John Kasich drops out of GOP race

UPDATE: Ohio Gov. John Kasich officially dropped out of the race for the White House this afternoon.

The last Republican challenger to front-runner Donald Trump made the announcement at a press conference in Columbus, Ohio, where he shared stories about people he met along the campaign trail.

“The people of our country changed me,” Kasich said. “They changed me with the stories of their lives.”

Kasich, who frequently hugged supporters at campaign events, added, "For whatever reason, God gave me the grace to make people feel safe and comfortable."

As for his political future, he said, “I have always said that the Lord has a purpose for me as he does for everyone.”

Kasich took no questions from the media.

OUR EARLIER REPORT (12:50 p.m.): Ohio Gov. John Kasich plans to follow Sen. Ted Cruz’s exit from the race for the Republican nomination for president with an announcement of his own suspension of his campaign this afternoon. Kasich canceled an event scheduled at Washington’s Dulles International Airport today and said he would make a statement from Columbus at 5 p.m.

Kasich won only his home state’s primary. He had second-place finishes in 10 states, including New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Rhode Island in recent weeks, but otherwise finished toward the back of the pack in the other contests. Kasich stayed in the race when many others dropped out in hopes of a contested convention this summer.

Kasich and Cruz recently put together a half-hearted game plan to try to divide their campaign activities between the remaining primary states in effort to siphon delegates away from front-runner Donald Trump before the convention. Kasich initially pulled resources from Indiana before Tuesday’s primary but appeared to have second thoughts about telling his Indiana supporters to vote for Cruz instead.

After Trump’s decisive victory in Indiana on Tuesday, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus called on the party to unite behind the “presumptive nominee,” tweeting, “We all need to unite and focus on defeating @Hillary Clinton.”

Kasich built his campaign around his fiscal policies and experience. He steered clear of personal attacks on his opponents in debates and on the campaign trail, instead emphasizing his accomplishments in creating jobs and balancing budgets in Ohio as governor and in Washington as the chairman of the House Budget Committee when he served in Congress.

Where Trump and Cruz often brandished their tough-guy credentials, Kasich took softer stances on some issues. He defended his decision to expand Medicaid in Ohio as following the biblical mandate to help the poor. And he said though he believed marriage should only be between a man and a woman, he did not support laws to protect individuals and businesses that don’t want to participate in same-sex weddings.

“I’d rather people figure this out without having to put another law on the books,” Kasich said in the March 3 GOP debate, adding that he didn’t agree with same-sex couples suing photographers and bakers who rejected their patronage. In Ohio, where he has about two-and-a-half years remaining as governor, he has earned a reputation as a strong pro-life supporter: He recently signed a law that defunded Planned Parenthood and reallocated its funding to other women’s health services.