Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump released a scathing ad on Friday targeting Ohio Gov. John Kasich just days before the winner-take-all primary in the Buckeye State.
The ad hits Kasich for his time at an investment bank, claiming that after “he helped Wall Street predator Lehman Brothers destroy the economy, he decided to run for governor of Ohio.”
{mosads}Kasich has cited his time at Lehman as evidence he has spent time outside of the government and knows how the private sector works.
But he’s also sought to diminish his time there, saying he was merely working out of a field office in the Midwest, far away from epicenter of the economic collapse.
The ad also calls Kasich “an absentee governor” who has been neglecting duties at home in favor of his “failing presidential bid.
And it hits Kasich for having expanded Medicare under the Affordable Care Act.
“We don’t need him in Ohio, and we certainly don’t need him in Washington,” the narrator in the ad states. “John Kasich, just another all-talk, no-action politician.”
Kasich has largely avoided the front-runner’s wrath, but the two are now battling in a close race for Ohio’s 66 delegates.
Kasich has said he’ll drop out of he doesn’t win his home state, while Trump needs to win the Buckeye State to move closer to the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination. If Kasich or another candidate wins Ohio’s delegates, the likelihood of a brokered convention in July increases dramatically.
Polls show a close race, with Trump leading by only 2.5 points in the RealClearPolitics average.