John Kasich

He is the son of Anne (née Vukovich; 1918–1987) and John Richard Kasich (1919-1987), who worked as a mail carrier.

Kasich's father was of Czech descent, while his mother was of Croatian descent.

Both his father and mother were children of immigrants and were practicing Roman Catholics.

He has described himself as "a Croatian and a Czech".

A political ally of Kasich remembers him during that time as a persistent campaigner: "People said, 'If you just quit calling me, I'll support you.'" At age 26, Kasich won with 56% of the vote, beginning his four-year term representing the 15th district.

Kasich was the second youngest person ever elected to the Ohio Senate.

One of his first acts as a State Senator was to refuse a pay raise.

John Richard Kasich Jr. (born May 13, 1952) is an American politician and author who was the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001, and a Republican candidate for the presidential nomination in 2000 and 2016.

Kasich was born and grew up in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, and moved to Ohio in 1970 to attend college.

After attending public schools in his hometown of McKees Rocks, Kasich later left his native Pennsylvania, settling in Columbus, Ohio in 1970 to attend Ohio State University, where he joined the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.

As a freshman, he wrote a letter to President Richard Nixon describing concerns he had about the nation and requesting a meeting with the President.

The letter was delivered to Nixon by the university's president Novice Fawcett and Kasich was granted a 20-minute meeting with Nixon in December 1970.

Earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Ohio State in 1974, he went on to work as a researcher for the Ohio Legislative Service Commission.

From 1975 to 1978, he served as an administrative assistant to then-state Senator Buz Lukens.

In 1978, Kasich ran against Democratic incumbent Robert O'Shaughnessy for State Senate.

Republicans gained control of the State Senate in 1980, but Kasich went his own way, for example, by opposing a budget proposal he believed would raise taxes and writing his own proposal instead.

In 1982, Kasich ran for Congress in Ohio's 12th congressional district, which included portions of Columbus as well as the cities of Westerville, Reynoldsburg, Worthington, and Dublin.

He won the Republican primary with 83% of the vote and defeated incumbent Democratic U.S. Congressman Bob Shamansky in the general election by a margin of 50%–47%.

He would never face another contest nearly that close, and was re-elected eight more times with at least 64 percent of the vote.

During his congressional career, Kasich was considered a fiscal conservative, taking aim at programs supported by Republicans and Democrats.

He worked with Ralph Nader in seeking to reduce corporate tax loopholes.

Kasich was a member of the House Armed Services Committee for 18 years.

He developed a "fairly hawkish" reputation on that committee, although he "also zealously challenged" defense spending he considered wasteful.

Among the Pentagon projects that he targeted were the B-2 bomber program (teaming up with Democratic representative Ron Dellums to cut the program, their efforts were partly successful) and the A-12 bomber program (ultimately canceled by defense secretary Dick Cheney in 1991).

Kasich was a key figure in the passage of both 1996 welfare reform legislation and the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

Kasich decided not to run for re-election in 2000 and ran for president instead.

He withdrew from the race before the Republican primaries.

After leaving Congress, Kasich hosted Heartland with John Kasich on Fox News from 2001 to 2007 and served as managing director of the Lehman Brothers office in Columbus, Ohio.

He ran for governor of Ohio in 2010, defeating Democratic incumbent Ted Strickland.

After a single term in the Ohio Senate, he served nine terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio's 12th congressional district.

His tenure in the House included 18 years on the House Armed Services Committee and six years as chairman of the House Budget Committee.

He was re-elected in 2014, defeating Democratic challenger Ed FitzGerald by 30 percentage points.

Kasich ran for president again in 2016, finishing in fourth place in the Republican primaries behind Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

He won the primary in his home state of Ohio and finished second in New Hampshire.

Kasich declined to support Trump as the Republican presidential nominee and did not attend the 2016 Republican National Convention, which was held in Ohio.

Kasich was term-limited and could not seek a third gubernatorial term in 2018; he was succeeded by fellow Republican Mike DeWine.

From 2019 to 2023, Kasich was a CNN contributor.

Since March 2023, he has been an analyst on NBC News.

Kasich is known as one of Trump's most prominent critics within the Republican Party, and he endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for president in a speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

John Richard Kasich Jr. was born and raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania.