COLUMBUS (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is bringing his campaign to Ohio ahead of the state’s important March 15 primary.
Trump is scheduled to appear Tuesday at a hangar at Port Columbus International Airport. It marks his second campaign stop in Columbus, where GOP rival John Kasich is governor.
Kasich has repeatedly said he’s confident he will win his home state, despite some polls showing Trump prevailing. Kasich is scheduled to spend next week in Massachusetts, Vermont and Michigan.
The chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, which has endorsed Kasich, issued Trump a mock welcome, suggesting “only winners” would be allowed at his “yuge, beautiful” event and if “losers, basket cases, choke artists, (or) sweaty people show up, they will be deported.”
Kasich’s advisers are downplaying the idea he wants a brokered GOP convention against Donald Trump. It surfaced in a New York Times story this weekend about Republican efforts to stop Trump.
Kasich senior strategist John Weaver says the campaign isn’t floating the idea. Instead, he says, the campaign plans to take Trump after March 15, when he expects Kasich to win Ohio and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio to lose his home state of Florida.
Even with an Ohio win, Kasich will face an uphill climb for convention delegates, more so if Trump sweeps the Super Tuesday states this week.
Asked whether his positive message has yet to translate into significant support from voters, Kasich says it’s because he’s still relatively unknown to voters.
Over the weekend, Kasich denied reports that 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney had asked Kasich to drop out of the race.