Kasich: Ohio race results a message to Republicans to ‘stop the chaos’

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) said Sunday that a hotly contested special election in which a Democrat nearly won in a reliably Republican district should serve as a message to the GOP to  “stop the chaos.”

Kasich said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that last Tuesday was not a good night for Republicans even though Troy Balderson (R) is clinging to a narrow lead in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District. Republicans have held the district for decades.

“What you had is a, I think, a message from the voters to the Republicans that you’ve got to stop the chaos and you’ve got to get more in tune and stop alienating people,” said Kasich, who represented the district from 1983-2001.

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He pointed to Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separation of thousands of migrant families and President Trump’s tariffs on allies and China that have raised concerns of a global trade war.

“These kinds of messages, plus the overall chaos here, the chaos overseas… people just want the government to do its job, to improve the situation for them,” Kasich said. “Not to be on the front page and creating a chaotic environment all the time. They don’t want that.”

Kasich, an outspoken critic of Trump and former GOP presidential candidate, has said he believes last week’s special election was essentially a referendum on the president, since neither of the two candidates was particularly memorable.

Even though there are still ballots to be counted, Trump and other Republicans declared victory in the race. The president took credit for Balderson’s win, pointing to his appearance at a rally just days before the vote.