Say it enough and it could happen.

The premise as presidential candidate John Kasich visited the state Saturday for a “town meeting” at Bryant University is that a contested Republican convention will happen, and that under those circumstances Kasich will be the party’s nominee.

Today’s primaries could have a bearing on whether that will happen, and that’s why Kasich supporters were out in force to hear what their candidate had to say and to cheer him on. Compared to Donald Trump, who has the best chance of sewing up the nomination before the convention, statistically at this point Kasich can’t come up with the delegates to win the nomination on a first ballot. His chance is a contested convention where the party selects a nominee on a second, third or even more ballots.

“We’re headed to a contested convention,” Dawson Hodgson said emphatically as he addressed a packed Koffler Rotunda. Gary Sasse, Rhode Island campaign co-chair, likewise had the party headed for a contested convention.

Kasich’s message was what moderate Republicans wanted to hear.

Kasich can tell a story, and he warmed his audience of about 700 by relating how as an impetuous youth he imagined anything was possible if you talked to the right people, including the president of the United States. As it turned out, his boldness got him an audience with President Richard Nixon at the age of 18. The Ohio governor, who served 18 years in Congress, observed that little did he know at the time he had hit his “peak” in terms of gaining the president’s ear.

It was a story of having the seemingly impossible becoming true. It’s what many in the audience want to believe.

He offered hope to those who may think Trump has the nomination locked up. He called this election year “volatile.” He said that while Trump won the New Hampshire Republican primary, a poll of those who voted now favor him. He predicted candidates will go into the convention with none of them having enough delegates to win the nomination.

The issues for delegates, he said, are who can win the election and who can be the president of the United States.

He urged Americans to spend more time worrying who is going to be the next president than what’s happening in the life of Kim Kardashian.

Bryant president Ronald Machtley, who served in Congress with Kasich, introduced the candidate. He touched on his record as governor, saying that when Kasich came into office Ohio faced an $8 billion deficit and that now it has a $2 billion surplus.

In responding to a question about the cost of education, Kasich talked about how Ohio had lost 300,000 jobs during the Great Recession and as governor he was able to add 420,000 jobs. He talked of the need to strengthen education K through 12 and the role of community colleges in reducing higher educational costs as well as educating the workforce to fill the needs of business.

“We have had lousy economic growth in the past 15 years,” he said. “We have a problem.”

Kasich said the country is “killing small banks and that is the opposite of what we want to do…Go ahead and beat up business and they’ll leave.”

Kasich asked for small business owners in the audience to raise their hands and asked one woman how many people she employed; she said 19. Painting a scenario of higher taxes and reduced access to capital, Kasich ventured she would look to reduce employees or worse, close the business. He said he would lower corporate taxes because, “I don’t want them leaving.”

“The fundamental problem in America is our leadership has been very poor,” he said.

His answer is that the country “needs to rise to a higher level” and doing that requires putting aside partisan politics. And in a jab at his Republican opponents, he said “we don’t win” with personal attacks, smears and demeaning public service, “let’s win with ideas…or go home.”

On the issue of the viability of Social Security, Kasich spoke of the need to make adjustments in payments to those who don’t depend on it, adding that it’s going to take Republicans and Democrats to make the system sustainable. He also spoke of the military and the Veterans Administration, calling for free health care for all returning combat veterans.

“We can’t let politicians fail to do this,” he said.

Observing that the bureaucracy of the armed services and the VA is larger than the active military, Kasich called for a “flatter and more responsive” VA. A greater portion of armed services funding should go toward those serving, he said, adding, “We have to rethink the whole thing.”

Asked about universal health care by Steve Andolfo, a teacher at St. Rose of Lima School, Kasich talked about the need to quantify the quality and cost of health care. He would reward those institutions and individuals that provide quality and control costs.

And while there wasn’t a question about terrorism, Kasich spoke about being connected to the community so as to identify radical organizations and those “who have had their faith hijacked by radicals.” He called on people, even families who have seen family members radicalized, to speak up.

“You see trouble, you’ve got to report it,” he said.

Likewise, he spoke of the importance of joint policing and intelligence. He said ISIS “has to be destroyed.”

“We have to be strong and we have to lead,” he said.

And what if Kasich’s effort falls short? Would he run as an independent? That’s not in the cards. Kasich still has two years in his term as governor. As he said in opening remarks, Kasich sees his purpose now as running for president and a contested convention as his path to the GOP nomination.