COLUMBUS – The presidential campaign of Gov. John Kasich took some roundhouse punches on Super Tuesday but the long shot candidate didn’t hit the canvas.
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While finishing with less than 5 percent of the vote in five states, Kasich finished a strong second to Donald Trump in Vermont with 30 percent of the vote and tied for second with Marco Rubio in Massachusetts with 18 percent.
With primaries in Kasich’s home state looming, his next move appears to be to challenge the Florida senator more directly.
“Twice as many Rubio second-choice voters go to Kasich than to Trump,” read an election-night statement from Kasich’s chief strategist, John Weaver. “Rubio’s presence in the race is keeping Republicans from consolidating around Governor Kasich – and as the race moves toward states more fertile for Governor Kasich this dynamic can be expected to become more pronounced.”
Kasich picked up 25 delegates with large states like Florida and Illinois looming on the calendar, as well as Ohio on March 15. His campaign claims polls show he is in a better position to halt Trump‘s advance in Ohio than Rubio is in Florida.
Trump campaigned in Kasich’s backyard Tuesday, rallying at a hangar at Port Columbus International Airport before a crowd of roughly 4,000 people, accompanied by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Kasich has repeatedly said he’s confident he will win his home state, despite some polls showing Trump prevailing. A speaker priming Tuesday’s crowd for Trump’s speech said the billionaire mogul was prepared to “embarrass Kasich” and win his home state.
The chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, which has endorsed Kasich, says increasing numbers in the GOP leaders in the state are saying they’ll never vote for Trump.
Trump won seven of the 11 states in which Republicans voted on Tuesday, not a sweep but another dominant performance nonetheless. He charged past days of insults from Rubio and intense criticism from leading Republican officials across the nation. The strong performance adds to his delegate lead, and the unfortunate reality for GOP leaders is that his grasp on the party’s presidential nomination is growing stronger by the day.
Democrat Hillary Clinton had a strong showing in the South on Super Tuesday, and she’ll use those contests to build an advantage over rival Bernie Sanders that will be difficult to overcome. When added to her massive lead among the party’s superdelegates, Clinton is now in as strong a position to win the Democratic nomination as she’s ever been.
Her sweeping victories in large states like Texas, Virginia and Georgia give her an edge that is reminiscent of Barack Obama’s delegate lead over Clinton in the 2008 primaries. Obama used a South Carolina victory to build momentum in Super Tuesday and never relinquished his advantage. Clinton is poised to do the same.