Out of nowhere, Kasich the quiet achiever spoils billionaire’s party

SENIOR Republican Party figures determined to stop Donald Trump pinned their fading hopes on John Kasich after the Ohio governor won a stunning victory in his home state.

The mild-mannered Mr Kasich, 63, emerged as an unlikely potential nemesis for Mr Trump after running a relentlessly positive campaign in which he refused to engage in personal insults or inflammatory rhetoric.

In a university gymnasium in Berea, Ohio, Mr Kasich looked close to tears as he told jubilant supporters: “I have la- boured in obscurity for so long. But I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land.”

During the campaign the governor touted his record of turning a massive budget deficit in Ohio into a surplus and creating 400,000 jobs, saying he could do the same for the country.

As he appealed to voters’ “common sense and decency” senior figures in the party lined up behind him. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, campaigned for him.

Polls had Mr Trump and Mr Kasich tied before voting started but the governor won easily by 11 percentage points. Ohio was considered key in the race because it is one of a handful of states that awards all its delegates to the winner, rather than proportionally.

The governor said: “I’ve dealt him (Mr Trump) a very, very big blow to being able to have the number of delegates. Nobody’s going to get enough to win. When we get to the convention the delegates are going to have to figure out who can run the country, who has the record, and who can win the general election. Neither Donald Trump nor Ted Cruz can win a general election. If you can’t win Ohio, you can’t be president.” Mr Kasich has pinned his hopes partly on polls that show him faring far better than any other Republican candidate against Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head contest. He also said he believed some of the late-voting states such as Pennsylvania, Maryland, Wisconsin, Connecticut and California, would favour him.

Mr Kasich has hired two political operatives who worked on the last contested Republican convention in 1976.

In a video message Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Republican governor of California, said: “John Kasich, my dear friend, congratulations, I’m so proud of you.”