SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- John Kasich covered a wide variety of topics Friday in his town hall meeting at Le Moyne College, but highlighted his experience in government going all the way back to his college days.
Hundreds of students heard Kasich talk about his freshman year at Ohio State University, when he went to Washington to meet President Richard M. Nixon.
"The good news is, as a first-quarter, 18-year-old freshman, I spent 20 minutes alone in the White House at his desk," the Ohio governor said Friday before joking, "The bad news is, I spent 18 years in Congress, and if you add up all the time I spent in the Oval Office, I peaked out at the age of 18."
Kasich hopes to spend much more time in the Oval Office as president. While keeping a distance from the establishment, Kasich highlighted his accomplishments in passing a balanced budget.
He says that, as president, he can do so again, largely by transferring power and resources back to states.
"I would never replace a federal employee," Kasich said. "Once a federal employee retires, that's it. And you begin to shrink the federal workforce."
Kasich took the stage Friday trailing Donald Trump by 600 delegates in the GOP presidential race. But he says that race, and his campaign, are far from over.
"I believe that we will end up at that convention, and when I get to spend my time visiting the delegations and letting people know who I am, I believe that I'll be the nominee and then I'm going to end up being the president," Kasich said, "then I'm going to come back here and see you again."
So he's confident, but he is facing an uphill climb. The latest polling numbers from Monmouth University have Trump at 52 percent and Kasich at 25 percent.
If New York's primary, if a candidate gets 50 percent of the vote in a congressional district, he gets all of the delegates. Otherwise, if two candidates are above 20 percent in a district, the delegates are split two and one.