Why Pence and not Kasich?
According to a recent New York Times Magazine report, it wasn’t for lack of trying by Donald Trump.
In the days following presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate, a feud has developed between Trump and his former rival over whether the ticket ever wanted the Ohio governor to come on board.
The report describes in some detail the process Trump and his advisers undertook in selecting the relatively unknown Hoosier governor. According to the report, Pence’s selection had much to do with Kasich rejecting the offer.
A Kasich adviser told NYTM on the condition of anonymity that Trump’s son, Donald Jr., asked Kasich in May if he had “any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history.” (The younger Donald would later refute this report.)
Kasich effectively removed himself from Trump’s VP list toward the end of May, the report states, telling Trump “a joint ticket would be like two corporations with completely different philosophies and styles trying to merge.”
To that end, Kasich conspicuously did not endorse his party’s presumptive nominee before the convention arrived in Cleveland.
And so there’s Pence, who sat in Trump’s top three (along with Kasich and Sen. Bob Corker from Tennessee) but did not bring presidential-campaign experience or the swing state Kasich would have.
But, as the report states, there was one thing Pence brought that Kasich did not: “he knew how to say ‘yes’ to Trump.”
