Ohio Gov. Kasich is 16th notable entry into GOP race

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio's John Kasich, a second-term governor and former congressman, is to become the 16th notable Republican to enter the 2016 presidential race Tuesday.

He is scheduled to declare his candidacy at Ohio State University, where as a freshman political science major in 1970, he wrote a letter that landed him a 20-minute audience with President Richard Nixon.

The Republican field is so crowded it's unclear whether Kasich will qualify for the GOP's first debate in his home state in just two weeks.

"How did we end up with 20 people running for president?" Kasich asks with a smile in a video recently released by his political action committee. He cites his experience with the federal budget, national security and his leadership of Ohio. "Of all those people running, there's not one that has experience in all those critical three areas."

Kasich (pronounced KAY'-sik) ran for president once before, briefly seeking the 2000 nomination after he helped seal a federal balanced budget deal as House Budget chairman in 1997. Since then he put in nearly a decade as an investment executive and more than four years as governor.

Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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