CATONSVILLE, Md. — John Kasich on Wednesday pressed his case that a contested Republican convention would nominate him despite his poor performance in the primaries because of polls showing he is the strongest candidate against the Democrats in the fall.
The Ohio governor was making his first swing through Maryland ahead of the state’s April 26 primary, and was being shepherded around by supporter and GOP former Gov. Bob Ehrlich. The Democratic-leaning state is crucial for Kasich, as it offers him one of his best opportunities to boost his delegate haul ahead of the July convention in Cleveland.
“We’ll spend time in Baltimore, we think it’s a place where we will accumulate delegates and be able to head to that convention with some momentum,” Kasich told reporters during a campaign swing here, just after mingling voters at a ice cream shop. “It will probably be very wide open, it’ll be transparent, and when voters, or when delegates finally take the floor, they will be extremely serious.”
Kasich visited Catonsville’s quant main drag, just outside of Baltimore, before heading south down I-95 to Savage, near Washington, D.C., for a town hall meeting.
The governor is well regarded and the data projects that he would easily beat Democrats Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in the general election. But that hasn’t translated into success in primaries and caucuses across the country. Kasich has won just one state — his own — and he still trails Marco Rubio in delegates even though the senator exited the race four weeks ago.
New York businessman Donald Trump remains the front-runner, with 743 delegates, followed by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas with 545. Kasich’s count stands at 143 (Rubio is at 171.) Maryland is worth 38 delegates, earned statewide and via congressional district.
Of the three remaining active candidates, only Cruz appears to be doing the legwork to install convention delegates that would be loyal to him and prepared to support him in a multi-ballot floor fight. That could be a problem for Kasich, who readily acknowledges the mathematics of the remaining primaries leaves a contested convention as his only path to the nomination.
“It’s a process, you have to talk to my guys. I’m not involved in that,” Kasich said, when asked to give his assessment of his delegate gathering operation. “I just don’t get into that.”
Kasich has hired capable Republican consultants to advise his delegate strategy. But he got a late start and is resource-challenged. Much the same could be said for Trump, minus the lack of available funding. The governor said his biggest challenge is getting his message publicized and introducing himself to voters and delegates. He used an analogy about soft drinks to discuss the hurdles in front of him.
“My path to the presidency is to keep telling people what my message is and go from a situation where we have Coke, Pepsi and Kasich and now all of a sudden it’s like, Coke, Pepsi and Kasich, but people are still trying to figure out whether they like the brand because now they’re beginning to see more,” he said. “Maybe now people will make a decision to actually be for me.”
