Ohio Gov. John Kasich, one of the many GOP contenders in last year’s Republican presidential primary, says he may leave the party if it doesn’t get ‘straightened out.’
‘If the party can’t be fixed, Jake, then I’m not going to be able to support the party. Period. That’s the end of it,’ Kasich said Sunday to CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Kasich, who has built his brand around being a straight-talking, problem fixer – and sometimes a thorn in President Trump’s side – said he wanted to wrestle the party back toward the center, away from the Steve Bannon-influenced, nationalist wing.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Sunday that he would leave the Republican Party if it didn’t get ‘straightened out’
![CNN's Jake Tapper (left) asked John Kasich (right) about Roy Moore's win in the Alabama GOP primary. More broadly, Kasich suggested he would leave the party if it became too right wing](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/10/01/23/44F0CE6A00000578-4939268-image-a-3_1506896994533.jpg)
CNN’s Jake Tapper (left) asked John Kasich (right) about Roy Moore’s win in the Alabama GOP primary. More broadly, Kasich suggested he would leave the party if it became too right wing
This week Bannon’s worldview won out in Alabama, with candidate Roy Moore winning over sitting Sen. Luther Strange, R-Ala., in a run-off contest between the two GOP hopefuls.
Strange, who was selected by the governor to take over the seat vacated by now Attorney General Jeff Sessions, was branded as being too cozy with the GOP establishment on Capitol Hill, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
And despite receiving Trump’s endorsement, Strange was routed by Moore, who had Bannon and Nigel Farage, who helped engineer ‘Brexit,’ appear alongside him during the run-up to election day.
Speaking to Tapper on State of the Union, Kasich expressed that he didn’t support Moore.
In the past Moore has made controversial comments about gay Americans and abortion.
‘I don’t run the party,’ Kasich said. ‘I can tell you, for me, I don’t support that. I couldn’t vote for that.’
Kasich didn’t sound like he planned to simply register for the other party during his talk with Tapper.
The Democrats, the Ohio governor suggested, were also lost.
I have ‘no idea what the Democrats are for,’ Kasich said.
‘What I’m trying to do is struggle for the soul of the Republican Party the way that I see it,’ Kasich said. ‘And I have a right to define it, but I’m not going to support people who are dividers.’