Kasich considering options including another presidential run

COLUMBUS

Outgoing Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Thursday that he’d prefer to run for president as a Republican, but only if he’s entering a primary he could win.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Kasich acknowledged he probably couldn’t defeat President Donald Trump if the election were held today.

He says he’s seriously considering his options and letting his advisers monitor the daily troubles Trump is facing, including talk of impeachment.

“If you’re going to run as a Republican you have to have a sense that if you get into primaries you can win. Right now, probably couldn’t win,” he told the AP. “But that’s today. It’s ever changing.”

Primary challenges against incumbent presidents are rare but not unprecedented. The last time it happened was in 1992, when Republican Pat Buchanan unsuccessfully challenged President George H.W. Bush. Twelve years earlier, Democrat Ted Kennedy mounted a challenge to President Jimmy Carter.

Kasich, leaving office after eight years because of term limits, has previously made two presidential runs. Should he enter the Republican fray in 2020, it would put in play his electorally critical home state, which Kasich won resoundingly in the 2016 primary against Trump and others.

Kasich said he’s been told there’s money around the country for a run but acknowledged that fundraising would be a factor.

“If you’re not around the hoop, you can’t get a rebound,” Kasich said. “So we’re hanging around the hoop, and we’re very serious about this. How would we not be?”

“It’s not like I wouldn’t do it,” he said of a potential run. “You can’t be afraid to do it.”