Ohio Gov. John Kasich voted Monday for 2008 Republican nominee John McCain instead of for 2016 Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Kasich wrote in McCain’s name at the top of the ticket, Kasich spokesman Chris Schrimpf said, on his absentee ballot.
Kasich ran against Trump for the Republican nomination, and has been a prominent holdout ever since dropping out of the race in May. He has long promised not to support Trump in November, but he had not previously said who he planned to support instead.
Kasich’s vote was first reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
The popular Ohio governor has spent the fall campaigning for down-ballot Republican candidates, and Schrimpf said he had given the maximum contributions to a handful of Senate candidate. He added that Kasich voted the straight Republican ticket, excluding Trump.
Trump has lashed out at Kasich for declining to endorse him after the Republican primary ended. Kasich, like other GOP rivals for the nomination, signed a pledge promising to back the Republican nominee at the primary’s conclusion.
“I’m very disappointed in the governor. He signed a pledge, he didn’t honor it,” Trump told an Ohio radio host last week. “He took a big, he took a big defeat and he has not gotten over it.”
