Republican presidential candidate John Kasich insisted Tuesday he would not consider running for the vice presidency.
“Zero chance, just stop there, zero chance,” he told Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.,” specifically referencing Donald Trump.
{mosads}“I have no interest,” Kasich added. “I’m going to be governor of Ohio. There is zero chance I will be anybody’s vice presidential candidate — period, end of story.”
The Ohio governor dismissed speculation that a poor showing on Super Tuesday would doom his run, saying he is focusing on winning his home state on March 15.
“I don’t know how much you know about American football, but a lot of things get decided in the fourth quarter, not the first quarter,” he told host Stuart Varney, who is British.
“I’m going to win Ohio, and then as soon as I win Ohio, everybody in this 24/7 news cycle will turn around and say, ‘Let’s talk about John Kasich,’ ” he added. “I mean, that’s just the way it works.”
Kasich said political newcomers like Trump won’t solve the nation’s problems.
“We have a lot of voters who are just picking outsiders because they think the system doesn’t work,” he said. “When they pick outsiders and they don’t fix the system, then they get [angrier] and they pick more outsiders.
“The only way to stop it is to get the attention of these folks and explain to them that if you’re a reformer, and you really do know how to get this done, and you really have produced in the past, and you have a vision for the future, that’s how I believe you peel those voters away.”
Kasich ranks fifth in the Republican field heading into Super Tuesday, according to a RealClearPolitics average of national polls.