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A dark-horse candidate is surging to a strong finish in New Hampshire
(Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), center.
Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) performed better than expected in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.
With about one-quarter of precincts reporting, Kasich is standing in second place behind declared primary winner Donald Trump. He had about 15% of the vote.
Fox News, NBC, and ABC have all projected that Kasich will finish in second.
The Ohio governor — a moderate outsider who has been competing with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), US Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) for one of the runner-up finishes — placed eighth in the Iowa caucuses with 1.9% of the vote. But his campaign invested significant resources in New Hampshire.
Senior Kasich campaign strategist John Weaver said in a statement:
Governor Kasich is now the leading governor in the race and the only one with a realistic chance at the nomination. He showed that a conservative with a positive message will succeed and, in fact, that's the only way for Republicans to win the White House. As the governor of Ohio he knows how to do it.
And Kasich campaigned hard in the Granite State. He made the most appearances in the state out of any Republican candidate, The New York Times noted this week.
It's unclear, however, whether the New Hampshire success will mean much for Kasich in the long term.
As The Times pointed out:
Though a number of past presidential nominees have gained momentum from a strong showing in New Hampshire — among them, Ronald Reagan in 1980, George Bush in 1988, McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012 — all had a national organization far superior to those of Kasich and Christie.
In a speech on Tuesday night, Kasich thanked his supporters.
"We were 1% in the national polls and people said, 'how could you ever win,'" Kasich said. He then talked about people sleeping in campaign offices and eating food from hot plates.
"That's how you win elections," Kasich said. "That's how you do it."
Kasich made clear that he's staying in the race.
"When the media kept saying, 'well how are you going to do this?'" he said. "You know what I said? I said, 'I have an insurance policy.' It's you. It's all of you."
He continued: "There's magic in the air with this campaign. ... We see this as an opportunity for all of us ... to be involved in something that's bigger than our own lives. To change America."
Kasich also pushed his message of positivity.
"We have had tens and tens of millions of dollars spent against us with negative advertising," Kasich said. "We never went negative because we have more good to sell than to spend our time being critical of somebody else. And maybe, just maybe ... we are turning the page on a dark part of American politics because tonight the light overcame the darkness of negative campaigning."
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