College Chaplain Peter Beckwith first saw Republican presidential candidate John Kasich when he walked into St. John’s Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio — the church where Beckwith was rector.
Kasich was wearing a ragged leather jacket, and ducked into a back corner of the church just before the services began.
“He sat way in the back,” Beckwith said. “He was gone before I could get to the front door for weeks. I finally caught up with him — I figured he wasn’t homeless because he didn’t stick around and ask for money.”
Kasich was a U.S. representative at the time.
“We became good friends,” Beckwith recalled. “He came to my consecration. He came to our son Peter’s wedding.”
When Beckwith was assigned as a reserve chaplain for the Navy at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., he would regularly have meals with the congressman.
In 1997, after becoming a bishop, Beckwith officiated at Kasich’s wedding when he married his second wife, Karen.
“When it came time for him to get married, he called me, and I stopped by where I used to be the rector,” Beckwith said.
“He was well into his 30s when he married Karen,” he added. “She’s a lovely lady in every way. She keeps him pointed in the right direction—I think he would say that, too. She’s a great lady.”
According to Beckwith, Kasich is “conscientious,” and a “man of faith.”
The presidential candidate’s faith was evident at a town hall held in Livonia, Michigan on Tuesday morning.
“I happen to believe personally that the Big Guy made everybody special,” Kasich said, explaining that every American should use their unique talents to solve problems. “The things that the Lord has given us can be used to fix our world.”
Kasich interacted warmly with supporters, more than 500 of whom crammed into the GOP Field Office.
The touchstone of his comments was a call for unity, not just within the Republican Party, but throughout the nation.
“As Americans, we’ve got to stop looking up to someone on a white horse to fix our problems,” Kasich said. “We’ve got to unite again as a country, the spirit is on our streets and in our families. You can’t wait for someone else to come in and do that.”
Kasich also shared some personal anecdotes about his experiences with government reform. As an 18-year-old freshman at The Ohio State University, Kasich wrote a letter to President Richard Nixon, outlining his concerns about the nation. After the university’s president delivered his letter to the White House, Kasich was granted a 20-minute meeting with the president of the United States.
Beckwith said he thinks Kasich’s experience as governor, his record as congressman, and his integrity make him a great candidate for the presidency.
“When he was congressman, he was chair of the Budget Committee under Clinton,” Beckwith said. “Newt Gingrich was speaker of the House then. He and Newt put together this bill that Clinton signed off on that balanced the budget and they cut the deficit by half a trillion dollars.”
“He’s done amazing things in Ohio,” Beckwith added. “Eight-billion dollar deficit to a $2-million surplus in about two years. And they’ve kept that. That’s pretty good for anybody.”
Beckwith also said he admires Kasich for not engaging in the mud-slinging typical of primary campaigns.
“He’s not into this bashing of other folks,” Beckwith said. “One of the really neat things that he’s said is that we were made to work, that life should be a better place for us having walked through it. We have this creator God. He’s made us to make a difference.”
While Kasich came in second in the New Hampshire primaries last week, taking 15.8 percent of the votes, his popularity in South Carolina polls has dwindled. The latest polls show only 9 percent of South Carolina voters support the Ohio governor.
Whether he wins the presidency or not, Kasich said on Tuesday he will continue to work to make a positive difference.
“Don’t pray that I’ll win; pray that I’ll accept whatever it is I do next,” Kasich said.
This article was updated Feb. 20 at 1:10 p.m. to correct that Kasich inherited a $8-billion deficit not a $8-million one.
