Ohio Gov. John Kasich is pouring his efforts back into New Hampshire, the state he has continuously said is a must-win for his campaign, with a new bus tour.
The Kasich bus was parked outside a hotel in Manchester on Thursday morning — one day before he was set to head out on his first bus tour of the Granite State.
The Kasich campaign announced late Wednesday that he would make stops in New Hampshire and Vermont starting Friday. The campaign has played up his efforts recently to make a strong showing in Iowa, but New Hampshire is still at the crux of Kasich’s path to victory.
Despite his campaign’s focus there, Kasich has slipped in New Hampshire polls recently. He dropped from a neck-and-neck race with Jeb Bush for second place in August — with 12% support in an NBC News/Marist University poll — into sixth place in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday — with 6%.
And while Kasich remains popular in his home state, recent polling shows he would lose there in a GOP primary. Quinnipiac University’s survey of swing states, released Wednesday, found Trump winning Ohio with 23% support, followed by Ben Carson at 18% and Kasich at 13%. Results released Thursday morning found Kasich with 62% job approval — his highest ever, according to Quinnipiac pollsters.