Rep. Don Young is disappointed that Ohio Gov. John Kasich has struggled to gain traction in the Republican presidential primaries, a phenomenon that alarms the Alaska Republican.
“He’s probably the most qualified to be president,” Young told a local radio host this week. “He just unfortunately doesn’t have the charisma to get people ginned up because they’re not thinking anymore and that concerns me the most. But he’s the one that should have gotten the nomination.”
Kasich has only won his home state of Ohio, leaving Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as Donald Trump’s chief rival in the remaining states. Young’s comments were a terse summation of the frustration that a lot of Republicans feel over how the race has turned out.
Young allowed that he didn’t support Kasich early in the race, either. “I was a Jeb Bush supporter,” he said. “I served with his old man and I knew how good he is, but he never got off first base.”
Kasich is remaining in the race, even though he has been mathematically eliminated from winning enough delegates through the primaries to secure the nomination. But Trump might fail to win enough delegates to clinch the nomination on the first ballot, which could set the stage for a contested convention that favors another candidate.
Former George W. Bush political guru Karl Rove has proposed that Republicans turn to a “fresh face” at a convention fight — someone who did not run in the primary season — a historic conclusion even by this year’s standards.
“It’s too late for that,” Rep. Daniel Donovan, R-N.Y., told the Observer Thursday night. “It’s going to be one of the three people who are running. It’s not going to be a third party person coming in at the end. It’s going to be one of those three.”
