CONTOOCOOK, N.H. — Voters at a VFW hall and a senior center peppered the candidate with questions about global warming, income inequality and raising the minimum wage. They pressed for plans to invest in renewable energy and save Social Security.

The presidential hopeful on the receiving end, however, was not Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders — it was Republican John Kasich, whose chances of advancing beyond New Hampshire’s primary in 20 days likely hinge on winning over supporters who are more likely to vote for those two Democrats than for Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.


The two-term Republican governor of Ohio still boasts the lowest name ID nationally of any serious Republican presidential contender. But in the final weeks before voting begins, he is finding validation in his growing support in independent-heavy New Hampshire, with six polls this month showing him in second place behind Donald Trump. (However, a CNN/WMUR poll released Wednesday, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, had Kasich tied for fifth with several other candidates.)

As his rivals fine-tune their pitches to a conservative electorate enthralled by Trump’s angry populism, Kasich continues to sell what pundits argue is out of style with this year’s GOP primary voter: executive experience, moderation and unwavering optimism.

It’s working — partly because he’s not just selling those things to Republicans.

“I don’t believe in playing on people’s worst fears to get somewhere. It’s just not the way I’m going to run my life,” Kasich said during a 20-minute interview on his campaign bus Tuesday as it ferried him from a town hall in Concord to his hotel for a late-afternoon workout. “I run my life based on what can be.”

At least in New Hampshire, where independents can vote in the GOP primary, Kasich has created his own lane. Currently in the midst of an eight-day swing across the state, he is stumping mostly in counties that Barack Obama carried four years ago. His strength here, where 44 percent of voters are registered as independents, is a reminder of his potential general election appeal. He’s following the blueprint of John McCain, who won the state in 2000 on the strength of his appeal to independents — no surprise, given that the strategist who engineered that upset 16 years ago, John Weaver, is guiding his campaign.

McCain, of course, flamed out quickly with a loss in South Carolina. And many see New Hampshire’s more moderate electorate as an outlier among the handful of early-voting states that will whittle down the GOP primary field to just three or four contenders.

That’s why Cruz sees Kasich as little more than a potential spoiler, someone who could help him by tripping up Marco Rubio by finishing ahead of the Florida senator in New Hampshire but isn’t likely to be a lasting threat. Kasich, who is polling at just 3 percent nationally, could well turn out to be the one living in an alternate political universe, ignoring the realities of a conservative base agitating for pretty much the opposite of what he’s running on.

But Kasich is sticking with his plan. He believes a strong second-place finish could make him the clear choice as the race moves beyond the months-long cacophony of made-for-TV debates, national polls and Trump immersion toward a more serious search for an electable nominee.

“Unless we’ve repealed the laws of political gravity, everything is going to settle out — or the Republicans are going to get crushed in the [general] election,” Kasich said. “It’s one way or the other, it’s not complicated.” (Asked if he thought neither Trump nor Cruz could win the general election, though, Kasich demurred.)

More than anyone else at this late stage of the race, Kasich is clearly on the rise in New Hampshire, but he’s still not a shoo-in for second place. Trump has a strong double-digit lead, according to the RealClearPolitics polling aggregation. But after that, it’s a scramble for runner-up among Kasich, Rubio, Cruz, Chris Christie and Jeb Bush.

Several recent polls show Kasich with the highest favorable numbers among independents and the biggest gap in support between those unaffiliated voters and registered Republicans. The new WMUR New Hampshire poll, which measured his support at a meager 6 percent overall, found his numbers slightly higher with Republicans (7 percent) than unaffiliated voters (4 percent).

During a town hall here Tuesday night, as TV networks were carrying a live feed from Iowa of Sarah Palin endorsing Trump, a voter asked Kasich the same question he’s been getting of late from reporters: “What are you going to do after you win New Hampshire or come wicked close?” In other words, isn't this a one-and-done at best?

Kasich argued that the momentum of finishing second or better in New Hampshire would propel him forward into South Carolina, Nevada and beyond. But make no mistake, he and his team are happy that people are even asking about their campaign lasting beyond the second Tuesday in February.

“The way he looks at it is: ‘This is my shot. I’m going to do it; I’m going to do it the way I want to do it,’” said Tom Rath, Kasich’s New Hampshire strategist. “Right now, he’s getting a lot of positive reinforcement. I think he’d like to stay here forever.

“We were an asterisk a month ago, and now we’re very germane to the conversation. He might not have been on people’s lists a couple weeks ago, but he is now — and they like him.”

As voters seemingly yearn for new leaders, Kasich is an unabashed throwback. He bragged to a group of seniors about having known Ronald Reagan and reminisced to another audience about his partnership with “a liberal, liberal Democrat” in Congress to shrink the outdated B2 bomber fleet at the end of the Cold War.

That fight that pitted him against the Reagan White House and “made people mad,” he said. “But it was the right thing to do.”

Kasich hasn’t shied away from some of his long-held positions in order to align more closely with what appears to be the conservative orthodoxy of the moment. He brushes off Trump’s proposals to bar Muslim immigrants as something that’s “never going to happen.” Unlike his rivals seeking to out-condemn the Iran nuclear deal, Kasich says he’d keep the controversial agreement in place.

And he belies his reputation for prickliness by being downright touchy-feely, often punctuating his responses to policy questions by emphasizing humility, the power of prayer or his belief in helping others. Instead of ruling out a minimum wage hike as his rivals have done, Kasich tells a voter that states should address the issue on their own by consulting with the business community about what kind of wage hike it could absorb in order to help a hypothetical single mother on welfare.

“Some people say that’s not a Republican position, but I’ll tell you what my Republican position is: Have a good brain and have a good heart,” he said. “Make sure no one gets left behind.”

“That’s what my whole life has been, going against the grain,” he said later the interview with POLITICO.

Faye Hanscomb, an unaffiliated voter who typically leans Democratic, liked what she heard Tuesday at Kasich’s town hall in Concord. She said she may cross over and cast a vote for Kasich on the Republican side.

“He just sounds reasonable,” she said. “Not crazy, like the others.”

Gene Fox, a registered independent, said he understands why Kasich is moving up in the polls after attending his town hall Tuesday night. “I think he’s gaining as people spend more time studying the candidates, looking for a bit more meat on the bones,” he said. “A lot of us want more than slogans.”

Over the weekend, newspapers in Nashua, Portsmouth and Dover endorsed Kasich. As his crowds have grown, so has his press contingent. Jeb Bush’s super PAC just sent out its first direct mail piece attacking Kasich. On Tuesday, he gave two network interviews.

“Do you know how many people are trying to get on this bus and interview me who we couldn’t get an interview with three weeks ago?” he said. “It’s just the way it works, you know? Moth to flame.”

Kasich admitted Tuesday that the past few months, in which his summer momentum stalled, did test his patience. “I don’t know if you’ve ever gone for a walk in the woods, but you just keep walking and suddenly you come out of the woods and you’re in the daylight,” he said.

As most of his rivals have faltered or attempted to co-opt Trump’s darker tones, Kasich has finally found a way to stand out — simply by staying the course.

“They always were saying,” he said, shifting his voice into an animated, twangy impersonation of an old-time newscaster, “‘Well, how’s he going to distinguish himself?’

“Well, maybe I have.”