COLUMBUS – It appears as though Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s decision to announce his run for the Republican presidential nomination right before the party’s first scheduled debate paid off. A surge in the polls has allowed him to join the top 10 candidates FOX News said would be on the stage Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland
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The Washington Post and realclearpolitics.com reported early Tuesday morning that Kasich was 10th in a Bloomberg News poll, which was the most recent prior to the deadline when the cable channel said it would choose the participants.
According to the newspaper and the website, Kasich won 4 percent of the vote in the Bloomberg poll, tying him with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The website’s average of five polls listed Kasich 10th, with an aggregate average score of 2.8 percent, between ninth-place Christie (3.4%) and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in 11th-place with 2.0 percent.
Kasich announced his candidacy July 21 on the campus of The Ohio State University and, while some speculated he made the leap too late to make the debate field, others predicted exactly the opposite: That a surge following the announcement would vault him into the field of 10.
Billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker claimed the top three spots in realclearpolitics.com’s rankings.