The John Kasich record: What’s behind the launch of the 16th GOP presidential primary campaign

Here’s one reason Ohio Gov. John Kasich is running for president, becoming the 16th Republican to do so: His home state has 18 electoral votes and is a must-win for anyone from his party who hopes to win the White House. Ohio, in fact, is known as a maker of presidents. Eight of America’s 44 presidents have been from Ohio, and the last person to win the presidency without winning Ohio was John F. Kennedy, in 1960.

Kasich, 63, is counting on that history and hoping it gives him an automatic leg up on other midtier candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination, thanks to his relatively strong approval rating there.

Kasich hopes Republican primary voters will factor his Ohio background into their calculations of which Republican is most likely to beat a Democrat. But it’s a strategy with a limited upside. The more obvious factor that likely primary voters will be considering is which Republican has the best chance of beating Hillary Clinton, the former first lady and secretary of state and the likely Democratic nominee. On that question, Ohio’s role in the electoral college is less relevant than the qualities of individual candidates.

Nonetheless, the Ohio home-field advantage is a factor for Kasich. The governor’s spokesman, Chris Schrimpf, rattled through the others in a phone call with Yahoo News on Monday.

“The primary reason he’s running is because he thinks he has a unique experience among the rest of the field, in that he will actually be able to get things done if he gets elected,” Schrimpf said.

“If he chooses to run,” Schrimpf added, keeping up the fiction for one more day that Kasich was still in the process of deciding on a bid, since campaign finance laws prohibit politicians from raising or spending money for a presidential campaign until they’ve officially announced.

Kasich, Schrimpf said, “turned around a major state, which happens to be Ohio, which is really important.”

Kasich also, Schrimpf said, has national security experience from 18 years on the House Armed Services Committee — he served as congressman from 1983 to 2001 — and helped balance the federal budget during a time when the Republican-controlled House was working with Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Governor-elect Kasich in 2010 with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, left, and House Speaker-designate John Boehner. (Photo: Mary F. Calvert/MCT via Getty)

“Some in the race can say they have national security strengths. Some can say they’ve run a state. None have done both and none have helped balance the federal budget,” Schrimpf said.

Kasich also combines a tendency to be a maverick on policy with a charismatic, sometimes volatile personality. He decided to accept the Medicaid expansion in President Obama’s 2010 health care law — which many Republican governors refused — angering many conservatives. He then doubled down on the decision when questioned about it by Randy Kendrick — the wife of Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick — at a meeting of wealthy donors, asserting that he cared about the poor and that those who opposed his decision did not.

“I don’t know about you, lady. But when I get to the pearly gates, I’m going to have an answer for what I’ve done for the poor,” Kasich said.