Ohio Gov. John Kasich is urging Republican delegates to the GOP convention to vote their conscience when selecting a presidential nominee.
In an interview with a Cleveland television station, Kasich said he probably would not set foot inside the Republican convention despite his efforts to bring it to his home state over the past several years.
“Somebody asked me what I thought about should they [delegates] be bound or should they be able to vote their conscience, I said I think they should be able to vote their conscience,” Kasich told Cleveland’s ABC affiliate. “I mean if I were a delegate, that’s the way I would feel. But that’s a decision for them to make.”
The effort to let delegates unbind themselves from presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump has been pushed by anti-Trump Republicans. In order to be successful, the convention’s rules committee would need to include a “conscience clause” when it writes the 2016 nominating rules, which would allow delegates who cannot vote for Trump in good conscience refuse to do so.
Kasich said he does not anticipate any disruption at the convention, but also noted he would not be scrapping his political team when asked whether he will attempt another presidential campaign four years from now.
“I’m not shutting my political operation down,” Kasich said. “I’m not going to close any doors. I’m not making any final decisions.”
And his team does not yet seem to have given up on 2016. On Tuesday, July 5, his campaign distributed an email about “Kasich’s ongoing popularity in national polls.” And on Friday, June 29, a campaign email from Kasich’s chief strategist John Weaver noted that “Kasich was the very best candidate to defeat Hillary Clinton.”
But Kasich appears more interested in laying the groundwork for a 2020 campaign than another shot at the White House in this cycle. He said he would look to ramp up his job as governor, travel the country stumping for House and Senate candidates, and go on a book tour.
The convention begins in Ohio on July 18.
