OHIO GOV. KASICH BRINGS THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL FIELD TO 16 CANDIDATES
Columbus, Ohio — Saying “big ideas change the world,” Ohio Gov. John Kasich declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination Tuesday and pitched his well-rounded résumé to voters who have a multitude of high achievers to size up.
Kasich, 63, launched his campaign at Ohio State University before a crowd of 2,000 at an event marking the entry of a strong-willed and sometimes abrasive governor in a nomination race now with 16 notable Republicans.
“I am here to ask you for your prayers, for your support, for your efforts because I have decided to run for president,” Kasich said in a scattered 43-minute speech packed with family anecdotes, historical references and calls for national renewal.
A veteran congressman as well as governor, Kasich is telling voters he is the only GOP candidate with experience in three broad areas of political leadership — the federal budget, national security and state government. He also spent nearly a decade at Lehman Brothers.
“I have the experience and the testing,” he said, “the testing which shapes you and prepares you for the most important job in the world and I believe I know how to work and help restore this great United States.”
Columbus, Ohio — Gov. John R. Kasich, a voluble and blunt-talking maverick who is hoping his upbeat vision for a united America can catapult him to the White House, declared Tuesday that he is running for president, telling a crowd here he has “the experience and the testing — the testing which shapes you and prepares you for the most important job in the world.”
Kasich, joined by his wife and 15-year-old twin daughters, addressed several thousand cheering supporters inside the student union building at Ohio State University here, offering a centrist appeal designed to paint him as a common-sense Midwesterner who can fix a broken Washington. He avoided attacking President Barack Obama, as his Republican rivals have done.
The event was a return of sorts: As an 18-year-old Ohio State freshman in 1970, Kasich wrote President Richard M. Nixon to plead, successfully, to visit the White House. But Kasich seemed determined to link himself to another Republican president, the conservative hero, Ronald Reagan, whose optimistic oratory he sought to evoke.
“The sun is rising, and the sun is going to rise to the zenith in America” again, Kasich said at one point, recounting his advice to residents of an Ohio community whose economy was devastated by job losses during the recession.
Kasich, 63, became the 16th prominent Republican to enter the 2016 field. As a two-term governor in a critical swing state he is a credible candidate, although his late entry means he has catch-up work to do.
In ignoring Obama, the governor may have missed an opportunity to gin up enthusiasm on the Republican right— a constituency that is already suspicious of him because of some of his moderate policy positions, including his expansion of Medicaid under Obama’s health law.
“This is about the future and bringing people together,” John Weaver, Kasich’s chief strategist, said after the speech, asked about the omission. “Barack Obama is not on the ballot.”
The governor is not nearly as wellknown as other candidates; polls show about 2 percent of Republicans back him. A critical early test for Kasich, analysts say, will be whether he can raise those numbers enough to land a spot in the Aug. 6 Republican debate in Cleveland, in his own backyard. But it may be too late; only the top 10 candidates in polling will make the cut.