If John Kasich wants to be president, he should stop alienating conservative voters. The Republican governor of Ohio (until Jan. 14) is openly considering a primary challenge against President Trump but just vetoed a key piece of anti-abortion legislation.
Kasich vetoed legislation that would have made it illegal to abort an unborn child with a detectable heartbeat, a bill which would have effectively limited abortion to the first couple weeks of pregnancy.
“As governor I have worked hard to strengthen Ohio’s protections for the sanctity of human life, and I have deep respect for my fellow members in the pro-life community and their ongoing efforts in defense of unborn life,” Kasich wrote after vetoing the legislation. “However, the central position of [the bill], that an abortion cannot be performed if a heartbeat has been detected in the unborn child, is contrary to the Supreme Court of the United States’ current rulings on abortion.”
And with that statement, whether he knows it or not, Kasich may have hamstrung himself.
When it comes to abortion, evangelicals know one thing about Trump: He fights. Now they know Kasich doesn’t do the same. The Ohio Republican who would be president thinks it a better idea to defer to the opinion of nine lawyers in black robes who, ruling on erroneous constitutional grounds, made it legal to cut an unborn child from her mother’s womb.
This is the clearest distinction between the two men. The Midwestern son of a mailman doesn’t have the stomach for a fight over one of the issues that matter most to evangelicals. The thrice-married New Yorker, the one who beds porn stars and brags about dodging venereal disease, does.
When Trump addressed the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List at their spring gala, the president received standing ovation after standing ovation. The man didn’t matter. The policies did, and Trump has shown himself to be the most pro-life president in history, more than former President Ronald Reagan and certainly much more than former President George W. Bush.
Trump made a deal with those conservatives and Trump delivered. He has addressed the March for Life. He has appointed two ostensibly pro-life Supreme Court justices. He has flexed his executive authority to stop domestic tax dollars from paying for international abortions.
Meanwhile, Kasich shrugged.
This is a mistake for Kasich. Evangelicals should be the demographic easiest for him to pick off during a primary. They don’t like Trump’s boorishness on Twitter. They don’t like Trump’s carnal adventurism. They don’t like being embarrassed. Evangelicals voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton 80 to 16 percent and should be the voting bloc most likely to reconsider.
For the second time, though (he vetoed similar legislation two years ago), Kasich has decided to forgo conflict. He may have forgone his presidential ambitions.
