Kasich Makes Cut In First Televised Debate

The regions big margins for George W. Bush in 2004 helped lift him to the narrow Ohio victory he needed for re-election. “It sort of felt like you sat down and then you were just getting back up”, he said.

For Republican activists in a party stronghold of swing-state Ohio, Thursday night’s first major presidential campaign debate in Cleveland will be must-see TV as the GOP starts deciding which candidate to support, volunteer for and write checks to.

His qualification for the national debate gives him credence with donors. In a Tuesday interview, Trump said he’s been defying expectations all his life. Debate sponsor Fox news will allow only the top 10 finishers on the stage, a criteria some Republican leaders in the Granite State have criticized as too exclusionary.

“It’s only fitting that this phase of the Republican presidential nomination begins in Ohio – the mother of presidents”.

So far for Kasich, his approach has paid off. He moved from virtually non-existent status in national polls of the Republican primary to consistently in the top 10, overtaking Perry.

Kasich was re-elected there with 64% of the vote last year and enjoys a 60% approval rating in the state.

“We have complete, 100 percent confidence that we’re going to [win Ohio] again”, said Kirstin Alvanitakis, the communications director for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Governor Rick Perry received the same question that destroyed his 2012 campaign: “What federal agencies would you eliminate?” He’s the only Republican governor – in a race with four other current or former governors that faced the decision – to have expanded the program.

Majority Ohio will also be advertising around the site of the debate in order to spotlight these candidates records on women’s health. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and the more moderate Ohio Gov. John Kasich as candidates most likely to separate themselves philosophically on the main-debate stage.

But Kasich was re-elected in November 2014 in a 30-point landslide.

Kelley thinks if Kasich gains momentum nationally, Ohio Republicans will rally behind him.

Voters in his home state describe him as “gritty”, “edgy”, “voluble”, “unorthodox”, and as everything from a “maverick” to a “rebel” to a “jerk”. During the five-minute segments with New Hampshire radio host Jack Heath, the candidates emphasized the need to repeal Obamacare and took shots at President Barack Obama and Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton.

“Those guys came as close to a sound of the Beatles as any band I can think of”.

Taylor Hall/for Business InsiderKarl Rove in Cleveland on Wednesday night. Trump, meanwhile, has tried to dampen expectations leading into the debate, noting that he has not participated in such an event before.

“I think that this is a feather in his cap that he announced (his candidacy) a couple weeks ago and he’s now pulled into the top 10″, she said.

Santorum spokesman Matt Beynon called it “incredibly flawed”, based on national polls that are “meaningless” this early in the campaign.

Kasich has already milked the debate for an extra boost in publicity.

“He’s got to press the flesh to do that, and he’s ready to”, Thomson said.

If you want somebody who can communicate with the working class like Mike Huckabee, especially working class Christian conservatives, Kasich is your man. He gets that not everybody is rich and that we have to help those who are struggling in this country. Even without going into the numbers associated with the Electoral College system that determines who inhabits the White House, there’s a clear historical precedent: No Republican has ever lost Ohio and won the presidency.