Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who leaves office next week, hesitates when asked if he still considers himself a Republican.
“Well I’m certainly a conservative,” he told BuzzFeed News. “A creative conservative, on the order of a guy like Jack Kemp, or my newest big fad is Teddy Roosevelt.”
According to BuzzFeed, Kasich, who penned a column to be published next week, will argue that if GOP members “keep their heads buried in the sand like they’ve been doing and (are not) willing to generate new ideas, they going to disintegrate as a political party.”
“I think the Republican Party, my best view of it now is it’s kind of in a stupor,” he said.
Kasich has not decided whether to make another bid for president – either as a Republican or as an independent, BuzzFeed noted. And it said he offered no opinion of the Republican National Committee’s efforts to discourage a primary challenge to President Donald Trump.
Kasich has hinted he might make an announcement about his future on Monday, his last day in office.