Former Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is following “the same format as 2020,” predicting Democratic rival Kamala Harris could win the White House race if Trump plays the same old tune keeps singing.
“If this becomes a battle of personality, his personality versus hers, he’s going to lose,” Kasich said a Friday performance on MSNBC. “If it’s a battle about ideology and records, he has a chance to win it.”
Kasich — a Trump critic who once met him during the 2016 Republican primaries — said the former president is “so interested in all the cheering and everything from his people. But I never thought that you win elections just by going to your base and not being able to reach other people.”
Asked whether the Trump campaign has a chance “to win this election by trying to appeal to the middle of America,” Kasich suggested it “just makes perfect sense” to look beyond the Republican base.
“If you’re just trying to engage with your base, what about those undecided voters, especially in these battleground states where the race is so close?” Kasich said.
A Cook Political Report investigation Wednesday’s publication shows that Harris is leading or tied with Trump in six of the seven battleground states.
Kasich noted that Democrats, however, have a “vulnerability” in their messaging when it comes to pushing a vision for the future, and wondered, “Where have they been the last three years?”
But he said that “Trump is not taking advantage of it.”
Kasich added: “He’s bored with things that are critical here. That’s why he goes off script.”