Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich said on CNN this week that he doesn’t “see the path right now” for mounting a successful challenge against President Donald Trump in the Republican primary.
Before answering moderator John Berman’s question, however, Kasich touted his many election successes.
“I’ve been in a lot of elections, OK. I ran for the State Senate when I was 25-years-old. Nobody I thought I could win, I thought I could. And I ran and I won. I ran for Congress in a year when not one single Republican other than me defeated an incumbent Democrat. I thought I could do it. I ran for governor without ever having run statewide before,” Kasich said. “I thought I could win. And I ran in 2016 and nobody thought I could go as far as I did, and I did.”
“But I look at this and I don’t see the path right now,” he said of a primary challenge against Trump.
Will former GOP Ohio Gov. @JohnKasich challenge President Trump in 2020?
"I don't see the path right now," he says. "So that doesn't mean there wouldn't be a path down the road, but right now I don't see it." https://t.co/WhArKw8EyT pic.twitter.com/sy9naSaHk8— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) August 28, 2019
“That doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be a path down the road, but right now I don’t see it. It’s a complicated, long answer and if we were in political science class, John, I could answer it for you, but it’s not something I can answer in a few seconds,” he continued.
Kasich has been flirting with the idea of running again in 2020 and kept open the possibility of challenging Trump in a March interview. In December, Trump said he hoped Kasich would challenge him in the primary.
“Be careful what you wish for,” a Kasich spokesperson replied.
Former one-term Illinois congressman and conservative radio host Joe Walsh recently announced that he will run against Trump in 2020. Bill Weld, former governor of Massachusetts, has also thrown his hat in the ring.
Polls show Trump with a massive lead over both Weld and Walsh. In an April poll from Change Research, Trump led Kasich 83 percent to four percent in a potential primary matchup.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “John Kasich-CNN” by Anderson Cooper 360.
