NEWS

Kasich: Already campaigning for 2020?

Mark Curnutte
mcurnutte@enquirer.com

Ohio Gov. John Kasich made a brief but hard sell to a largely African-American audience Sunday night at the national NAACP convention.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks Sunday night to delegates at the NAACP national convention at the Duke Energy Convention Center.

Speaking for only 15 minutes, Kasich listed his administration's achievements in almost a bullet-point efficiency in a speech before hundreds of NAACP delegates at the Duke Energy Convention Center.

"What we have tried to do as a team in the state of Ohio is create opportunity for every person," Kasich said early in his remarks. "Every human being in made in the image of God."

He opened his remarks by decrying the shootings Sunday of six police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and one in Milwaukee. Three officers in Baton Rouge died, less than two weeks after five police officers in Dallas were killed and seven wounded during a peaceful Black Lives Matter march.

"I know everyone condemns these terrible murders of police officers," Kasich said. "The Lord wants us to work together."

Earlier Sunday, Kasich said he could not legally grant the request by the Cleveland police union to temporarily suspend Ohio's open carry gun law ahead of the Republican National Convention and in the wake of the Baton Rouge police shootings.

The NAACP conducted a moment of silence for slain and wounded police Sunday evening before Kasich's speech.

Kasich, who won only his state as a Republican presidential candidate, broke with tradition by declining to speak at the Republican convention in his home state.

On Sunday night, he said to NAACP delegates, "I wanted to be here today."

Before going into his list of achievements — among which he counted Medicaid expansion and increased state contacts for minority-owned businesses — Kasich said, "It's not enough for some to be the beneficiary" of economic opportunity and prosperity. Recent statistics show the state's overall unemployment rate as 5.2 percent and black unemployment rate at 8.8 percent.

Kasich's list:

Sentencing reform: "We didn't think non-violent felons should be put in prisons next to murderers and rapists," he said. "They belong in the community." The governor also said he learned about the state's network of collateral sanctions and support the movement to "ban the box" in hiring.

Medicaid expansion: "Expanding Medicaid was not a hard decision," he said. Half a million people needed mental health and addiction treatment."

Set-aside program: "The minority community needs opportunity to participate in the business of government," he told the NAACP. In 2015, Ohio finally reach the mark where 15 percent state business was routed to minority-owned companies. Those companies owned primarily by Hispanics, Asian-Americans, African-Americans and other minorities received almost $229 million in services and good for the government year ending June 30, 2015.

Kasich went on, receiving smatterings of applause from time to time, to tout his statewide policy on the use of deadly force and mentoring program for public school students.

He said he was a politician who had accomplished a great deal, not one who was appearing before convention delegates with a to-do list.

"With politicians, there always seems to be some distance between the lip and the cup," he said.

Kasich said he has invited Cornell William Brooks, president and CEO of the national NAACP, to meet with his "people, and maybe some of what we've done in Ohio can become a national model."

In the homespun manner that won him some admirers during his presidential campaign, Kasich freely referenced his faith and spoke of unifying the country.

"We all want our children to do well," he said. "We all want peace and tranquility in our neighborhoods."

He said many societal improvements can be accomplished by simply applying the first two Christian commandments: "Love God and love your neighbor as yourself," he said. "Think about what that means, even if there are some people we disagree with.

"This organization and convention will be watched closely. You can hold people accountable and bring people together. It matters what you are going to say."

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, whom Kasich has not endorsed, declined the NAACP's offer to speak at its convention. Trump's campaign, NAACP executives said, cited the conflicting schedule with the Republic National Convention opening Monday in Cleveland. Trump is polling poorly with African-American and Hispanic voters.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will speak to NAACP delegates Monday at 11:30 a.m., when she is expected to announce a campaign to register 3 million more voters.

Expanding voting rolls and access to the ballot are historically popular with the NAACP. Its legal department is involved in lawsuits against what it says are vote-restricting laws in several states, including Texas and North Carolina. The civil rights organization also says Ohio has restricted the vote, most notably in its decrease of early-voting hours and the sustained effort by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted to purge election rolls.

Kasich did not mention Husted's decision to remove hundreds of thousands of voters from the rolls during his Sunday night speech to NAACP delegates.