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Kasich plans campaign stop Sunday in Columbiana County
No other presidential candidate has confirmed a visit to the area
YOUNGSTOWN
With less than a week before the primary in Ohio, the state’s governor, John Kasich, is the only presidential candidate with a planned campaign stop in the Mahoning Valley.
Kasich, who will be on a statewide bus tour in the days leading to Tuesday’s primary, will stop Sunday at the Spread Eagle Tavern and Inn in Hanoverton in Columbiana County. The doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the program will go from 6 to 7 p.m., said Mark Munroe, Mahoning County Republican Party chairman and an alternate Kasich delegate.
The location is owned by Columbiana County Republican Chairman Dave Johnson and has been a popular stop for federal and state Republican candidates and officeholders.
“The campaign rally is part of a bus tour the governor is taking,” Munroe said. “I imagine turnout will be great.”
The last time Kasich stopped at the historic tavern was Nov. 1, 2011, in the days leading to the successful repeal vote of a bill he signed into law to restrict the bargaining rights of public employees.
There are no scheduled stops in the Valley as of late Tuesday for the three other Republicans and the two Democrats running for president.
Until recently, Kasich has spent little time in Ohio while he campaigned in other states with primaries and caucuses.
But with the Ohio winner-take-all-delegates primary – which Kasich has said he must win or he’ll get out of the presidential race – on Tuesday, he is focusing his attention on his home state.
Kasich campaigned Tuesday in Cleveland and spoke in Columbus at night. He is to return to Ohio on Friday in Moraine, near Dayton. His campaign website lists Saturday events in Mansfield and Heath.
Billionaire real-estate developer Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner, also is campaigning in Ohio with events Saturday in Cleveland and Dayton. There are no plans for him to come to the Valley.
The two other Republican presidential candidates – U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas – aren’t expected to visit Ohio as they are focusing on other states with primaries also on Tuesday. Polls show Ohio’s Republican primary to be a two-man race between Trump and Kasich.
After Republicans select a presidential nominee, Munroe expects that person to campaign in the area.
“We’ll see the presidential candidate for the general election,” he said.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton, a former U.S. senator and secretary of state, has stops scheduled in Ohio this week. She was in Cleveland on Tuesday and will return there Saturday. She and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the other Democratic presidential candidate, will be at the state party’s dinner in Columbus on Sunday.
There’s an outside chance that Clinton could make a quick visit to the Mahoning Valley, but nothing is scheduled.
“I haven’t heard anything about either [Clinton or Sanders] coming to the Valley,” said David Betras, the county’s Democratic Party chairman. “There are so many states in such a short period of time for the candidates to visit.”
Betras, a Clinton delegate, said, “I know for sure before the general election she’ll be here. I’d bet the house on it.”