John Kasich

Is Ohio Gov. John Kasich a likely vice presidential nominee? In this file photo, Kasich speaks in late June during the 2016 Iowa Caucus Consortium in Des Moines.

(Brian Powers, The Des Moines Register via AP)

Word seeped out last Sunday that Republican Gov. John Kasich would soon announce his bid for the presidency, demonstrating yet again that life is one coincidence after another.

Exactly 71 years before last Sunday, in 1944, the Republican National Convention, meeting in Chicago, nominated Ohio's then-governor, John Bricker, for vice president. The GOP's pick for president: New York Gov. Thomas Dewey.

The Dewey-Bricker ticket lost to Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Still, Dewey, with Bricker's help, carried Ohio. And part of American politics' apostles' creed is that no Republican can reach the White House without carrying Ohio.

Obviously, as Dewey demonstrated in 1944, and Richard Nixon did in 1960, a Republican can carry Ohio and not become president. Still, beginning in 1860 with Abraham Lincoln, every Republican elected president has carried Ohio. And John Kasich's record demonstrates he can carry Ohio.

Kasich's formal announcement will come on July 21, at Ohio State University's Ohio Union. If you underestimate Kasich, your picture belongs in the dictionary next to the word "fool." The only elections Ohio State grad Kasich seems to have lost were 1972 and 1973 bids for president of OSU's undergraduate student government. (The 1972 winner: Future Cleveland Mayor Michael White.)

But for public office, look at Kasich's trophies:

* Unseat an incumbent Democratic state senator in 1978? Check.

* Unseat an incumbent Democratic U.S. House member in 1982? Check.

* Unseat an incumbent Democratic Ohio governor in 2010? Check.

* And win re-election as governor in 2014 despite having enraged organized labor in 2011 with Senate Bill 5? Check.

It's tough, at this writing, to imagine that Republicans won't nominate former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for president at next year's Cleveland convention. And if Bush is the nominee, it's hard to imagine a more suitable running mate, politically, than John Kasich. True, Kasich's ... um ... spontaneity ... may make it hard for some bystanders to imagine him in the presidency or vice presidency.

But compared with, say, Joe Biden, Kasich is an introvert.

"We'll win with Tom and John in November," pumped-up Bricker backers shouted in 1944, when Ohio's Bricker landed the GOP's vice presidential nomination.

Maybe, at next summer's Cleveland convention, Republicans will be shouting, "We'll win with Jeb and John."

2004 marriage tally

Ohio voters banned same-sex marriage by amending the state constitution in 2004. And that year, the General Assembly passed Substitute House Bill 272, a statutory (as opposed to constitutional) ban on same-sex marriage. The House approved the bill 73-23; the Senate agreed, 18-15; and Gov. Bob Taft signed the measure on Feb. 6, 2004.

Among legislators who voted against the 2004 statutory marriage ban were former Gov. Nancy Hollister of Marietta, the only House Republican with the courage to vote "no"; Rep. Fred Strahorn, a Dayton Democrat, now the House's minority leader; then-Sen. Dan Brady, a Cleveland Democrat, now Cuyahoga County Council president; then-Sen. David Goodman, a suburban Columbus Republican, now in Kasich's Cabinet as director of Development Services; then-Rep. Michael Skindell, a Lakewood Democrat now a state senator; and then-Sen. Steve Stivers, a suburban Columbus Republican now in Congress.

Those weren't easy votes 11 years ago. But as the Supreme Court's June ruling showed, those votes defended human rights.

Among Ohio House Republicans voting in 2004 to pass the same-sex marriage ban were then-Reps. Keith Faber of Celina, now the Senate's president; Jon Husted of suburban Dayton, now secretary of state; and Mary Taylor of suburban Akron, now Kasich's lieutenant governor.

Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens.

To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@gmail.com, 216-999-4689