Jeremy Fugleberg

jfugleberg@enquirer.com

South Carolina, meet nice guy John Kasich.

The Ohio governor maintained the positive message that is increasingly defining his presidential campaign Wednesday, at campaign stops before larger-than-expected crowds.

“I am not going to run for president pitting one group against the other. I’m not going to run for president by having a negative message," he told a town hall crowd in Mount Pleasant. "Because I want the spirit of this country to be restored."

Kasich arrived fresh from his second-place finish in the New Hampshire Republican primary on Tuesday. Campaign staffers said they had previously expected 50 to show up to the noon town hall. Instead, about 300 jammed into and around Finn's Brick Oven and Pizza to see and hear Kasich, with half the crowd spilling onto the restaurant's patio and grass outside.

Kasich maintained a campaign pitch that has sometimes sounded better tailored to a general election rather than a Republican primary. He even threw a bone to Democrats.

“If we win, we call the tune,” he said, referring to Republicans. “But if some of those Democrats want to play in the orchestra, I’m inviting them in as long as they can play on key.”

After Kasich made a short stump speech, town hall attendees asked about regulatory reform, his foreign relations experience and gender equity. Kasich was loose and seemed in good spirits, joking with the crowd. To a woman who identified herself as a Democrat, he asked, "OK, who let you in?"

Kasich highlighted defense cuts as examples of his budget-cutting experience and willingness to fight to get something done. Military cuts are a sensitive topic in South Carolina, which is home to several military bases and many retired members of the military.

"When I was a congressman, at the age of 30 as a conservative Republican, I was the one that found the hammers and the screwdrivers and the wrenches that cost tens of thousands of dollars inside the Pentagon," he said. "So I had to fight every defense contractor in the country to get that done. Do you think that's easy?"

Kasich's positive message resonated with attendee Cindy Mowry of North Charleston, who said she has voted for both Democrats and Republicans for president.

“I’m not afraid of consensus,” she said. “It seems to be a dirty word these days. But I don’t believe it is.”

At a veterans issues event in the afternoon, Kasich's New Hampshire success boosted the turnout. Gavin McCulley, CEO of host company Geekin Radio, said he was asked to host 25 veterans with coffee, in a conference room.

“We expected 25 and 125 showed up,” he said, adding it spoke to the increased attention Kasich garnered from his New Hampshire results. “I think certainly people will take a look at him now.”

Kasich has nine stops planned in the Palmetto State through Friday, although all avoid the deeply conservative and vote-rich Upstate area.

Kasich's vote total in New Hampshire was only about half that gained by billionaire businessman Donald Trump, but above a handful of other candidates vying for the nod as the GOP's establishment candidate. Yet at the veterans issues event, Kasich rejected the concept that there are two lanes to the Republican nomination -- one establishment and the other anti-establishment -- and he also rejected that he fit in either category.

“It’s sort of like porridge,” he said. “It’s not too hot, it’s not too cold. It’s just about right.”

The transformation of John Kasich