Ohio Gov. John Kasich stuck to his message of compassionate conservatism during remarks at the Iowa State Fair, speaking more about the Golden Rule than domestic or foreign policy.
Kasich was the last Republican presidential candidate to join the Des Moines Register’s Soapbox Tuesday and in his 30-minute speech he heaped praise on U2 singer Bono for fighting poverty in Africa and said he doesn’t believe “anybody should be left in the shadows.”
The two-term governor, who expanded Medicaid in Ohio and recently defended illegal immigrants as “some of the hardest working, God-fearing, family-oriented people you can ever meet,” has often been dubbed the most moderate candidate in the GOP bunch.
“I am a Republican,” Kasich told Iowa voters. “But the Party has always been my vehicle and has never been my master.”
According to Kasich, the primary goal of his economic policy is to give “people who have mental illness, drug addiction, the working poor, developmentally disabled, the autistic and our friends in the minority community a chance to live out their God-given purpose.”
“No handouts, just a hand up,” he said.
The White House contender, who recently jumped to second place in New Hampshire primary polls, touted his passage of a balanced budget with the Clinton Administration in 1997 as something contemporary politicians should try to emulate.
“You want to deal with immigration? You want to balance the budget? You want to deal with entitlements? You want to do any of those things? You have to do it as a team,” Kasich told voters.
In Ohio, Kasich said he likes to think his role as governor has caused people to feel “that they’re being listened to [and] that they have a chance to get ahead.”
“I think that’s what we want for our country,” he said.
“If we can drive home that we all matter, that we all count, that the strength of this country rests upon us and our commitment to making a difference … we’re not doing this for sainthood,” he said, adding that “life is not just about us alone, life is about doing something bigger in our lives for someone else.”
The governor concluded his remarks by reminding voters of why he decided to run a second campaign for the presidency: “The lord’s been good to me, he’s given me some tools and I have an obligation to use them.”
