Sen. Jim Inhofe James (Jim) Mountain InhofeTrump backs off total Syria withdrawal Allies wary of Shanahan's assurances with looming presence of Trump On The Money: Trump to sign border deal, declare emergency to build wall | Senate passes funding bill, House to follow | Dems promise challenge to emergency declaration MORE’s (R-Okla.) support of GOP presidential candidate John Kasich stems from the fact that he thinks the Ohio governor would be a good second in command.

“I support John Kasich not so that he could be president, but so that if Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE becomes president, I would want Trump to use him as a vice president because Kasich is one of the smartest guys I know,” Inhofe told the Enid News of Oklahoma over the weekend.

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Inhofe was supporting Sen. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Sixteen years later, let's finally heed the call of the 9/11 Commission Schumer urges GOP to reject Trump's 'destructive' national emergency MORE (R-Fla.) in the GOP presidential race until his candidate dropped out last month. He then transferred his support to Kasich.

Inhofe said he thinks Texas Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzCornyn less popular than Cruz in Texas: poll Trump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington MORE will win the nomination, but he’s hopeful that if Trump is the party’s choice, he’ll select Kasich as his running mate.

“The guy knows everything Trump doesn’t, but he’s also the one from Ohio, and you’ve got to get Ohio,” Inhofe said. “The only way Trump is going to win is if he gets Ohio and Kasich as a VP. We will wait and see if that works.”