, and they were ratified by the 66member Republican State Central Committee.
The 538 national electors meet Dec. 19 in their state capitals. Ohio’s 18 electors meet at noon in the Capitol in Columbus.
The Hamilton Electors are named after Alexander Hamilton, one of the framers of the Constitution who envisioned the Electoral College as a check on popular passions.
Even though Pennsylvania and Ohio are winnertake-all states concerning electors, there is some question of whether the U.S. Constitution would uphold that requirement.
Robert Alexander, a political science professor at Ohio Northern University and an expert on the Electoral College, said “the position of elector has evolved from that wise individual who can discern to a party loyalist. And that is the big issue today.”