Four years ago, John R. Kasich considered not considering voting for Donald J. Trump for president, yet he could not bring himself to cast a vote for Hillary Clinton – he wrote in Arizona Senator John McCain.
Not this time. Mr. Kasich, a lifelong Republican who has spent decades in politics – as governor, congressman, governor of Ohio and presidential aspirant – will become the most prominent leader of his party to cross the partisan division and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to support., Speaking at this week’s Democratic National Convention, and then voting for this fall.
“I did not want to vote for anyone else,” Mr Kasich said in an interview before his speech on Monday night. ‘I just did not want to do it this time. I did it last time. You know, I’d always hoped, even after the convention and the election, that we might see a change in the presidency, but we just never did. I accidentally thought it was the soul of our country that was being damaged, and that is what I was worried about. “
Mr. Kasich is an unlikely speaker at a Democratic convention. As a once-throbbing young Speaker of the House of Commons budget, he embarked on maniacal energy on a budget-cutting mission as part of Newt Gingrich’s Republican revolution in the 1990s and later clashed with trade unions as governor allied with the Conservative Tea Party. Party in the 2010s. But in recent years he has strayed from the sharper edge of politics, focusing on issues of poverty and mental illness and even breaking with conservatives to expand Medicaid as part of President Barack Obama’s health care law.
He was the last man to stand between Mr. Trump and the Republican nomination in 2016 and has spoken out against him periodically for the past four years, even though most of his Republican colleagues signed up for the president’s team as if he remained silent.
Mr. Kasich notes that his opposition to the president is not driven by sour grapes.
“I have no personal anger or anything against him, I just do not do it,” Mr Kasich said. ‘It’s nothing to take personally. I just do not agree with the whole approach, and I am deeply concerned about our nation. I think if we continue this, I’m worried about how we’ll ever recover. ”
Mr. Trump has largely ignored Mr. Kasich’s defection, not interested in getting more attention for a leading Republican supporter Mr. Biden. “He fits in well with all Democrats,” said Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for Mr. Trump.
Not all Democrats think he will fit in, as he should. For some left, the party abandoned its principles by portraying a Republican whose positions on abortion, Social Security, labor and other issues are in conflict with Democratic Orthodoxy. Among the Democrats polled by CBS News, only 38 percent want Mr. Kasich to speak at the convention, compared to 72 percent for Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and 63 percent for Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, two Liberal champions who also get airtime.
“The party should focus on encouraging Democratic voters instead of using its convention to assure billionaires, business donors and Republican lobbyists that they will not really try to challenge the status quo,” said David Sirota, a former spokesman. for Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, who also spoke Monday night.
Mr Biden and his allies argue that Democrats should welcome everyone in their fight to remove Mr Trump from the White House, and that a purity test would be self-destructive.
“It’s great to see Kasich as a speaker at our convention,” said former Gov. James J. Blanchard of Michigan, a Biden delegate and a Democrat, because Mr. Kasich “represents that group of independent and moderate Republicans.” Mr. Biden is looking to win.
How much Mr. Kasich can attract other unaffected Republicans to support the Biden campaign is up for debate. He decided this time to run against Mr. Trump for the Republican nomination, a concession for the president’s command over the party. ‘Could not win. It’s a non-starter, ”he said of such a challenge. “There was no way to get traction.”
Mr Kasich said he remains a Republican and acknowledged that he has deep similarities with Mr Biden on issues, but said individual policy differences are less important than the broader crisis facing the country.
“Someone needs to start being ready to break this tribalism,” he said. ‘I don’t think I will achieve that, but someone needs to start. Someone needs to be able to start saying, ‘No, you need to take off your partisan hat, and you need to realize that we are Americans.’ ”
“With Biden, who I have known for a long time, I just think he has the ability to be patient and bring people together and try to solve some of our big problems by having a dialogue,” he added. hy. ‘Nothing great was ever achieved in this country, where we fight with each other as we are now, nothing. And important things can be achieved if there is respect from all sides, despite some fundamental differences. “
