Ohio Gov. John Kasich, struggling to keep a foothold in the Republican presidential race, stopped in Minneapolis on Tuesday to raise money for his campaign.
Kasich did not appear in Minnesota ahead of the state's presidential caucus earlier this month, and finished a distant fifth. But the winnowing of competitors since then to businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has Kasich trying to build support and funds from a broad swath of Republicans unhappy with the other two choices.
"The fact is I'm the only governor left standing, and the one with the most foreign policy and domestic policy experience," Kasich said in a brief news conference at the Minneapolis Club, where he held the lunch hour fundraiser. He also cited polls showing him as the Republican likely to do best against the Democratic front-runner in November.
"I'm the only candidate according to all the polls who can beat Hillary Clinton, which I think is what our purpose was," Kasich said.
The fundraiser was Kasich's only stop in Minnesota. He also used his news conference to comment on the unfolding situation in Brussels, Belgium, where several bomb attacks left at least 34 people dead early Tuesday.
"Today is a sad day for the civilized world," Kasich said. He criticized President Obama for not canceling his trip to Cuba in response, and said as president he'd boost U.S. intelligence capabilities to more effectively take on ISIL, which claimed responsibility for the attack.
Former Minnesota Congressman Tim Penny, a DFLer-turned-independent, introduced Kasich at the fundraiser. Penny and Kasich were often cross-party allies while serving together in Congress in the 1990s, and Penny is backing Kasich's bid this year.
Tom Horner, a public relations executive and former Minnesota Republican operative who was the Independence Party candidate for governor in 2010, was advertised as a co-host of the event as was Hubbard Broadcasting CEO Stanley Hubbard, and others. A number of familiar faces from Republican political circles and the business world also streamed into the private fundraiser.
Kasich's campaign did not reveal how much was raised. Tom McGill, a Minnesota-based fundraising consultant for Republicans, said the guest list was a mix of longtime Kasich supporters, and more recent converts who had been supporting other candidates and thus may not yet have reached federal donation limits in donations to Kasich.
Horner said Kasich talked about his path forward in the race, with Trump currently holding a delegate lead and Cruz in second.
"He said he believes the three candidates will go into the Republican convention without anyone having a majority of delegates," Horner said. That would deny Trump a first-ballot win, and after that, "he believes the conversation at the convention shifts to who can win in the fall," Horner said.
Horner said he is personally unwilling to vote for Trump or Cruz in November. He's uncertain what he'd do if either is the party's nominee.
Trump and Cruz respectively were favored to win Tuesday night's Republican contests in Arizona and Utah. But Kasich said he is looking ahead to bigger prizes like Wisconsin's primary in two weeks, and the California primary on June 7.
"We're going to go forward and compete in all the remaining states and the convention will be nothing but an extension of this political process," Kasich said.
Patrick Condon • 651-925-5049
