John Kasich’s presidential campaign claims the end of Marco Rubio’s bid is nearing.
Kasich campaign chief strategist John Weaver released a memo criticizing Rubio’s long-term viability in an apparent effort to push back against those pressuring the governor to leave the race. Weaver criticized Rubio for not winning an early nominating state, but Kasich has failed to win yet as well.
“With a primary map front-loaded in a way that should help Sen. Rubio, he is under major pressure to begin picking up a substantial number of delegates beginning tonight in Nevada,” Weaver wrote. “Failure by Sen. Rubio to exit the SEC primary without a big delegate lead will spell the effective end of Sen. Rubio’s campaign because the primary map becomes far less favorable to him, even including his home state.”
Weaver argues that Kasich is uniquely positioned to succeed in a “long-term” battle and will fare best in a general election match-up.
“Conversely, Gov. Kasich has wisely marshaled and targeted his resources in a far more strategic way,” Weaver wrote. “As the campaign moves to the bigger, Midwestern states, the Kasich campaign will be able to take advantage. This steady strategy may frustrate the media and establishment types in Washington who want to appoint Sen. Rubio today, but it’s the voters who choose the nominee and not the elites.”
Kasich is on the campaign trail in Georgia on Tuesday, rather than Nevada where the Silver State will caucus for the Republican Party. When reporters asked about his decision to skip Nevada, Kasich grew testy.
“So why are you not in Nevada?” a reporter asked.
“Well because I’m in Georgia,” Kasich replied. “I like Georgia.”
“The Nevada caucuses .. ” the reporter began.
“Yeah but at the caucuses are different,” Kasich interrupted. “That’s a different beast so we’ve been putting our time in places like Vermont, Massachusetts, Virginia, now Georgia.”
Kasich ranks fourth out of five candidates still running for president in the Washington Examiner‘s newest GOP presidential power rankings. His comments about the Nevada caucus suggest he likely does not expect to perform well.
