"The Economist" magazine and The University of Virginia's "Crystal Ball" are among the national political prognosticators who say Governor John Kasich and Senator Rob Portman will make a run for the White House. University of Akron political scientist John Green talks about it with ML Schultze of member station WKSU in Kent.
Ohio has a history of being key to presidential hopes, even though it hasn’t seriously run a favorite son or daughter since Democrat John Glenn in the early 1980s.
Now there’s talk of two Ohioans making a run for the GOP nomination. John Green says the position of one of them, John Kasich, got a boost from his huge re-election margin this week, and from policies and speeches that sometimes go their own way.
“He’s a little bit different than your typical Republican governor, and that might stand him in good stead in what looks like a very crowded field in 2016.”
In his speeches, Kasich often blends faith and a call to reach out to people who are poor or in other personal struggles. Green says that plays to an important segment of the GOP.
“The Republican Party has a number of different constituencies, one of which is a group of very religious people who care a lot about the role of faith in politics. That’s not just limited to abortion. It also covers economic and foreign policy issues as well.
“Of course another part of the Republican party are economic conservatives who appreciate free market approaches, also the idea of reforming and making government more efficient.
“Gov. Kasich often combines appeals that might work to all those constituencies when he talks about the role of faith in his administration and the need to reach out to those who are needy – he sometimes puts it as ‘those who are in the shadows’ – because of poverty or drug abuse or mental illness.”
Take this stump speech Kasich delivered in Canton a few weeks ago.
“I think the good Lord has created each one of us to fulfill a purpose and that purpose fundamentally is to help make the world a better place. Help heal the world.”
But Kasich isn’t the only potential presidential candidate from Ohio talking about reaching out.
“Even in good economic times, people are going to be falling through the cracks. Someone who’s in the clutches of drug addiction, been in and out of prison, has dropped out of school and has no skills—you can create all the jobs in the world, and it’s not going to help that person.”
That’s Ohio Sen. Rob Portman speaking at a national economic forum. He’s also being spoken of as potential presidential material, and he acknowledged earlier this year he’s thinking about it.
John Green says Portman’s experience counts.
“He has received a lot of attention, partly because of his extensive resume in government, … and partly because he was seriously discussed as a vice presidential option when Mitt Romney was the Republican nominee in 2012.”
If Kasich and Portman both want to run, “it would create some divided loyalties here in Ohio and it would be interesting to see how they might work it out. They can’t both run together because the Constitution requires the president and vice president be from different states.”
And Portman and Kasich both have run into some bumps with key parts of their own party here in Ohio.
“Sen. Portman and Gov. Kasich have at one time or another irritated elements of the Republican base. Portman when he announced he was going to support same sex marriage, largely because a member of his family is gay. But also Gov. Kasich annoyed a lot of conservatives when he supported Medicaid expansion. One of the things you run into when you run for president is you can’t make everybody happy all the time.”
Green expects that at least a dozen other Republicans will be interested in a White House runs, and that favors candidates who are not well known early on, but find a way to break out.
