The Chicago Sun-Times endorsed Josh Kasich for the Republican nomination for president Saturday in a fiery editorial attacking Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump’s America is a place that goes soft on David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan,” bellows the Times’ editorial board.
“Trump’s America is not our America, and we trust it is not yours,” the editorial continues. “God forbid the Great Vulgarian should ever make it to the White House.”
The Times sees Kasich as a longshot at this point, but urges readers to support him anyway.
“We urge a vote for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, knowing perfectly well that his odds of winning the nomination are remote. At least you’ll be voting for the biggest grownup in the room,” the editorial board writes.
The board notes that voting for Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz is “acceptable” in the face of Donald Trump’s candidacy, but distrusts their preparedness and suitability for the office.
“Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida lacks experience and judgment, as evidenced in the way he has stooped to Trump-like schoolyard taunts. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas went to Yale but can’t spell the word compromise, which is why he’s all talk and no action in Washington,” the board notes.
Cruz actually went to Princeton University and Harvard Law School.
The Illinois Republican primary is March 15, and carries 69 delegates. That relatively large number reflects the state’s status as the fifth most populous state. Also voting on the 15th are heavily-populated Ohio and Florida, the home states of Kasich and Rubio.
If those candidates hold their home states, Illinois would become more important for Trump.
Trump leads Rubio 33 percent to 17.5 percent in the latest RealClearPolitics average of the state. Kasich comes in last at 11 percent.
