Kasich vows to stay in race to the end
Republican presidential candidate John Kasich visited Penn State University Brandywine campus on Thursday ahead of Tuesday’s pivotal Pennsylvania primary election.
With Donald Trump the favorite moving into the election on April 26, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, RTexas, and Kasich jockeying for second place, it was the Ohio governor’s plea Thursday to the 400-plus people seated in the PSU Brandywine gymnasium to not vote based on fear, but to vote for the only candidate he said can improve bipartisan relationships in Washington.
“I was chairman of the budget committee, working with Congressman Walker over here when we actually balanced the budget,” Kasich said, referencing his opening speaker, Bob Walker, the former Pennsylvania congressman who endorsed him. “(We) had the debt going down, and we had significant jobs going up.”
Behind Kasich was a large ticker with an ever-inflating dollar amount representing the growing national debt of the United States — somewhere around $19 trillion and rising — with which Kasich pre-empted many of his topics Thursday, as a candidate who only makes promises he can keep.
“My whole purpose in political life has been to stick up for people who don’t have a voice,” Kasich said. “And to be in a position where we can create job opportunities for people, so everyone has a chance to rise.”
Visitors Thursday said that despite Kasich’s large delegate deficit with the Republican National Convention quickly approaching — starting July 18 — the view of many was that the governor from Ohio, who strongly emphasized his workingclass roots from Pittsburgh, was the best option in a divisive field.
“I think he’s the only one who can bring the Republican and Democratic parties together,” said Sheila Firor of Media. “Everyone is so polarizing.”
“He’s a star,” said Marion Purdy. “He has the experience and he has the vision.”
Yet, Purdy conceded, “If I’m given no choice, I’ll vote Republican regardless.”
Trailing in delegates to a politician who a month ago dropped out the race, Marco Rubio, Kasich was brazen when he said he has no intention of backing down facing insurmountable odds. Riding on national polls that put him as the greatest threat to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, Kasich banks on that popularity to grant him the delegates to win the nomination in a contested convention come July.
“Just going to the conventional with a plurality doesn’t get you to the magic number,” Kasich said. “And if you happen to have the magic number but you don’t have the delegates at the convention, you have to go out and get them.”
“If you don’t get them, you don’t get picked.”
Saying “a vote for me is a vote for me, it ain’t a vote for someone else,” Kasich’s point was this: He intends to make it through to the convention, where, in his view, he has the advantage.
“We’ve had 10 Republican conventions … seven times the person going to the convention who didn’t have the most amount of support was the one who won,” Kasich said, referring President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
“I know the Democratic National Committee is trying to get me out of the race because they don’t want me to run against Hillary,” he said. “I got my competitors trying to get me out, I have the Democrats trying to get me out. Well, guess what? I ain’t getting out.”
Yet, with many delegates in Pennsylvania uncommitted, it’s left the Republican voters unsure where to turn.
“I favor Kasich because I like the fact that he was a representative for the budget and did a good job,” said Arnold Charles. “But, it would help to know the uncommitted delegates.”
Charles, who’s voted in more than a dozen presidential elections, called this election as a “terrible” one which has forced him into the uncomfortable situation of “strategized voting.”
That uncertainty carried weight to many potential voters in the room, like 19-year-old Megan Kizun, a biobehavioral health student at PSU Brandywine who will vote for the president of the United States for the first time.
“I’m neutral on him. I don’t know much about his views,” Kizun said of Kasich. “Maybe after this event I’ll change my mind.”
Outside in the lobby, students from a multicultural psychology class held banners blasting Kasich for his various positions on gun reform, transsexual rights and women’s freedom of choice.
“For gun control he advocates for registering all mentally ill people,” said Duane Belgrade Jr. “It’s one thing to require background checks, but to marginalize an already inherently marginalized group of people is wrong.”
Yet, Kasich’s strength, bolstered by rousing rounds of applause, was his inherent ability to appeal to the people. Riding on the platform of smaller government, personal freedoms based on self-motivation, greater power vested in the states, he positioned himself as the sensible candidate whereas the rest of the field he said has ridden on anxiety and fear.
“We are very polarized. I don’t remember us being angry. I remember us putting one foot in front of the other. Today the anxieties are real,” Kasich said. “Strife sells, but that’s not where we want to live, is it?”