Kasich Drops Out of Race, Trump Considers Him for VP

DULLES, VA — Ohio Gov. John Kasich dropped out of the presidential race on Wednesday. That leaves Donald Trump alone as the only Republican still campaigning ahead of the party's national convention in July.

The decision comes after GOP frontrunner Donald Trump won big in Indiana Republican Primary, leading Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to suspend his campaign. Kasich, who finished third, never campaigned in Indiana, focusing his efforts instead on the western states.

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Late Tuesday, Kasich's campaign put out a five-point memo via Facebook outlining why Kasich would stay in the race until Trump actually achieved the necessary number of bound delegates: 1,237. His campaign envisioned a convention battle after the first nominating round, and saw Kasich as the candidate who would emerge.

And Wednesday morning, Kasich's campaign sent a fund-raising appeal at 10:16 a.m., reports the Columbus Dispatch. He planned to meet with the USA Today editorial board after his Virginia news conference.

But Kasich never left Columbus, the Dispatch reports.

Many GOP establishment figures dreaded the prospect of a convention fight as much as they recoiled at the idea of Trump as their nominee. For months, they've been maneuvering to support Cruz and Kasich in their efforts to thwart Trump down the final stretch of primaries.

With Trump's convincing Indiana win, Cruz's immediate withdrawal and today's news that Kasich is ending his campaign, too, it appears the conservatives and party regulars have resigned themselves to Trump and the wishes of their own voters.

A Tuesday Rasmussen Reports poll conducted before Indiana's vote showed that a majority of Republican voters believed Cruz and Kasich should both drop out.

While anti-Trumpers were licking their wounds Wednesday morning, Kasich's own foes in Ohio were taking fresh aim at the Ohio governor.

Ohio Democratic Chairman David Pepper issued this statement.

“Since last March, Governor John Kasich has spent more than 200 days out of state, pursuing his presidential ambitions and ignoring the needs of the people of Ohio. Our state has trailed the national average in job growth for 40 straight months. Our public school system has plummeted from fifth in the nation to 23rd. Eight of our 10 biggest cities are economically distressed, and there are more Ohio kids living in poverty today than there were at the height of the Great Recession back in 2008. It’s time that Ohio had a governor who was actually doing something about all of that, rather than gallivanting across the country."

Cruz dropped out of the race with 565 pledged delegates to his name. Kasich had a lowly 153. Kasich's performance in the primary elections was so poor, he still trailed behind Marco Rubio in the delegate count. Rubio dropped out of the race on March 15 after he lost his own home state of Florida.

Kasich's repeated dismal showings in the primaries prompted this satirical video on The Stephen Colbert Show, posted Wednesday morning to YouTube.

Kasich billed himself as the sober adult among the contentious contenders for the GOP nomination, which last fall included 17 candidates. He counted on his record in Congress and his accomplishments as Ohio's governor to set him apart from a host of people who either had little to no experience in government at any level or were polarizing ideologues.

Alas, Kasich could only win one primary state — his own Ohio — with 46.8 percent of the vote to Trump's 35.6.

Kasich declined to attack his rivals throughout the primaries and for the most part avoided the mud-slinging and name-calling that Trump inspired. He tried to position himself as the grownup who could work across the aisle, the serious governor who understood the nation's problems. But his message didn't inspire in a year where disaffected voters responded to Trump's clarion call of vague, populist rhetoric.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, calling for party unity, made sure to call Trump the "presumptive nominee" immediately after his Indiana victory. His message to all Republicans: Get past your disgust and fall in line.

Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president, and the party's top officials are going to throw their support behind him.

In spite of Kasich saying that he had no interest in becoming Vice President, presumptive nominee, Donald Trump says he would be interested in vetting Kasich to be his running mate.

[Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons]