What you seem to be saying is that Kasich is your guy at this stage in the game. And that makes you a progressive, part of the progressive wing of the Republican party, the wing that controls the RNC and is controlled by the donor class. You can claim to be conservative all you want, you are a progressive. Or a useful idiot. Or an RNC plant. Given your longevity here, I doubt that you are a plant. And you don't seem like a useful idiot. So, you are just a liberal Republican who has been here a long time. Not a conservative, don't kid yourself. Jeb Bush and Boehner claim to be conservative, too.
I am so conservative that I make Reagan seem like a socialist. First term senators make TERRIBLE presidents, and most, not all, governors make decent ones. They have rum things, school systems, legislatures, police agencies, taxes, payrolls, unions...whatever.....senators have voted yes or no on other peoples ideas.