Former Republican presidential candidate John Kasich is set to endorse Democrat Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention next month.
The Associated Press reported that Kasich, the former governor of Ohio, is among the high-profile, disaffected Republicans that the Biden campaign is trying to bring in as a way to eat into President Donald Trump’s base.
Trump, meanwhile, hasn’t done much to expand his appeal, as he’s leaned into culture war issues, like support for the Confederate flag, telling ‘Fox News Sunday’ host Chris Wallace that the symbol isn’t racist.
John Kasich, a Republican who ran for president in 2016 and served as Ohio’s governor, is set to endorse Democrat Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention next month, the Associated Press reported Monday
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has spent the last few months sewing together the Democratic Party after the primary. Now he’s trying to get disaffected Republicans to join his ranks
President Donald Trump, on the other hand, hasn’t tried to expand his base as he’s leaned into culture war issues, like defending the Confederate flag. Trump may be able to excite conservatives, however, if it looks like he can add another judge to the Supreme Court
‘They love their flag, it represents the South,’ Trump said in the interview, which aired in full Sunday.
Prior to getting Republicans on board, Biden has tried to sew up support among members of his own party, especially the Bernie Sanders wing.
Last week Biden released a 110-page policy document that was contributed to by prominent Sanders supporters like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but also Congressional moderates, like Pennsylvania Rep. Conor Lamb.
Trump used the document to bash Biden – both in his ‘Fox News Sunday’ sit-down and during his stream-of-consciousness appearance in the White House Rose Garden last Tuesday.
But the president’s biggest complaint about the Biden-Sanders compact – that it called for defunding and abolishing the police – didn’t exist on the document’s actual pages.
Whether Trump is able to make that argument stick with voters has yet to be seen, but a bigger motivation for Republican voters to stay with Trump could be the prospect of another appointment to the Supreme Court.
The news of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s cancer recurrence will make Supreme Court appointments a 2020 campaign issue.
In 2016, Trump used Supreme Court appointments to woo conservatives who otherwise shied from his brash style.
John Kasich, photographed arriving for an appearance on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ back in December 2019, refused to support President Trump in 2016, though didn’t endorse Hillary Clinton either. He said he voted for Sen. John McCain that year
Kasich, however, was one prominent Republican who never supported Trump.
But he also didn’t endorse Hillary Clinton, Trump’s 2016 Democratic rival.
Instead he voted for Sen. John McCain, the Republicans’ 2008 pick for president, who lost the White House to President Barack Obama.
McCain, who died in 2018, was another GOP Trump critic.
Trump went on to win Kasich’s home state of Ohio, where the 2016 GOP convention was held.
Not a lot of polling has been conducted in Ohio, but the two most recent surveys: a Quinnipiac poll from late June and a Fox News Channel poll from early June had Biden one and then two points ahead, respectively.
Since then, the Trump campaign has invested $18.4 million into advertising in Ohio in the fall, as the state has unexpectedly turned into a battleground again.