Donald Trump may be attacking his GOP rivals and calling Hillary Clinton “the worst secretary of state” to the benefit of his campaign, but Ohio Gov. John Kasich says that’s a tactic he won’t employ.
The lesser-known Republican presidential hopeful recently told National Journal that he prefers discussing his own track record and policies on the campaign trail as opposed to “spending [his] time attacking other people.”
“If I’m talking about someone else, I’m not talking about me,” Kasich reportedly said. “I would rather [voters] know what my record is and my passion is.”
Despite the media attention Republican candidates like Trump, Rick Perry, Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie have received for lambasting Clinton and other GOP contenders, Kasich says attacking other people “doesn’t get me anywhere.”
“Frankly, it’s not what people want. They want to know: Do you have a record, do you have solutions, can you lead?” he said, adding that “it’s a lot more important for me to cement that down than getting people hooting and hollering.”
According to National Journal, two-term governor will not only avoid criticizing rivals within his own party, but will also forego inveighing against Clinton and other Democratic candidates. He reportedly stuck to that promise during a number of town hall meetings in New Hampshire last week.
Sure enough, the no bad-mouthing strategy could be helping Kasich in the Granite State. According to one local news outlet in New Hampshire, the Ohio Republican’s town halls “have become standing room only events.”
In the latest Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll, Kasich is in third place among New Hampshire voters with 12 percent support — just one percentage point behind former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
