Asa Hutchinson Drops Out Of GOP Presidential Race
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has ceased his campaign to be the Republican nominee for president, he said in a statement Tuesday.
Hutchinson came in sixth place in the Iowa Republican caucuses held Monday night, with 0.2% of the vote.
Hutchinson stood out on the campaign trail as one of the few GOP candidates to firmly rebuke former President Donald Trump, the race’s front-runner. His statement ending his campaign continued that criticism.
“My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa,” he said.
“I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for our country’s future.”
Hutchinson previously spoke out against the Republican National Committee’s debate stage requirement that candidates vow to support whomever becomes the party’s nominee, stating he could not endorse Trump if he’s convicted on federal charges.
Though Hutchinson ultimately signed the pledge, he and his fellow candidate at the time Chris Christie were the only ones at the first GOP debate not to raise their hands when asked if they’d support Trump as the nominee if he’s found guilty on any of the dozens of charges on which he’s been indicted.
He also slammed his fellow candidates for pledging to pardon Trump if elected.
“I think that anybody who promises pardons during the presidential campaign is not serving our system of justice well, and it’s inappropriate,” Hutchinson told CBS’s “Face the Nation” in July.
In early November, Hutchinson revealed that he did not file paperwork to appear on the primary ballot in South Carolina, as both its former Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott have a much better shot of winning there.
“I went to college in SC and met my bride there so I love the state but this is the best way to elect non-Trump delegates,” Hutchinson posted on X, expressing a desire not to further split the vote among Trump’s competitors.
The $50,000 fee to file to run in the South Carolina primary also amounted to more than 15% of the funds Hutchinson’s campaign reported having in October, NBC News found.
The former Arkansas governor failed to qualify for the second GOP debate in September.
Hutchinson ― a far-right conservative on abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and energy reform ― first launched his presidential campaign in April in his hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, at the same spot where he announced an unsuccessful Senate bid in 1986.
“I ran as a conservative Republican when being a Republican was like having a career-ending handicap,” he said at the April launch, continuing, “And now, I bring that same vigor to fight another battle, and that battle is for the future of our country and the soul of our party.”
Hutchinson first won a House seat representing Arkansas in 1996. He left that post to lead former President George W. Bush’s Drug Enforcement Administration from 2001 to 2003.
He ran an unsuccessful campaign for Arkansas governor in 2006, losing to a Democrat, then won the position in 2015. He served as governor from 2015 to 2023, when he was termed out.
Liza Hearon contributed to this article.
