MANHATTAN — This year, at least one presidential candidate wants Manhattan voters for more than just their money, officials say.
The head of the Manhattan Republican party has expressed pleasure that this year's meaningful primary contest in New York has meant more quality time with presidential hopeful, Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
“It’s wonderful to have a candidate who needs our votes instead of just our money,” said Manhattan Republican Chairwoman Adele Malpass on Tuesday, calling her fellow Manhattan GOPers the “financial backbone” of the party.
Malpass’s comments came before a speech at the 3 West Club in Midtown by Kasich, who has remained in the race despite trailing hundreds of delegates behind front-runner Donald Trump and conservative darling Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
The 2016 election is the first in decades in which any major party, let alone both, have had to duke it out in the New York primaries.
Kasich, Trump, and Cruz have been campaigning across the state in the past two weeks, trading shots at one another as Democratic rivals Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton stump for their respective New York bases.
Kasich, who has cast himself as a relative moderate compared with his GOP rivals made a plea on Tuesday to avoid trudging down a “path of darkness,” warning that his opponents’ proposals on immigration, Muslims, and foreign policy were divisive and dangerous.
“We’ve heard proposals to create a religious test for immigration, to target neighborhoods for surveillance, to deport 11.5 million people,” Kasich said, addressing the Women’s National Republican Club. "This path to darkness is the antithesis of all America has meant for 250 years.”
Kasich has suffered from repeated losses elsewhere in the country and is holding onto just 143 delegates compared with Cruz’s 545 delegates and Trump’s 743, but his prospects in New York are looking slightly rosier, according to a new poll.
Although Trump still stands to blast Cruz and Kasich out of the water, leading the pack with a lead of 55 percent among GOP primary voters in New York, Kasich is momentarily out of his usual third-place slot with a one-point lead over Cruz, according to the poll, released on Tuesday by Quinnipiac.
