Madison Brief:  OPINION

John Kasich’s race for the presidency is now in the hands of his beloved Ohioans.

And the future of the Republican Party is now in the hands of John Kasich.

Kasich is a former nine-term Congressman and current two term Governor of Ohio, where six out of ten voters, or 62%, approve of his performance.  Real Politics recently found that, in an average of ten national polls,  Kasich would beat Clinton by  a 7.2% margin.

Still, Kasich is only  a few percentage points up on Donald Trump in today’s Primary. So what gives?

Kasich received little attention early in the presidential race, evidenced by his placement on the outskirts of the debate stage.  While the media was fawning over the latest antics of Donald Trump, Kasich was slowly making his mark by being the capable, experienced, positive, folksy candidate .  He challenged Trump’s message of “Make America Great Again” by saying that he believed  “America IS Great”, but that we could do better if we stopped thinking of ourselves as Republicans and Democrats and started thinking of ourselves as Americans.  No mud slinging for Kasich.  He wanted to win on his experience and his ideas.

But Kasich’s national obscurity cannot be wholly blamed on the media.  Kasich never received the early support of the Republican establishment and donor class.  Wooed by the notion that Jeb Bush was their best bet as an establishment candidate, Bush received a total of $119 million in individual donations and $34 million in PAC money.  In contrast, Kasich, as of March 7, has raised $6.8 million in individual donations and $8.7 in PAC money.

So now Bush is out, Trump is ready to walk away with the nomination, and Kasich — the most qualified centrist Republican among them — is not only fighting for his candidacy, he is fighting to keep the tenets of republican conservatism alive.

If he wins Ohio, there cannot be anymore wavering from the Republican establishment.  Tomorrow morning, they need to lead — they need to endorse and fund the candidacy of John Kasich as their last hope to stop Trump.  If he remains in the race, and has the support of the establishment Republicans behind him, the Republican Nomination for President of the United States will inevitably go to a contested convention.  And given the party’s distaste for Trump — and Cruz — Kasich will prevail in Cleveland because he is their best chance for winning the presidency.

Ohio is often referred to as the Mother of Presidents because seven U.S. presidents were born there, and an eighth president once considered it his home.  With a win today, perhaps Ohio will be able to add one more favorite son to its illustrious list.