John Kasich to quit Republican race, leaving Trump last man standing
Resistance to Donald Trump’s capture of the Republican party was crumbling on Wednesday as even his sole remaining opponent appeared to concede there was no chance of preventing him becoming the party’s presidential nominee.
In chaotic scenes just hours after Trump’s landslide win in the Indiana primary essentially sealed the nomination race, Ohio governor John Kasich cancelled a planned press conference outside Washington DC and prepared what is widely expected to be a concession statement in his home state.
The Associated Press, New York Times, NBC and Politico all reported he planned to suspend his campaign on Tuesday.
In a message to the media, his campaign wrote: “Today’s press gaggle in Dulles has been cancelled. Governor Kasich will deliver a statement in Columbus at 5PM EDT today – location TBD.”
Once confirmed, his decision to suspend his campaign will mark the formal end of the most extraordinary race for the Republican presidential nomination in modern political history and leave Trump with only the Democratic nominee in November standing between him and the White House.
Campaign staff at the cancelled Kasich event at a private jet terminal in Dulles, Virginia, would not confirm for definite what their candidate would say in Columbus, but made clear it was a “statement” rather than another press conference.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic party said: “Since last March, Governor John Kasich has spent more than 200 days out of state, pursuing his presidential ambitions and ignoring the needs of the people of Ohio ... It’s time that Ohio had a governor who was actually doing something about all of that, rather than gallivanting across the country.
“In addition, we hope that the Kasich administration will provide a full accounting of the cost to Ohio taxpayers and Kasich’s campaign will reimburse the state for every single penny that his failed campaign cost the taxpayers of Ohio.”
Kasich spent 18 years in Congress, including six years as chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee, before leaving government temporarily to work as a regional director for failed investment bank Lehman Brothers. Kasich was elected governor of Ohio in 2010 in a close race with an incumbent Democrat and enjoyed home-state popularity measured at record levels in 2015, with 62% of Ohio voters approving of his job performance.
On the stump, Kasich pointed to his crafting of a 1997 balanced budget deal, his work on the House Armed Services Committee and dropping unemployment in Ohio as qualifications for the top office. He was viewed with skepticism by some conservatives, however, for participating as a governor in the expansion of state-funded health care under Barack Obama’s 2010 law.
Some senior Republican officials saw something else they liked: the contrast that Kasich, a methodical centrist with a long track record, drew with Trump and with Texas senator Ted Cruz, who dropped out of the race after his loss in Indiana on Tuesday night. But he failed to gain traction in a year dominated by Trump’s unorthodox candidacy.
More details soon ...
The Guardian - UK