John Kasich has showcased a softer side to himself recently at public events. He stopped again during an event late Wednesday to hug a woman in the audience who had shared a tragic story with the presidential candidate.
While taking selfies and giving handshakes are practices often employed by politicians mingling with voters, the Ohio governor has taken to embracing audience members he thinks could use a hug.
Kasich paused a town hall in Holland, Mich., after a woman in the crowd followed up a question about balancing Ohio’s budget to share a story about her 16-year-old son, who committed suicide three days ago. Kasich said her story was indicative of a bigger trend he has seen recently while on the trail.
“People come to these meetings, a lot of people who have no one to turn to. They’re lonely,” Kasich told the crowd in response to the woman’s story.
The governor made news two weeks ago in Richmond, Va., when he first hugged an audience member of a town hall after she told him she had lost five family members through suicide. Kasich had responded by sharing his story, telling the audience his parents died in a car accident when he was a child.
Then a week later on Feb. 29, Kasich was again confronted while attending a town hall at Clemson University in South Carolina by a young man who said he had lost a friend to suicide recently. Kasich paused the event to hug the man.
The Wednesday event finished on a similar note: Kasich embraced the woman who had shared her story and asked the crowd to pray with him for her.
