The drumbeat for John Kasich to get out of the Republican presidential race keeps growing louder and louder, but the Ohio governor either doesn’t hear it or doesn’t want to hear it.
His dismal performance Tuesday in the Arizona primary and Utah’s caucuses sapped the momentum from his win last week in Ohio, and left supporters of both Sen. Ted Cruz and businessman Donald Trump accusing him of being a spoiler.
He was clobbered in Utah despite campaigning hard there. And he finished fourth in a three-man race in Arizona behind Sen. Marco Rubio, who dropped out last week, although early voting likely accounted for much of the support for the ghost candidate.
“You can’t lose every state and expect to be the nominee,” said Mr. Cruz, who has become the last hope for the GOP establishment trying to block the front-running Mr. Trump. “Right now Kasich’s role is really being a spoiler. Kasich benefits really Donald Trump.”
At the same time, Mr. Trump’s supporters described Mr. Kasich as a tool of the establishment to siphon off just enough delegates to force a contested convention where GOP insiders can steal the nomination.
A headline on the conservative blog and news website Red State screamed: “Everyone hates John Kasich.”
Yet despite scoring a win in just one of the 34 contests completed, trailing far behind in the delegate hunt and seeing no viable path to the nomination, Mr. Kasich vowed to remain in the race until the bitter end.
“Ted Cruz can’t beat Donald Trump head to head, but for some reason, Ted Cruz is trying to force John Kasich out so he can hand the nomination to Donald Trump. We won’t let Ted Cruz give away our party to Trump,” said Kasich campaign spokesman Robert Nichols.
Still, Mr. Kasich has struggled to attract voters everywhere outside of Ohio. Of all the votes cast so far, Mr. Kasich has tallied 2.8 million, compared to Mr. Cruz’s 5.7 million and Mr. Trump’s 7.8 million.
His best performances outside of Ohio, where he garnered 47 percent of the vote, was in Washington, D.C., where he got 35 percent, followed by Vermont with 30 percent.
Mr. Kasich has pursued a Midwest strategy based on his strength in his home state, but he finished third in Michigan and trails in the polls in Wisconsin, the next big primary in two weeks.
The results Tuesday underscored Mr. Kasich’s weakness.
Mr. Cruz captured 69 percent of the vote in the Utah caucuses, relegating Mr. Kasich to 16 percent and Mr. Trump to 14 percent. Mr. Trump was never expected to do well in the Beehive State, and Mr. Kasich spent heavily there on advertising in hopes of a strong finish.
In Arizona Mr. Kasich took 10 percent of the vote, behind Mr. Trump at 47 percent, Mr. Cruz at 25 percent and Mr. Rubio at 13 percent, according to unofficial results.
However, Mr. Trump was expected to dominate in Arizona, and Mr. Kasich had almost no campaign presence in the state.
In the race for the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, Mr. Kasich has collected 143, compared to 739 for Mr. Trump and 465 for Mr. Cruz.
Not only does Mr. Kasich have no way of amassing the delegates needed to win the nomination outright, he would not qualify to get on the ballot at a contested convention under current party rules, which require candidates to win at least eight states to qualify.
Under that rule, known as Rule 4b, only Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz currently qualify for the ballot.
Peter Feaman, an RNC committeeman from Florida and a member of the party’s rules committee, said it was “hard” for Mr. Kasich to argue that he has a path to the nomination.
He declined to comment on whether Mr. Kasich should drop out. “That’s not my call,” he said.
Attempting to establish a rationale for staying in the race, the Kasich campaign pointed to a Quinnipiac University Poll released Wednesday that showed Mr. Cruz losing to Mr. Trump among Republican voters nationwide, 46 percent to 37 percent.
The poll showed Mr. Kasich was the only remaining GOP candidate who would beat Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in a theoretical general election matchup. He topped her 47 percent to 39 percent in the poll.
“The Quinnipiac poll confirms that Gov. Kasich is the key to stopping Donald Trump in the remaining states, and Gov. Kasich is the only candidate who can win the White House and help sweep in Republican candidates up and down the ballot,” the Kasich campaign said in a press release.
The same poll also found that Democratic candidate Sen. Bernard Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist waging a long shot challenge to Mrs. Clinton, would win by double-digit margins in general election matchups against Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz.
Mr. Kasich and Mr. Sanders tied in a head-to-head contest, according to the poll.
“You’re seeing Ted Cruz and his buddies in the D.C. establishment hyperventilating in the press, but many others are looking at the polls and realizing that if the race turns into a head-to-head matchup between Trump and Cruz, Trump will win the nomination and Hillary will win in November,” said Connie Wehrkamp, spokeswoman for New Day for America, a pro-Kasich super PAC. “If Republicans want to keep the Clintons out of the White House, it’s only John Kasich who can win in the fall.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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