Ohio Governor John Kasich has said if he does not win the next month's primary in his home state, he would leave the White House race.
"Some of the other candidates, if they cannot win their home state, they got to get out, OK?. If I do not win my home state, I will get out. But you know what? I am going to win Ohio," Kasich, 64, said at the town hall while addressing about 1,000 people here yesterday.
"The only person who mentioned job (at the last debate) is me. I will beat Donald Trump in Ohio and that would be the beginning of a new day," he said.
The US state of Tennessee has been a traditional Republican State. Trump is leading ahead of all his rivals by an impressive margin with the two Senators, Marco Rubio from Florida and Ted Cruz from Texas, vying for the second spot.
"We want to have a good president. Frankly an adult president, a grown one," Kasich said, while referring to the personal accusations the top three GOP aspirants are levelling against each other with words like choker and liar.
"When one runs for the country, records are a fair game and he has that," said the two-term Governor of Ohio, who was first elected to the Ohio State Senate at the age of 26 and to the US House of Representatives in 1982 at the age of 30.
Ohio, where primary would be held on March 15, has some 70,000 population of Indian-Americans with Cleveland and Cincinnati cities having the largest share. About 25,000 Indian-Americans live in Tennessee. Kasich's one of key advisers Nathan Naidu is an Indian-American.
When a supporter asked him to run as an independent if he does not get the GOP's nomination, Kasich replied in negative.
Taking a dig at Cruz, 45, and Rubio, 44, both of whom are having a tough time in their home states of Texas and Florida, Kasich said the candidates have no right to stay in the race if they can not win in their home States.
He said that no Republican has ever become a president without winning Ohio.
Political pundits here have said Kasich rarely has a chance in this race to the White House.
As per RealClearPolitics.Com which keeps track of all major national polls, Kasich as of yesterday had support of 9.3 per cent Republicans, way behind 33.2 per cent of Trump, followed by Cruz's 20.3 per cent and Rubio's 16.7 per cent.
