“Do we look at people’s fears and concerns and drive them into the ditch?” Mr. Kasich told reporters in Albany on Monday, offering a preview of the two paths. “Or do we acknowledge the fact that people do have concerns and problems, and can we give them a path to solving our problems like Americans always have?”

Mr. Kasich added that the “negative approach,” as he called it, “leads to a lot of negative things: division, paranoia, hopelessness, anger.”

“The idea that all we do is lose is just a crazy notion,” he said. “This country is still very, very strong.”

Those are familiar themes to people who have heard Mr. Kasich at his town-hall-style events across the country. But with limited financial resources to pay for advertising, he needs to find other ways to garner attention before the remaining primaries.