AMHERST — John Kasich, who just finished two terms as governor of Ohio, spoke at Amherst College on Thursday night, delivering a wide-ranging speech that touched on subjects from Michael Phelps to philosophy.
A Republican candidate for the presidency in 2016, Kasich mentioned nothing about whether or not he would seek the office again in 2020.
And although President Donald Trump soundly beat him in the Massachusetts primary, where Kasich finished a distant second, Amherst was one of a handful of communities that Kasich won in the Bay State. The governor, who refers to himself as Johnny K on Instagram, also tied Trump in Pelham and tied Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in Leverett.
Whether or not Amherst truly qualifies as Kasich country, hundreds of people showed up to Johnson Chapel on to see him speak.
One of those people was Katie Crum, a 19-year-old Amherst sophomore who hails from north of Boston.
“I think he’s a really interesting man. I agree with a lot of his politics,” said Crum. “It’s just a really cool experience being at a small school that they bring in all these interesting speakers.”
Andrew Nussbaum, chairman of the Amherst College board of trustees, welcomed Kasich by noting that some had said he was too nerdy to be president, with the implication that nerdiness is a negative in American politics.
“Fear not, governor, this is not the case at Amherst College,” said Nussbaum. “We are proud nerds.”
Kasich began his remarks with some levity.
“I hope I don’t screw this up,” he said.
His speaking style was genial, pacing around the stage, gesturing with his hands and forming a rapport with the audience that led to warm laughter at a number of points in his presentation.
Kasich praised Amherst, whose students he had dinner with earlier, before sharing his family’s blue-collar background and his experience as a college student at Ohio State.
He shared how he met with Ohio State’s president and asked him to deliver a letter to President Nixon. That letter actually led to Kasich getting a meeting with Nixon in the White House, which was scheduled for 5 minutes.
“I didn’t come all the way here for five lousy minutes,” said Kasich, sharing his thought process prior to the meeting.
Kasich ended up spending 20 minutes with Nixon, and he said that after 18 years in Congress, that’s the most time he’d spent in the Oval Office.
“I peaked out at the age of 18,” said Kasich.
Kasich, who said that he’s always been a Republican, noted that he’d worked for Democrats as a young man, and described it as a good experience.
“Keep your mind open,” he said.
Kasich argued that what happens to people in their everyday life is far more important than what the president does. And he argued that each person is a unique individual, who has not been seen before and won’t be seen again. He then pivoted to speaking about philosophy, and the meaning of life.
“We don’t live forever,” he said.
He argued that one should live a life full of risks and taking chances. And he declared his belief in the moral concept that, “If you save one life, you’ve saved the world,” before sharing stories of people he feels have changed the world.
He also asked people to open their minds and explore.
“Can we all get out of our silos?” said Kasich.
Additionally, Kasich shared his belief in power coming from the bottom up, giving as examples the civil rights movement, women’s suffrage, and the anti-Vietnam War movement.
“All change comes from the bottom up,” Kasich said, during the question-and-answer period. “Not from the top down.”
Other things Kasich shared with the audience were his love of the rap artist Drake.
“‘God’s Plan,’ great song,” he said, to laughter.
And he revealed that he is a Tesla driver.
“More charging stations, Elon,” said Kasich, to more laughter.
In the question-and-answer period, Kasich was challenged about his contention that what the president does doesn’t matter by a student from Lahore, Pakistan, who described his fear of not being able to continue his education at Amherst when Trump issued travel bans for a number of Muslim majority countries.
“That was a bad policy,” said Kasich. “But I would say this: The strength of our institutions prevented it from being carried out.”
Kasich then started speaking about the musical “Hamilton,” and recommended that people go see it.
Another speaker brought up the recent deportation of Hampshire College student Eduardo Samaniego, and he criticized Kasich’s criminal justice record despite it containing “mild criminal justice reform.” He then said that people were boycotting the talk to write letters to incarcerated people and learning how to support the prison abolitionist movement, and invited the audience to come to these teach-ins and write-ins, which would be continuing every Thursday.
“Let’s get organized folks,” said the speaker, to applause
Kasich, however, defended his record, asserting that Ohio has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country, pointing to a program that kept nonviolent criminals out of prison and in their community, and saying that Ohio disontinued the practice of asking if an applicant is a felon on job applications for public employers.
“We’re really proud of what we’ve done,” he said.
Kasich also affirmed his belief in climate change, and pointed to Ohio investing in disability services.
Kasich chose to take no questions from the media, departing the sanctuary swiftly as the question-and-answer period concluded.
Andrew Sommer, an Amherst senior from Larchmont, New York, who voted for Kasich in the 2016 Republican primary, said he came to the talk to hear more about the governor’s politics. It was his first time seeing Kasich, and although he said the speech was a little jumbled, he also said the message was important: the idea of community and building from the bottom up.
“That’s something that I hope we in Amherst can build on more,” said Sommer.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.