CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM, CLEVELAND, Ohio –Former Ohio governor John Kasich, who served as governor from 2011-2019 and ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016, the year President Trump won for president over Hillary Clinton, will speak at the Democratic National Convention this year in support of Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Kasich an outspoken critic of the president.

The Democratic National Committee has set its national convention for the week of Aug. 17 in Milwaukee.

Trump and Biden, a former vice president under former president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, will square off on Nov. 3 for the 2020 presidential election, the controversial president losing in practically every poll but not totally out of the game, pundits have said.

It is not at all uncommon for politicians to endorse candidates of opposite parties, but for a former Republican governor to literally campaign against a sitting president of the same political party during an election year for president is almost, if not literally, unprecedented.

Colin Jackson, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County Republican Party and its director of minority engagement, said he is not at all surprised that Kasich is endorsing Biden.

"He [Kasich] held out during the primary when it was clear he was not going to win, he skipped the 2016 Republican convention, and he seemingly tried to encourage the entire Ohio Republican Delegation to go against Donald Trump," said Jackson, who is Black.

Cuyahoga County includes Cleveland and is Ohio's second largest county of 88 counties statewide.

It is a Democratic stronghold.

The county GOP party is led by county party chair Lisa Stickan and Black Cleveland activist Donna Walker-Brown, chair of the executive committee, both of them elected this year and Stickan ousting longtime county party chair Rob Frost.

An attorney, Stickan is the first woman elected to the powerful post.

Jackson said that Kasich's support of Biden could very well "push Republicans who are on the fence or undecided to support President Trump for reelection."

Others say it spells trouble for the Trump campaign.

Also a CNN contributor and political analyst, Kasich cannot stand Trump and has dogged him since the 2016 Republican primary.

He joins a cadre of prominent Republicans, including ex-Ohio GOP chair Matt Borges, who are out to get the president out of office.

As governor, Kasich opposed policies promoted by statehouse Democrats on issues from abortion to gun control and voting rights, and relative to labor rights, collective bargaining, and right-to-work legislation.

He has political friends and supporters across partisan lines.

Black leaders and elected officials who are traditionally Democrats were sometimes in his corner.

They say that as governor Kasich was easy to get along with and that he allocated and pushed for economic stimulus monies for impoverished urban communities like Cleveland, and often, they claim, more frequently than some of his Democratic gubernatorial predecessors.

Kasich was succeeded into office by current GOP Governor Mike DeWine, a Trump ally.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.