COLUMBUS — Gov. John Kasich admits it may seem odd to discuss the actions of Donald Trump during last year’s presidential campaign in a chapter focusing on faith.

“Realize that Karen and I had participated in the campaign with our daughters,” the Republican governor wrote in his book “Two Paths: America Divided or United,” to be released Tuesday.

“And now we were looking on together in shock at some of the things Donald Trump was saying — indeed, at a lot of the things he was saying,” he wrote. “And it wasn’t just Donald Trump, mind you. There was enough bad behavior and unseemly rhetoric going around on those debate stages and at rallies across the country to suggest the death of civilized discourse and respectful discussions.

“Realize, too, that over on the Democratic side of the campaign, Hillary Clinton didn’t distinguish herself in this regard,” he wrote. “She wasn’t exactly taking the high road. She referred to half of Trump’s supporters as ‘a basket full of deplorables’ and started putting people down in order to make her point.

“I couldn’t look Karen and the girls in the eye and tell them I was for Clinton any more than I could have told them I was for Trump.”

The governor, the last Republican not named Trump left standing in 2016, explains in the book why he couldn’t endorse the man who became the next president of the United States, how he chose to cast a write-in vote for John McCain instead, and why he wouldn’t consider serving as Mr. Trump’s vice president.

And he stressed the book — part political memoir, autobiography, and human introspection — covers some territory Mr. Kasich has covered before, either in his three prior books, past speeches, or in interviews. But this time he recounts his upbringing in McKees Rocks, Pa. in the shadow of Pittsburgh, his return to God after the death of his parents at the hands of a drunken driver, and his work over nine terms as congressman and six years as governor as part of the narrative that ultimately led to a decision to run for president in mid-2016.

And then how he chose to run that campaign, saying he refused to simply tell voters what they wanted to hear or suggest easy, quick solutions for complicated problems that would take multiple presidential administrations to solve.

“It never crossed my mind to say incendiary things,” Mr. Kasich said today in an interview. “Being a governor was a disadvantage. I wasn’t going to go into all these promises and extreme statements. I have an obligation even now to be a responsible leader…

“I am a happy man,” he said. “I have no regrets. Some people thought I didn’t endorse Trump because I was bitter or angry. Absolutely none of the above…It had to do with how to properly lift people in society.”

Mr. Kasich is in the midst of national tour to promote the book, published by St. Martin’s Press in New York. He said the book is not an attempt to set the stage for another presidential run, although he wouldn't rule one out.

When asked if he could write another chapter now looking at the Trump administration’s early going, he said, “My feeling is it’s too early. We’re 100 days in. It’s going to take time to see where the whole thing goes.

“I’m rooting for him,” he said. “I fiercely opposed him. I don’t fiercely oppose him (now). If there’s something to praise, I’ll praise."

The governor does provide one new bit of information in the book.

Remember the back-and-forth between Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Mr. Kasich over an alleged deal for Mr. Kasich to cede the Indiana GOP primary to Mr. Cruz in exchange for Mr. Cruz ceding Oregon and New Mexico to Mr. Kasich?

While Mr. Kasich said there was no such deal involving Indiana, there was indeed a deal quietly brokered before that in which the Ohio governor agreed to walk away from his native state of Pennsylvania in exchange for the senator from Texas bowing out of New York and Maryland.

All of this was in light of hopes that Mr. Trump would not get the 1,237 delegates he needed before Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr. Kasich insists the campaign had already decided not to spend valuable resources on Indiana or Pennsylvania.

Ultimately, Mr. Kasich won just one state, his own, but picked up a handful of second-place finishes. Although he was the last Trump challenger left standing, outlasting Mr. Cruz by one day, he had picked up fewer delegates than Mr. Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio along the way.

The governor recalled a telephone conversation that campaign advisor John Weaver purportedly had with Donald Trump, Jr., a call that the younger Trump later denied. Mr. Kasich was reportedly offered the chance to serve as vice president.

“ ‘The governor would be in charge of all domestic and foreign policy,’ Donald Jr. reportedly said,” Mr. Kasich wrote. “It was a remarkable thing to say— if true — and John Weaver told me he couldn’t quite think what to say in response. What he finally came up with was, ‘Well, if that’s the case, then what would the president be doing’?’

“ ‘Why, he’ll be busy making America great again,’ came the reply.”

The book marks the first he has written since being elected governor in 2010.

But except for quickly ticking off the economic statistics that he frequently touts to describe Ohio’s post-recession turnaround, the book provides little insight into his six years in office.

There are fleeting references to his controversial decision to expand Medicaid and no mention of the fight over Senate Bill 5 — the law designed to restrict the clout of police, fire, teacher, and other public employee unions —  that nearly overshadowed his entire first year in office.

This is as close as he comes: “Remember, too, that I’d had some rocky times in my first year on the job, and in a lot of ways this frame of reference would inform how I set off on this presidential campaign.”

First Published April 24, 2017, 4:38 p.m.