Despite his protestations, Ohio Gov. John Kasich has emerged as the top choice of rogue electors seeking to throw the presidency to someone other than Republican Donald Trump.
Those behind the effort to oust Mr. Trump at Monday’s Electoral College vote spent the weekend urging Republican electors to vote instead for Mr. Kasich, even though he has urged electors not to vote for him.
Apparently they’re not listening.
“John Kasich leads by example. He wrote in a vote for McCain instead of Trump. Now it is time for Electors to write in Gov. Kasich instead of Trump,” said Polly Baca, a Democratic elector from Colorado, in a statement.
In a Dec. 6 post on Twitter, Mr. Kasich insisted, “I am not a candidate for president and ask that electors not vote for me when they gather later this month. Our country had an election and Donald Trump won.”
Even so, the anti-Trump group Hamilton Electors called Sunday for Republican electors to abstain or vote for “reasonable Republican candidate Governor John Kasich.”
Hamilton Electors also launched the Twitter hashtag #DraftKasich and posted shots of Mr. Kasich with former presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
A Saturday Night Live skit showed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, played by cast member Kate McKinnon, asking a Republican elector to consider Mr. Kasich.
“You don’t even have to vote for me. I’m coo,” says Mrs. Clinton, using signs in a take-off on the 2003 movie “Love Actually.” “Just vote for literally anyone else. Like John Kasich, Tom Hanks, Zendaya, the Rock. A Rock.”
A defection of 37 Republican electors would bring Mr. Trump’s total to 269, one short of the 270 electoral votes required to win the presidency, and send the election to the Republican-controlled House.
“Many Republican Electors have told me they’re open to sending the vote for President to the U.S. House of Representatives, which has happened twice in our nation’s history,” said Chris Suprun of Texas, the only Republican elector to say publicly he will not vote for Mr. Trump.
“This would allow our democratically elected Representatives, under the leadership of Speaker Paul Ryan, to judge the fitness of Donald Trump and assess CIA intelligence about Russian interference in our elections or vote for an alternative Republican candidate like Governor John Kasich,” said Mr. Suprun in a Sunday statement.
Mr. Kasich lost his bid for the Republican presidential nomination to Mr. Trump, who won 306 electoral votes in the Nov. 8 race to 232 for Mrs. Clinton.
The latest tally shows she won the popular vote by about 2.8 million votes, making the 2016 race the fourth in U.S. history in which the candidate with the most votes lost the presidency.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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