“The Lord created you for a purpose. If you do understand that, you can fight off the obstacles of life because you know you have special purpose. And we are all made special with gifts unique to each of us,” Kasich said. “No small amount of good that is done is ever lost in eternity. It never will be.”
Kasich, a born-again Christian with a tendency to wear his faith on his sleeve, said humans are here “to serve and to love and to heal in keeping with the spirit of the power far greater than ourselves, power that calls on us challenges us to join in the mission of healing and when we have knowledge that we are special, it lifts the scales from our eyes and we see before us a mountain we are called to climb.”
Kasich and Taylor took the official oath of office just after midnight but were sworn in again in a daytime ceremony attended by U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, Attorney General Mike DeWine, Auditor Dave Yost, Secretary of State Jon Husted, Treasurer Josh Mandel, lawmakers, state supreme court justices, lobbyists and other supporters.
Kasich shared a family group hug on stage with wife Karen and their 14-year-old twin daughters, Emma and Reese, just before making his speech.
Kasich said now is not the time to kick back and rest on laurels. Instead, he pledged to work on job creation, education reform and recapturing Ohio’s legacy of innovation.
Kasich was re-elected to a second term in a landslide, capturing 63.6 percent of the vote and beating Democrat Ed FitzGerald by more than 935,000 votes.
In Kasich’s first term, he cut personal income taxes, bumped up the state sales tax, slashed state funding to local governments, privatized some prison operations and the state’s economic development arm, reworked criminal sentencing and sanction laws, expanded Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act, enacted more restrictions on abortions, moved to curb prescription drug abuse and stop human trafficking, and embraced scores of public education changes.
In his second term, Kasich has indicated that he will push for an increase in taxes paid by oil and gas producers, another income tax cut, accountability measures for poorly performing charter schools and a continuation of the expanded Medicaid program.
Kasich steered clear of talking specifics on Monday and instead employed a broad brush to call for unity, respect and team work.
“We are Ohioans. We are Americans. We can’t be partisans and we cannot be extreme ideologues if we are going to deal with the problems in America,” he said to applause.
Kasich, 62, is a life-long Ohioan politician who is known as a business-friendly Republican who believes in both personal responsibility and helping the downtrodden. Kasich told the audience that his mother told him “it is a sin to not help someone who needs it but it is equally a sin to continue to help someone who needs how to learn to help themselves.”
He was first elected to the Ohio Senate at age 26, shortly after graduating from Ohio State University in 1974. He went on to serve nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and made a brief run for the GOP nomination for president in 2000. He went on to work as an investment banker for Lehman Brothers, write books and host a political talk show before jumping back into the political world in 2010 when he beat incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland to capture the governor’s office.
Unlike in previous major addresses, Kasich read from extensive notes and delivered a more concise and focused message. He concluded: “When my work is done I hope Ohioans are more than just better off. I hope we have a better way, that we have a new way of seeing our shared work together. I hope I will have helped Ohioans see how much can be achieved when we laugh at the impossible and just go for it.”
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said in a written statement that Democrats are focused on helping working families. “In his inaugural address today, Gov. Kasich highlighted the need for us to work together as individuals for the greater good, and we share that sentiment. Unlike the past four years, we hope that the policies he and others in Columbus enact make that commitment a reality rather than the usual rhetoric.”
State Sens. Keith Faber, R-Celina, Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, and Bill Beagle, R-Tipp City, each praised Kasich’s speech as inspirational and motivating. “I think overall it was very well done,” Lehner said.
The Central State University Chorus closed out the ceremony with the hymn “How Great Thou Art” and then a lively rendition of U2’s “Beautiful Day.”
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