Kasich says Ohio election was a "vote on the president"

cbs

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Ohio voters who cast so many votes for Democrat Danny O'Connor in a solidly Republican district were "sending a message to the Republicans to knock it off." 

The Republican governor made the comments in an exclusive interview with CBS News correspondent Ed O'Keefe, following the special election Tuesday night in Ohio's 12th Congressional District that is still too close to call. President Trump and the GOP have declared victory for Republican Troy Balderson, but no major news outlet has yet called the race for either candidate. Kasich suggested he believes a number of Republican women voted for O'Connor over Balderson.

"Well, the voters here sent a message to the Republicans to knock it off," Kasich, who has been critical of Mr. Trump, told O'Keefe. "Stop the chaos, the division, no more of this family separation that we see at the border or taking people's healthcare away. I think that have — basically have had enough and they're sending a message to the Republicans, including the Republican in the White House...And what happened here, in this district, people will not, maybe not understand this. This district is so Republican, there should never even have been an election here. And it was so close and -- in one of the counties that's so solidly Republican -- where a Republican would normally win by 70 percent, it broke basically 50-50."

"So, some Republicans sat at home, but what I think happened, and we don't have all the numbers yet, I think you will find a lot of Republican women who not only didn't sit at home, but a significant percentage, or some percentage of them voted for the Democrat," he added.