In the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges this past Friday, most Republican presidential hopefuls came out swinging. But not Ohio governor John Kasich.
Kasich, who is expected to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination July 21, took a vastly different approach to Obergefell than the rest of the GOP pack, saying in an interview Sunday that “it’s time to move on” from the same-sex marriage debate.
“I do believe in traditional marriage, but the court has ruled and it’s time to move on,” the Ohio governor told John Dickerson on CBS’ Sunday edition of Face the Nation.
Kasich was one of the original defendants in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that began in Ohio in July 2013 when James Obergefell and his partner, John Arthur James, filed a lawsuit against the state because of its refusal to recognize same-sex marriage on death certificates. But he’s taking a much more cautious approach than many of his GOP presidential rivals in the wake of the court’s ruling.
“I think everybody needs to take a deep breath to see how this evolves,” Kasich told Dickerson. “But I know this. Religious institutions, religious entities — you know, like the Catholic church — they need to be honored as well. I think there’s an ability to strike a balance.”
#related#Since the ruling came out last Friday, Republican presidential candidates have issued a variety of responses, from Ted Cruz suggesting Supreme Court justices should have to run in periodic retention elections, to Rand Paul making the case for getting government out of the marriage business entirely, to Mike Huckabee saying states should outright defy the court’s ruling.
Kasich on the other hand appears to believe the debate is a losing battle for Republicans. “It’s the law of the land and we’ll abide by it,” Kasich told Face the Nation, adding that there are “so many other things now that we have to focus on.”
— Julia Porterfield is an intern at National Review, editor-in-chief of Red Millennial, and a junior at Regent University.