Hamilton County Gopers want to kick former governor out of party
Four years after John Kasich won Ohio’s GOP presidential primary by more than 10 percentage points, some local Republicans are so irked with the former governor they want to boot him from the party.
In Hamilton County, home to Cincinnati, local attorney and Republican Christopher Mcdowell introduced a resolution that says Kasich “spurned every Republican in Ohio” when he declined to attend the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland and then, four years later, publicly supported then-democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and spoke during the Democratic National Convention.
Mcdowell’s resolution – which aims to kick Kasich out of the Hamilton County Republican Party – comes as Kasich has become a punching bag in the GOP primary to replace retiring U.S. Senator Rob Portman.
One possible candidate, Rep. Bill Johnson, skewered Kasich in an ad and feuded with him on Twitter.
Another possible candidate, Jane Timken – until last week the chair of the state Republican party – published an op-ed on Cincinnati.com where she praised former President Donald Trump and boasted about getting rid of the “Kasich regime.”
In a sense, Hamilton County is a microcosm of Kasich’s plummeting popularity and, beyond that, of the internal battle within the GOP over whether it will stay the party of Trump.
Mcdowell, who drafted the resolution to kick Kasich out of the local party, said the point is “to send a message to (Kasich) and other people in his position, to let him know that the rank and file Republicans don’t appreciate his actions.”
Jim Lynch, a spokesman for Kasich, pushed back.
“Those attacking lifelong Republicans are doing so because demeaning people and being against things is all they know how to do right now,” Lynch said. “A better use of their energy would be to help the Republican Party rediscover its appetite toward finding ideas and solutions to the problems impacting our communities.”
‘Disgusted with Mr. Kasich’s actions’
Mcdowell’s resolution accuses Kasich of sowing division and dissent among Republicans and says the former governor’s actions “cannot be condoned by anyone who holds himself out as a Republican.”
The upshot, according to the resolution: Kasich should be kicked out of the Hamilton County Republican Party, be referred to as a “former Republican” and should not get any support from the Hamilton County GOP in any future political endeavors.
In Ohio, voters don’t register with a political party, so it’s not really possible to kick someone out of a party. Instead, in primaries, voters request a ballot for a particular party. Kasich doesn’t live in Hamilton County; he lives in Westerville, a Columbus suburb.
Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou said the party’s executive committee will take up the resolution in about two weeks, at which point it will go up for majority vote for adoption.
Triantafilou did not express a personal opinion one way or the other, saying he’ll wait until he can hear from more members of the committee.
Mcdowell said he drafted the resolution because he and other Republicans are “more than a little disgusted with Mr. Kasich’s actions.”
After years of the Republican party supporting Kasich in election after election, Mcdowell said, Kasich completely turned his back.
Mcdowell said he doesn’t see the resolution as a commentary on the future of the Republican party or as a loyalty test to former President Trump.
Mcdowell said that in his mind, Kasich has already left the Republican party, anyway, and he expects his resolution to pass.
“I will be surprised if somebody stands up and speaks on behalf of Mr. Kasich,” he said. “I don’t think there’s much love for him right now in the party.”