Kasich works to assure South Carolina of conservative record

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — An energized John Kasich heads into South Carolina's Republican presidential primary hoping to build on a strong showing in New Hampshire, but he's refusing to tailor or shift his message to fit the state's more conservative electorate.

Kasich is making a three-day swing through the state with stops along the coast and in several population centers, making sure to hit the state's more moderate corners along the way.

In town hall meetings packed to the brim with supporters or curious voters, Kasich is making the case for a brand of conservatism that leaves no one behind.

[...] he's defending himself as attacks against his conservative credentials start flying, chiefly over his decision to expand Medicaid in Ohio despite resistance from his GOP-led Legislature.

From the Carolinas west to Oklahoma and Texas, none of the GOP-run states has embraced Medicaid expansion, and several of Kasich's Southern counterpart governors have been openly hostile to President Barack Obama's health care law, calling it a federal overreach — and worse.

The governor here, Nikki Haley, won easy re-election in 2014 on her staunch rejection of Medicaid expansion and refusal to run a state-based exchange to sell private insurance policies, the other pillar of Obama's health care law.

The president twice won Kasich's Ohio — and New Hampshire — but in South Carolina, Obama peaked at 44.9 percent of the vote in 2008.

[...] a Winthrop University poll taken in December found that 93 percent of likely South Carolina GOP presidential primary voters disapprove of Obama's job performance.