LIMA — With Ohio Gov. John Kasich trailing front-runner Donald Trump and fellow challenger U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for the Republican presidential nomination, questions have been posed as to why the governor is continuing to campaign. One lawmaker from his own state has also voiced doubts as to whether Kasich can win this fight.
U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, voiced his thoughts on the Kasich campaign during a recent visit to The Lima News, a sister newspaper of the Sidney Daily News. With Kasich already mathematically eliminated from reaching the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination before the party convention coming to Cleveland in July, Jordan could not see a path to Kasich becoming the party’s candidate for president.
“The rules are that you’re supposed to have won eight states, so I guess I’m wondering why the governor continues to stay in, in light of the fact that he’s won one and the polling I’ve seen doesn’t show that he’s going to get to eight,” he said. “It seems to me there’s no chance for him to be the nominee. Frankly, he’s got less delegates than [U.S. Sen. Marco] Rubio, so I’m not understanding what that’s all about. I think a lot of other Republicans are asking the same question.”
That eight-state requirement, however, was the rule during the 2012 convention, according to Allen County Republican Party Chairman Keith Cheney, who spoke to local Republicans at a party luncheon on Friday at the Lima Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge.
“Those rules change every four years,” he said. “The Republican National Convention rules committee meets a week before the convention. That committee then determines what the rules for the convention will be, and they always go back to the most recent set of rules as a starting point, but then they decide from there the rules for the convention. So none of us knows exactly what rules are going to cover our convention.”
Because of that, Kasich still has a chance to become the nominee, according to campaign spokesman Chris Schrimpf, banking on polling that suggests he is the best chance to beat the Democratic nominee.
“No candidate will have a majority of delegates before the convention,” he said. “At the convention the delegates will decide two things: Who can actually beat Hillary [Clinton] and who could actually do the job of being commander in chief. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz would both lose to Hillary Clinton handily and cost us the U.S. Senate as well. John Kasich leads her by 11 points. So the delegates will decide if they want to win the White House and keep the Senate or lose both.”
