Are You Ready For Senator John Kasich?

[SirLinksALot]

SOURCE: HOTAIR

URL:https://hotair.com/archives/2018/01/05/ready-senator-john-kasich/


No? You’re not? Well, good news: Neither is Kasich, apparently. But the idea of two big-name Trump-hating Republicans entering the Senate next year is tantalizing. Mitt Romney’s seat in Utah is his for the asking while Kasich would have a heavy lift trying to unseat Sherrod Brown in Ohio, but he’s a two-term governor with universal name recognition. It’s not unthinkable that he’d win. Imagine POTUS sending critics Jeff Flake and Bob Corker into retirement … only to have them replaced by the far more prominent Romney and Kasich. What a nightmare for the White House.

But let’s back up. Why is anyone suddenly mentioning Kasich for Senate in the first place? It’s because Republican Josh Mandel, the frontrunner for the GOP Senate nomination, suddenly pulled out of the race today due to his wife’s illness. Mandel’s a Marine turned state legislator turned treasurer of Ohio. Just 40 years old, his margins of victory have been comfortable in every race he’s won. His lone defeat came to — ta da — Sherrod Brown in 2012, although Mandel did well under the circumstances. At the age of 34, he lost to Brown by six points in a year when Obama won the state and the presidency.

In theory, with Trump in his corner and no presidential candidates on the ballot to drive Democratic turnout, he’s have stood a better chance at knocking off Brown next year. In practice, with Trump broadly unpopular and a Democratic wave shaping up, he might have been dead meat. And that might have ended his political ambitions for awhile; a two-time Senate loser isn’t someone the party’s likely to want to gamble on again. So he’s passing to attend to family matters.

Now the GOP needs a candidate. Who you gonna call? Republicans have a deep bench in Ohio but the obvious choice is a man who’s already won statewide and was sufficiently popular at home last year to win the Ohio primary over Trump, despite POTUS’s eventual rout of Hillary Clinton there in the general election.

Kasich is a centrist in a purple state, the sort of politician who seems well positioned to appeal to independents who find Brown a bit too stridently left. He has legislative experience too, having served nearly 20 years in the House. And he’s available to run, as he’s term-limited as governor. If I’m not mistaken he’s never lost a race in Ohio, including the 2016 primary. He’d be a strong play against Brown.

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[Sanguine]

Gaaag!  No!

[Cripplecreek]

A question for the voters in Ohio to decide I guess.

[dfwgator]

Is he running as a Democrat?

[cato potatoe]

If he can unseat Brown, then obviously yes, we can deal with him.