Strickland praises Kasich for not endorsing Trump

CLEVELAND — Democratic Senate candidate Ted Strickland on Monday praised John Kasich, the Republican who ousted him from the Ohio governor’s mansion in 2010, for not endorsing Donald Trump. 

“He’s not my best personal friend in all the world but I can say I admire his integrity in making the decision that he has made to avoid giving Donald Trump his endorsement to be the president of this country,” Strickland said of Kasich at a news conference hosted in a law office a few blocks away from the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

“I think Gov. Kasich and the other Republicans are putting country over party,” he said, alluding to dozens of Republican officials who have decided to skip the convention, including nearly 20 U.S. senators.

Kasich will attend an event in his honor at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Tuesday afternoon, but otherwise is largely steering clear of the convention, much to the embarrassment of Trump allies.

Strickland on Monday sought to use that as ammunition against his opponent, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

“That says Mr. Portman does not have the courage that John Kasich has,” he told reporters. “I think Sen. Portman is afraid of alienating Donald Trump’s right flank and supporters from the right. I hope he’s embarrassed by the positions that Donald Trump has taken on a lot of issues, so I think he finds himself between a rock and a hard place.”

He argued that Portman and Trump both support restricting abortion rights and oppose proposals to promote pay equity between men and women.

Portman endorsed Trump soon after Kasich — his initial favorite — dropped his presidential bid.

The incumbent told reporters at a Habitat for Humanity project in a gritty neighborhood seven miles east of the convention center that he would “probably” campaign with Trump in the fall.

“I’ve got my own campaign that’s pretty busy,” he said.

But Portman praised the party’s soon-to-be nominee for exciting working-class voters, including many independents and so-called Reagan Democrats.

“So far he has added a lot of energy and enthusiasm on the Republican side. If you look at our primary, we had a record turnout by far. We had huge numbers of people show up,” he said. “We’ll see about the general election.”

A senior aide to the Trump campaign said Monday that Kasich is embarrassing his own state by keeping distance from the convention, which is expected to bring millions of dollars of economic activity to Cleveland this week.

“He’s making a big mistake,” Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“He’s embarrassing his state, frankly,” he said.