John Kasich won applause for his gay marriage debate answer. That’s great news for Rob Portman.
When Ohio Gov. John Kasich fielded a hypothetical question at Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate in Cleveland about how he would explain his position on gay marriage to his children if one of them came out as gay, it hit close to home.
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Because that wasn’t a hypothetical question for one of Ohio’s most prominent Republicans, Rob Portman, two years ago. In March 2013, less than a year after being discussed as vice presidential material, Portman became the first Republican senator to publicly back marriage equality. He did so because a few years earlier, his son Will, now 23, came out as gay. The night before running an op-ed in the Columbus Dispatch announcing his groundbreaking decision, Portman called a small list of top GOP officials and allies to let them know of his choice and of Will’s story.
One of the first people on that list was Kasich.
And while Kasich, who does not personally support gay marriage, did not mention that private conversation specifically in his response Thursday night, the answer he delivered — one that perhaps was more progressive than any other candidate on that stage would have given — could help Portman, who is up for reelection this year.
“Because somebody doesn’t think the way I do doesn’t mean I can’t care about them or can’t love them,” Kasich said, adding that the Supreme Court has decided and marriage equality is the law of the land. “If one of my daughters happened to be that, of course I would love them and I would accept them. That’s what we’re taught when we have strong faith.
“We need to give everybody the chance, treat everybody with respect and let them share in this great American dream that we have,” Kasich said, noting he recently went to his first gay wedding. “God gives me unconditional love, I’m going to give it to my family and my friends and the people around me.”
Republican operatives in D.C. and Ohio once feared that Portman’s statement on gay marriage — an announcement he spent more than a year plotting — would hurt his chances in 2016 and take out one of the top economic thought leaders of the GOP’s establishment wing.
But Kasich’s answer Thursday, and the strong applause he got from an otherwise conservative home audience at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, shed light on how that concern is dissipating as public opinion shifts quickly. In bellwether Ohio, more than half of residents now believe in marriage equality. That was not the case in 2013 when Portman announced his support for gay marriage.
Portman (center), with Kasich (right) and now-House Speaker John Boehner, also of Ohio, at a 2010 campaign rally in Cincinnati. (AP Photo: Al Behrman)
“I don’t think anything that Kasich has said was done with Rob Portman’s political calculus in mind, but it is confirmation that what people thought was going to be a political factor becomes less and less of one every day,” said one Republican operative close to Portman.
“The reaction in that arena is further confirmation that this has not been an issue that has caused Portman any long-term, significant base problems,” the operative said.
Though conservative groups threatened a robust challenge to Portman at the time of his same-sex marriage announcement, one has not materialized to date. In fact, according to recent polling by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning group, Portman holds a slight lead over his Democratic opponent because 15 percent of Democratic voters said they were willing to cross over to vote for the Cincinnati Republican.
Portman viewed Thursday’s debate from a watch party in Columbus, 140 miles away from the temporary political epicenter of the Republican Party, in Cleveland.
On Friday, Portman praised Kasich’s performance in a statement to Yahoo News.
“I thought Governor Kasich had a great night. He told his story about turning things around in Ohio and what he has been able to accomplish over the past five years,” Portman said. “Regarding the marriage issue, I thought he gave a good and well-received answer when he talked about unconditional love and having respect for one another.”
That audience response might not have been statistically significant, but for a longtime Republican politician like Portman, who once worried supporting his son could complicate his career, it must have sounded pretty sweet.
(Cover tile photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)
