early and often

Kasich Blocks Trump, Wins Ohio

Presidential Candidate John Kasich Holds Campaign Rally At USS Yorktown
John Kasich. Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg Finance LP/Getty Images

While Marco Rubio lost his home state and quickly exited the race on Tuesday night, John Kasich’s campaign will survive. With 95 percent reporting, the goveror leads his home state with 47 percent, Donald Trump has 36 percent, Ted Cruz has 13 percent, and Marco Rubio has 3 percent. Where Kasich goes after winning Ohio is unclear, but a loss in his home state would have turned the GOP nomination fight into a two-man race between Trump and Cruz.

In a call to CNN, Kasich said he’s “in the best position” to beat Hillary Clinton in the fall, and predicted that he “may go to the convention before this is over with more delegates than anyone else.”

Just after Kasich took the stage to address his jubilant supporters, a protester brandishing a Trump hat disrupted the event. Kasich stepped away from the podium briefly to watch as security escorted the demonstrator out, then joked, “You know, when you went to college in the 1970s, you enjoy a good peaceful protest every once in a while.”

I will never take the low road to the highest office in the land,” Kasich promised. “We’re going to go all the way to Cleveland to secure the Republican nomination!”