Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, has learned on the campaign trail that Americans “need to be listened to, supported and hugged,” the GOP presidential hopeful said Friday.

“People will come to our town halls and they will talk about some of the most excruciatingly difficult things that they see in their lives,” he said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “People need to be listened to, supported and hugged, I’m telling you, all across America.”

Kasich has staked his candidacy on a strong showing in New Hampshire, where he is pushing the compassionate conservatism that he brought to the trail during a short-lived presidential campaign in 1999. George W. Bush steamrolled Kasich in that race, but Jeb Bush has had a much harder time consolidating the support of such voters.