In the week leading up to the Texas Republican Primary, Ohio Governor John Kasich has landed the endorsement of a newspaper square in the middle of the Texas Bible Belt.
The Waco Tribune, in an editorial published on Sunday, said that Kasich’s “insights and experience are tailor-made” for the challenges the nation is facing. The central Texas news outlet cites the governor’s congressional experience during the Gingrich era where the Congress balanced the budget. They went on to illustrate Kasich’s experience as a successful governor in the battleground state of Ohio.
The Waco Tribune’s editorial staff went on to say:
Listening to Kasich’s remarks at a town-hall meeting in Columbia, South Carolina, last week, Wacoans must have been astonished at how neatly Kasich’s priorities matched local challenges, including fighting human trafficking (subject of an engrossing public forum at Antioch Community Church a week ago) and sexual assault on college campuses (something Baylor University leadership has experienced significant problems in addressing).
Forget for a moment that other Republican candidates talk little of such issues. Consider Kasich’s remarks on the need to put the “pimps” behind human trafficking in jail and rehabilitate victims — something Unbound Waco executive director Susan Peters stressed at Antioch. Kasich was no less forceful in condemning sexual assaults on campuses as “a very severe criminal act.” Sadly, some people don’t seem to quite view it this way.
They are not the first new outlet in Texas to express endorsements. Just ten days ago, the Houston Chronicle endorsed the now failed candidacy of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. It is not known if they will move that endorsement now that their chosen candidate has withdrawn. However, from the editorial board’s comments it is clear their endorsement will not go to New York businessman Donald Trump. The Houston Chronicle cited former Texas Governor Rick Perry’s comments that Trump was a “cancer on conservatism.
On the same day as the Houston Chronicle endorsement of Bush as published, The Dallas Morning News threw its hat in the ring by endorsing Governor Kasich. The Dallas newspaper said, “John Kasich of Ohio is one of those pragmatic leaders, a Republican who — to his own present detriment, perhaps, but to the benefit of his constituents — shows more interest in actually governing than in partisan theatrics..
The neighboring Fort Worth Star-Telegram does not appear to have made an endorsement in the presidential race one week through early voting. Likewise, the Austin American-Statesman announced they would not be making an endorsement in the Texas GOP primary.
Not surprisingly, the San Antonio Express-News followed the lead of its sister publication, the Houston Chronicle, in endorsing the failed campaign of Jeb Bush.
Bob Price is a senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
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