The Baltimore Sun has endorsed Ohio Gov. John Kasich for president one day ahead of Maryland’s Republican primary.
The paper offered scathing criticism of Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, and appeared to endorse Kasich by default.
“[C]ompared to Mr. Trump and Senator Cruz, neither of whom has come close to demonstrating the skills or the temperament to serve as leader of the free world, Mr. Kasich has offered genuine statesmanship — if only by refusing to wallow in the trough of name-calling and extremism that has so captured his opponents,” the Sun’s endorsement explained. “It should come as no surprise that polls have consistently shown that Mr. Kasich has a better chance of winning in November than the vulgarian New York developer with a frighteningly poor grasp of foreign policy or the Princeton debater and preposterous Ronald Reagan poseur with a demonstrated inability to work with others, Democratic or Republican, and who promises more of the same if elected.”
The Sun is one of the largest newspapers in terms of circulation in the Old Line State, and its endorsement comes at a crucial time for the Ohio governor.
Kasich has made a last ditch effort with Cruz to stop Trump, which includes pulling his resources out of Indiana ahead of next week’s primary so that Cruz may have a better chance of prevailing. The Ohio governor, meanwhile, will focus on Oregon and New Mexico where Cruz has agreed to step out of Kasich’s way.
While the Ohio governor insisted on Monday that his agreement with Cruz is not a ‘big deal,’ his chance of sparking a contested and open convention may only come if Kasich and Cruz’s plan succeeds.
