COLUMBUS, Ohio – A freshly re-elected Gov. John Kasich told supporters that voters backed his campaign because Ohio’s Republican Party displays a good head and a good heart
EXTRA: Statewide results
The 62-year-old Kasich coasted to a big win Tuesday over Democratic challenger Ed FitzGerald, the Cuyahoga County executive. Kasich captured 64 percent of the vote statewide to FitzGerald’s 33 percent, with Green Party candidate Anita Roos getting 3 percent.
Other Republican statewide officeholders also won re-election.
Before an enthusiastic crowd in downtown Columbus, Kasich said building a party that can serve everyone is part of a movement that can catch on nationally. Kasich is considered a potential presidential contender in 2016.
Kasich ran on his record of job creation and his efforts to rein in Ohio government spending and cut $3 billion in taxes. In his campaign literature he claimed to have created 248,000 new jobs and a $1.5 billion budget surplus while cutting income taxes, eliminating the estate tax and creating the state’s first Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income residents.
“When you look back at the jobs created and the lives lifted over his first term, there is little doubt that Governor Kasich delivered for Ohio and earned the mandate he received tonight,” party chairman Matt Borges said.
Early on in his first term, Kasich was seen as vulnerable after his approval ratings dropped when he lost a 2011 collective-bargaining battle against public employee unions. In Tuesday’s voting, those from union households didn’t punish Kasich, favoring FitzGerald by only a slight margin.
Tuesday’s victory was expected after campaign missteps by FitzGerald, the Cuyahoga County executive, left him seriously behind in polls and fundraising. The weakened campaign was unable to serve as an effective mouthpiece to remind voters of that and push other Democratic issues.
FitzGerald’s troubles and the lack of a U.S. Senate race or any statewide ballot issues were among factors keeping people from the polls.
In his concession speech, FitzGerald called the opportunity to speak with hard-working Ohioans and tell their stories “a privilege and an honor.”
In remarks before a sparse crowd of loyal Democrats in downtown Columbus, FitzGerald said his campaign was waged against the odds and “great concentrations of wealth and power” because of his conviction that the state was not being well served by the current administration. He urged Democrats to continue to push their priorities.