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Prominent Republicans Endorse Biden at Democratic Convention

Brian Padden

   WASHINGTON - John Kasich, the former Republicangovernor of Ohio,
   crossed party lines on Monday to speak at the Democratic National
   Convention in support of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee
   Joe Biden.

   "I'm a lifelong Republican, but that attachment holds second place to
   my responsibility to my country.'¯That's why I've chosen to appear at
   this convention. In normal times, something like this would probably
   never happen, but these are not normal times," Kasichsaidin
   hisprerecordedspeech on the opening night of the four-day Democratic
   Party convention.

   Kasich, who was one of President Donald Trump's toughest rivals for the
   2016 Republican presidential nomination and was the last to drop out of
   the race, is perhaps the most prominent Republican to both oppose
   Trump's reelection and support Biden.'¯

   His speech, while clearly welcomed by the Biden campaign, was dismissed
   as self-serving and disloyal by some conservative Republicans.Even a
   few progressive Democrats complained Kasich was being given an
   undeserved spotlight on the first night of the convention.'¯

   Anti-Trump conservative

   A lifelong Republican, Kasich was an unbending,'¯brash conservative
   when he served as a congressman in the 1990s.He became House Budget
   Committee chairman under Republican Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker
   of the House of Representatives, and engaged in contentious
   negotiations with then-Democratic President Bill Clinton to enact
   welfare reform, tax cuts and a balanced budget.

   Kasich was also a supporter of the Tea Party movement in 2010 that
   opposed former Democratic President Barack Obama's effort to expand
   Medicaid, a government supported health care program for the poor.

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