John Kasich

“Close allies of John Kasich have reached out to prominent GOP donors to gauge their interest in backing the Republican Ohio governor against President Donald Trump in a possible 2020 showdown,” CNBC reports.

“Kasich has not decided whether he will run for president in 2020, but Republican megadonors have indicated to his top political lieutenants that they are willing to back him over Trump under certain circumstances.”

“A Democratic wave this fall could indicate to donors that a change is needed at the top of the party.”

Gov. John Kasich told CNN he is “unlikely” to challenge President Trump in 2020 as an independent.

Said Kasich: “Am I going to run as an Independent? No, I’m not even thinking about that, It’s unlikely, but when you have options on the table, all options are on the table, right?”

Gov. John Kasich’s (R) “return to New Hampshire this week is likely to get widespread media coverage as a significant milestone toward what many view as his inevitable 2020 presidential campaign,” the Columbus Dispatch reports.

“Kasich’s ‘fireside chat’ Tuesday evening at a college near the state capital of Concord is his only public event… But there will be opportunities to reconnect with the network that propelled him to a second-place finish behind Trump in 2016, as well as connect with new potential supporters disgruntled with Trump.”

Gov. John Kasich (R) said that the Republican Party has “never been my master” and that “all of my options are on the table” for 2020, Politico reports.

Asked if he was ruling out running against President Trump as an independent, Kasich told reporters, “All of my options are on the table. But I’m a Republican, I’m a conservative, and I just want to add to the public debate and do a good job.”

Gov. John Kasich’s (R) inner circle “is gearing up for a possible presidential run in 2020 — actively weighing the prospect of a Republican primary challenge to President Donald Trump against the feasibility of a long-shot general election campaign as an independent,” Politico reports.

“And there’s one consideration driving their thinking perhaps more than any other: what some of his advisers consider the very real, maybe even likely, possibility that Trump doesn’t run again — by choice or not — or that the president becomes so politically hobbled by late next year that the political landscape fundamentally shifts in Kasich’s favor. That’s one reason Kasich has yet to decide whether to pursue an independent bid or a primary challenge.”

Gov. John Kasich’s (R) “brand is built around the idea of ‘two paths’ for the Republican Party: one for center-right pragmatists like him, the other for flamethrowers like Donald Trump,” BuzzFeed News reports.

“But as the Ohio governor considers a rematch with Trump in 2020, he is weighing two more-tactical paths. Does he challenge Trump, the sitting president, in primaries where Kasich won’t find much institutional GOP support? Or does he leave the party, go down a route littered with ballot-access hurdles and fundraising challenges, and run as an independent?”

“Sources close to Kasich’s political team have told BuzzFeed News in recent weeks that both options are in play.”

President Trump tore into Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), a GOP rival and potential 2020 primary challenger, at a RNC dinner last night, Politico reports.

“The president went after the Ohio governor several times by name, according to three people who were present. The president mocked Kasich, who is being termed-out of office and fell short in the 2016 GOP primary, and described him as one of his loudest and most relentless critics.”

Gov. John Kasich will return to New Hampshire in April, the Concord Monitor reports.

The news “will once again fuel rumors that he’s considering another White House bid in 2020.”

New York Magazine: “Kasich 2020 is not just a media proposition. Kasich is a sitting governor exploring a run against a president of his own party — a starkly unusual circumstance. He retains a skeletal campaign staff, and they are helping him to think through his options: Should he run as a Republican in the primaries or as an Independent in the general election?”

“A primary run is plausible, strategists say, if Trump’s approval ratings among Republicans fall below the high 70s, where they’ve been, and Democrats prevail during the midterms, signaling a loosening of the stranglehold of the far-right base on the party. A third-party run is optimal if the major-party candidates represent ideological extremes. Kasich has not declared he’s running, and everyone I spoke to preempted their hypotheticals with caveats. In the Trump era, two years is an eternity…. But among the party’s intelligentsia, all agree there is a common wish that the White House be occupied by a different Republican.”

Gov. John Kasich (R) “is taking a subtle but significant step toward a possible 2020 presidential campaign. The Republican governor of Ohio met privately Thursday with several national security and foreign policy experts,” BuzzFeed News reports.

“The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share details, described the discussions in Columbus as the first in a series of meetings on domestic and foreign policy and aimed at keeping Kasich current in global affairs.”

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) sidestepped questions about whether he thinks President Trump should face a primary challenge in 2020, Politico reports.

Said Kasich: “I don’t have any plans to do anything like that. I’m rooting for him to get it together. We all are. I mean, we’re only, like, seven months into this presidency.”