By Doug Livingston
Beacon Journal staff writer
Ohio Republicans are in hand-to-hand combat with the Donald Trump campaign and the rest of the GOP, a fight that has implications for both the state and national parties.
It was so bad Wednesday that Trump campaign co-chair Steve Stepanek called on Republicans in the New Hampshire delegation to boycott an event with Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
In an interview on CNN, former presidential candidate and House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Ohio “silly” for its reluctance to climb aboard the Trump train.
And by Wednesday night, the Trump campaign was hastily denying a report by the New York Times and leaks by the Kasich campaign that Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., had attempted to lure Kasich into the vice presidential job, but was rebuffed.
Both sides accused the other of lying.
In the state that often determines the winner, and where polls show voters evenly split, Ohio again is ground zero.
But Kasich and much of the Ohio party leadership aren’t onboard with Trump — and that means the national party, too — and instead are setting the state apart.
In direct conflict with Trump’s messaging on Mexican immigration, the governor visited the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Mexican ambassador.
In a visit to the Michigan delegation in Cuyahoga Falls Tuesday — yes, Michigan, Ohio’s arch football rival — Kasich recited reasons why he loves the state up north. He never mentioned Trump, according to a report by the Detroit Free Press.
As the Ohio delegation was called to cast its vote Tuesday night, all 66 went to Kasich and boos could be heard from the hall. By the time Trump had scored the necessary votes to win the nomination, many of the Ohio delegates had walked out.
Fight escalates
Kasich’s closest allies, including state and local party leaders, stand by their governor. He punched their ticket to attend the convention.
State party chairman Matt Borges, stopped Wednesday by a reporter from the Cincinnati Enquirer, said about the Trump campaign: “We’re dealing with a presidential candidate that is openly hostile toward the governor. One, if he continues to do this, he’s going to lose. And two, this is going to place them in a position that they may not want to be in their careers.”
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, one of the many statewide office-holders mingling with donors, party shot-callers and future candidates, is a likely candidate for governor some day, and he’s also hesitant.
“Donald Trump and the Republican Party have only newly met one another,” he said. “He has not been part of the political process. And frankly, I don’t think he understands the points of view of people who have been out their toiling and working and volunteering” for the party and its candidates.
While Husted said Trump had succeeded in channeling the concerns of displaced workers and apathetic voters, he and others said they want Trump to soften his rhetoric, detail his plans as president and take a more inclusive approach when speaking on immigration and other confrontational issues.
Delegates are watching
Republicans in the trenches are weighing it all.
Mike Budzik, who has supported Kasich for years and campaigned on the ground for him in the cold New Hampshire primary, recognized that the pendulum of political power may have swayed too far from the people.
Ordering a second Bud Light and finishing a late-night supper at a bar inside the Doubletree lobby, Budzik had plenty to think about. His delegation had left the convention hours earlier, having cast all 66 votes for Kasich in accordance with the wishes of the state’s primary voters.
The delegates clapped wildly when chairman Borges announced the votes. Moments later, as Trump’s son put his father over the top and “New York, New York” rang in the billionaire’s nomination victory, Ohio mostly had got up and left.
It was noticed on national television.
Budzik, a delegate from Hocking Hills south of Columbus, understands Kasich’s conviction and unwavering resolve, a “man of his word.”
“He doesn’t twiddle his thumbs,” Budzik said, wiping mayonnaise from the sleeve of his tan jacket.
“But it doesn’t come without controversy,” Budzik said.
Kasich once said he would support whoever won the presidential primary. Whether it is loyalty to his supporters or disgust with the rhetoric of the Trump campaign, he now refuses.
In some other states, the moderates in the party have been booted after a revolt by those tired of politics as usual.
At what cost?
Diana Melnick is an outcast among Ohio Republicans attending the national convention in Cleveland.
She’s no fan of how Gov. John Kasich slashed school spending to erase a budget shortfall five years ago. Her local property taxes shot up to fill the funding gap, she said.
Melnick paid a couple thousand dollars to join Kasich supporters as an “honorary” delegate. She doesn’t get to vote and her contribution to the Ohio Republican Party doesn’t include her room 20 minutes from downtown, where the party loyalists stay, too.
She received one pass to attend the four-day convention, which she plans to use Thursday when Donald Trump accepts the nomination.
Melnick didn’t come for Kasich, or in spite of him. She made the 75-minute drive from Mahoning County to witness history and, as if she could, make sure Trump isn’t denied the nomination, as some delegates have tried to do.
A poll worker who saw record primary turnout among registered Republicans in her precinct, which went strong for Trump, Melnick welcomes a change in American politics.
“I’m happy to have someone who calls it like it is,” she said of Trump, echoing the growing resentment for career politicians and special interests.
“They don’t care about me. They are going to appease their donors, those who gave them thousands of dollars,” she said. “I’m thrilled to have someone who doesn’t work that way.”
She’s critical of Kasich.
“He’s putting Ohio at the back of the line,” Melnick said of how Trump might treat Ohio if elected. “Thank you very much. What, does he want Hillary Clinton to win?”
Call for unity
The loyalists are trying to keep it together.
“I think what Republicans need to do is refine our message and do a better job talking about it because I tend to believe that we have a lot in common with the American voter,” Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor said, countering what one delegate called a “Trump coup of the Republican Party.”
“The Republican Party platform is smaller government, cutting taxes, getting people back to work,” said Taylor, another likely candidate for governor. “Those are the things that matter to Ohioans and Americans and I think as Republicans we just need to do a better job of talking about it.”
Kasich spoke to his own delegation on Tuesday at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ohioans who attended said they heard a message of hope from a man changed personally by months of empathetic listening on the presidential campaign trail. They’d like to see Trump give such a humble speech.
Kasich pushed unity and compassion in order to expand the Republican majority in Congress and lay the groundwork for a possible second presidential bid in 2020. He didn’t take questions from reporters and left Trump out of the informal talk.
Perhaps Ohio’s successful recalcitrance represents something bigger.
As Kasich was scheduled to rally Pennsylvania Republicans at the Doubletree, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan addressed Ohioans in the same building.
Ryan was returning a favor for Kasich’s support of Republicans in tough congressional races.
Ryan praised Kasich’s leadership and made only one reference to Trump at the tail end of the speech.
“We all want the same thing,” Ryan said. “Voting for anybody but Donald Trump is voting for Hillary Clinton.”
Beacon Journal reporter Doug Livingston can be emailed at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com