Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, has insisted he is not positioning himself to run in 2020 against President Donald Trump, who he has oft-criticized and did not vote for, but his actions loosely suggest otherwise, according to Politico.
The most telling of the moves is a book set to be released later this month "Two Paths: America Divided or United," published by Thomas Dunne Books, and an almost immediate start of a book tour in the battleground state of New Hampshire, of all places, per the report.
"He wants to continue to be a voice in the process," ally Matt Borges, the former Ohio Republican Party Chairman, told Politico. "He has said he doesn’t intend to run for political office again, and frankly I believe him."
The book and tour start is "setting the bait a little bit" on exposure for a 2020 run, though, Borges admitted to Politico.
"It helps give him a megaphone for the issues that he wants to be talking about right now," he added, per the report.
Amid the current White House tumult, it does not hurt for a Republican alternative to President Trump's agenda to stay in the public eye.
"The easy answer is he developed a nationwide network of people, especially in New Hampshire and the early states – he's staying in touch with them," Kasich's senior adviser in the failed 2016 primary run against Trump, Charlie Black, told Politico. "He's not going to run against Trump or anything like that, but if there was an open seat he might.
"He's keeping the options open."
Kasich has to tread lightly against President Trump, however, because of his White House's propensity to go after those who oppose him – and Black added "it's not practical to run against a sitting president, and nobody's going to give him money for that."
"It's typical parlor-room gossip," Black told Politico.
If circumstances change, or the clouds over the White House "darken," Kasich's anti-Trump voice is at least out there.
"Obviously, I'm a diehard, if he said let's [run] again, I'd be there," Tom Rath, a Kasich '16 strategist, told Politico. "I don’t see it.
". . . He's taking exactly the right position: Let's remind people that there's more to the Republican Party than the narrow brand coming out of Washington."
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