9 things to know about John Kasich

Introduction

Update, 5:23 p.m., May 4, 2016: John Kasich suspended his presidential campaign.

Republican John Kasich has held many political titles, and he hopes that president of the United States will be his next.

Kasich, the current governor of Ohio, today will launch a presidential bid in what’s become a crowded GOP field.

Supporters tout his conservative credentials and executive experience in the Buckeye State — one of the most hotly contested swing states in recent presidential elections.

Here’s more about Kasich’s political and financial background:

• Who is John Kasich? He is Ohio’s current governor, a former congressman and former investment banker.
• About $1 of every $6 John Kasich raised for his congressional campaigns during the 1990s came from finance, insurance and real estate interests.
• Of the top 10 ZIP codes of contributors to John Kasich’s congressional campaign during the 1990s, all 10 were in Ohio. 

• John Kasich has run for president before. In 2000, his failed campaign raised about $3.25 million.
• Now in his second term as governor, John Kasich’s campaign raised nearly $40 million during the past six years.
• About two-thirds of the 21,000-plus TV ads that aired during the 2014 Ohio gubernatorial race were sponsored by John Kasich’s campaign.

• Allies of John Kasich once used a “social welfare” nonprofit to help oust political foes serving on the Ohio Republican Party’s 66-member central committee.
• Among the funders of the pro-John Kasich nonprofit Restoring Ohio? Health insurer Aetna, which gave $25,000.
• In April, John Kasich supporters formed a “527 committee” — a group that will report its spending and donors to the IRS, not the FEC.

Sources: Center for Public Integrity reporting, as well as the Cincinnati Enquirer, Center for Responsive Politics, Federal Election Commission, Kantar Media/CMAG, Wikipedia.

Image sources: Jim Cole/AP, Skip Peterson/AP, Jim Cole/AP