Speaking at a town hall in Fairfax, Virginia on Monday, John Kasich said many women "left their kitchens" to support his first campaign for the Ohio legislature in 1978.
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Kasich noted that today, "everybody's out working."
"How did I get elected? I didn't have anybody for me, we just got an army of people, who um, and many women who left their kitchens to go out and go door-to-door, and put yard signs up for me. You know, all the way back, when things were different. Now you call homes and everybody's out working, but at that time, early days, it was an army of the women that really helped me to get elected to the state senate and into that job."
A questioner confronted Kasich about his comment later in the town hall.
"First off, I want to say, your comment earlier about the women came out the kitchen to support you, I'll come to support you, but I won't be coming out of the kitchen," she said.
"I gotcha," Kasich replied.
Kasich's spokesperson, in a statement, said Kasich's campaigns "have always been homegrown affairs."
Here's Kasich spox @chrisschrimpf on "kitchen" remark: "to try and twist his comments" is "just desperate politics"