This week Ohio Governor John Kasich returned to New Hampshire for the umpteenth time, but this trip was to “promote his book.”
While New Hampshire is a beautiful place, the market for book promotion is miniscule in a state of less than 2 million.
You go to New Hampshire for two reasons, either to run for President or vacation at the beautiful “North Country” or Lake Winnipesaukee.
And according to WMUR, this isn’t the last time Granite Staters will see him:
“I’ve got a feeling I’m going to be coming back here a lot because I made some real friends here,” the Ohio governor told reporters after delivering a speech about his new book and answering questions at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
Translation: when Kasich says “real friends” he means GOP primary voters and when he says ‘a lot’ he probably means quite frequently after the midterm elections.
Kasich has been anything but a fan or ally of the President. He’s been quite critical of Trump since they were rivals on the 2016 campaign trail and he hasn’t let up. The trip to New Hampshire and Kasich’s willingness to take jabs at Trump has stoked speculation that the moderate governor who prides himself on being a problem solver might challenge his sitting party’s president.
Today he’s not ruling out a run:
Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Friday refused to rule out running for president on Friday but said it’s “unlikely.”
“In terms of politics, I don’t know what the future brings, but I know it’s in front of me,” Kasich told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington.
Kasich said that even after he leaves the governorship, he plans to raise money and keep a team of advisers and consultants in place so that he can remain active politically and vocal on policy issues. But he insisted that that effort, and the new book he’s now promoting, is not to set up a presidential bid.
That team of advisers and consultants is lead by John Weaver, who’s regarded as one of the sharpest political minds in the business. In addition to advising Kasich’s 2016 run, Weaver was the mastermind behind the historic McCain comeback in the 2008 GOP presidential primary and Rick “One Tough Nerd” Snyder’s meteoric rise to the governorship in Michigan. The Texas-based consultant’s incredibly active on Twitter promoting Kasich, showing his disdain for Trump, and contrasting the two executives who couldn’t be much more stylistically different.
Weaver’s three most recent tweets:
Kasich says a future bid’s unlikely and he doesn’t know what the future holds. Well, we’re reading the tea leaves here and bet that “unlikely” is more like a 50/50 proposition for Governor Kasich.
Stay tuned & let us know your thoughts in the comments.
