Kasich, a Republican who was raised Catholic but became a Protestant after his parents were killed by a drunken driver in 1987, cites God regularly in public, such as in justifying the building of a Holocaust Memorial on the Statehouse grounds, expanding Medicaid to more than a quarter-million Ohioans, in graduation speeches, in his State of the State addresses and even during an event launching a campaign to prevent the elderly from falling. (“The Lord wants you to be strong and healthy.”)
“My faith is part of me. In terms of how it affects my public policy ... on my best days, I sort of have an eternal perspective, which is really a great thing to have, because it frees you up. You don’t get caught up in some of the things that can get in your way.