Texas newspaper endorses Kasich over Cruz

by Jesse Byrnes - 02/12/16 4:51 PM ET

The Dallas Morning News on Friday endorsed Republican presidential candidate John Kasich over home-state rival Ted Cruz for the GOP nomination.

“As much as we’d like to see a Texan in the White House, we fear that Cruz’s brand of politics is more about disruption than governing and threatens to take the Republican Party to a dark place,” editorial members of the influential Texas newspaper wrote.

{mosads}”As we’ve written before, continuing obstructionist paths might excite primary voters, but it won’t benefit the nation or the conservative cause,” they added.

Editors of the Dallas Morning News wrote that state-level public servants like Kasich “forged practical, even imaginative, ways to help their citizens lead safer, more stable and prosperous lives.”

“That’s a sharp contrast to what GOP presidential front-runners Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are offering,” the editors wrote, referencing the candidates who won New Hampshire and Iowa, respectively.

“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 newspaper added.

The Morning News editorial board praised Kasich’s “get things done” bona fides in Ohio, mentioning closing a budget shortfall and overseeing a sharp drop in unemployment, as well as his efforts in Congress to balance the federal budget. They also credited his moderate positions on immigration and Medicaid.

“While other GOP establishment opponents, for instance former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, have rewritten parts of their résumés, the center-right Kasich hasn’t been cowed by the farthest-right reaches of the party into doing anything of the sort,” the editorial reads.

Texas holds its primary March 1.

Tags 2016 GOP primary Donald Trump John Kasich Marco Rubio Ted Cruz