John Kasich will not be in South Carolina on primary night

South Carolina Republicans will vote Saturday in a critical, first-in-the-South presidential primary.

But Ohio Governor John Kasich, fresh off his strong second-place finish in New Hampshire, doesn’t plan to be there when the results roll in. Instead, he’s spending most of the day in Massachusetts.

Kasich will hold a town hall meeting in Worcester Saturday afternoon before attending a high-dollar fund-raiser in Boston’s Back Bay.

After last week’s New Hampshire primary, Kasich has quickly tried to turn momentum into campaign cash. All of the candidates, including Kasich, will need plentiful resources for robust television advertising campaigns in the 13 states that hold nominating contests on March 1, including Massachusetts.

Polls of the South Carolina GOP primary show Kasich competing with former Florida governor Jeb Bush for fourth place. In the Nevada Republican caucuses, which will be held Tuesday, a new CNN/ORC poll showed him in fifth place.

On Saturday, Kasich will be at the Hibernian Cultural Center in Worcester at 3 p.m. before attending an early evening fund-raiser in Boston, where the minimum donation is $2,700 per person.

“We campaigned in South Carolina on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, today, tomorrow and Friday,” said Kasich campaign spokesman Chris Schrimpf. “After South Carolina votes the race moves on to other states including Massachusetts, where we will hit the ground running.”