Ohio’s primary election last Tuesday “wasn’t a good night” for Republicans since the party “should be winning by overwhelming numbers” in the reliably red state, Gov. John Kasich said.
In an interview aired Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” Kasich decried the state of the Republican Party, and declared Tuesday’s “message from the voters” was “you've got to stop the chaos and you've got to get more in tune and stop alienating people and try to figure out how do families do better.”
GOP House candidate Troy Balderson currently holds a razor-thin lead over Democrat Danny O’Connor as provisional ballots are being counted.
“The Republican Party has never been for protectionism,” Kasich said. “The Republican Party doesn't support a notion that, that families shouldn't be held together. The Republican Party never supported the notion that we should ring up debt and put our kids in… debt by doing things that are not responsible. The Republican Party has never believed that we should walk away from our allies who have helped us keep the peace since World War II.”
“These positions are — they don't even resemble the Republican Party.”
Kasich argued he won overwhelmingly in his reelection bid by appealing to a wide swath of voters.
“I expanded Medicaid,” he said. “I never bashed [former President] Barack Obama the whole time I ran. I won 86 out of 88. That's, like, unheard of. … Everybody needs to win, from the top to the bottom. And our party is not, they're not saying that.”
Kasich also reacted to recent Fox News primetime commentaries, including from host Laura Ingraham, that have riled critics as being nativist.
“This kind of language of division it is not, is not helpful to us,” Kasich said.
He also said he was as yet undecided on whether he’ll launch a presidential run in 2020.
“I really don't know what I'm going to do,” he said. “Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. I don't know.”