Politics

Is John Kasich plotting his third run for president?

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is plotting his third run for president, a year aā™“fter he outlasted a crowded Republican field of contenders challenging Donald Trump for the nomination, New York magazine reported.

Kasich, whose term in Ohio ends in 2018, has kept a skeletal campaign staff from last year’s race and they’re helping him decide whether he should pursue a primary run as a Republican or as an independent in the general election in 2020, the magazine said.

He denied he’s “plotting” a run, saying “that’s just not where my head is right now” during an interview Sunday on “Fox News Sunday.”

But he told the magazine the Republican Party needs to update its platā™šform.

“I think we need to be pro-environment,” he told New York for this week’s edition. “I think we need to completely redo education. … Look, I loved Ronald Reagan. I met Ronald Reagan. But Reagan was then. Now we gotta move on.”

A persistent critic of the president’s coarse tone, Kasich told the publication that Trump’s election and the failure of Republican leaders to publicly condemn his actions is a “momentary lapse of reason.”

He said he would represent a different viewpoint, insisting he wants to restore “basic principles of caring, of love, of compassion, of connectedness.”

“There has to be a fundamental change, in my opinion, with all of us. I’m willing to be part of that. I want my voice to be out there. I want it very, very much,” he said.

Butš„¹ criticizing the commander-in-chief is one thing, launching a Republican challenge to a sitting president is another.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican, lashed out at Kasich, saying, “His behavior is not that of a regular Republican.”

He’s also been criticized in his home state for being a RINO ā€” Republican in Name Only ā€” after he supported expanding Medicaid, a move that put him at odds with GOP hardliners.

Kasich, who stayed in the Republican presidential primary race until he was the last challenger, would be most effective as a counter to Trump, said John Weaver, who ran the governor’s campaign, and continues to advise him.

“He’s going to be a happy warrior about how to move forward. He’s constantly counseling me to be on the sunny side of the street,” Weaver told the magazine.