Asa Hutchinson suspends Republican presidential bid
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who entered the presidential race as an outspoken critic of former President Donald J. Trump but never gained traction, suspended his bid for the Republican nomination on Tuesday.
“Today I am suspending my campaign for president and driving back to Arkansas,” he said in a statement after finishing with less than 1 percent support in the Iowa caucuses on Monday. “My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current frontrunner did not sell in Iowa. I stand by the campaign I ran.”
Mr Hutchinson, who announced his candidacy in April, repeatedly called on the former president to withdraw from the presidential race over his actions on January 6, 2021, but to no avail.
“How the hell are you going to beat Donald Trump,” he said during an interview just days before the Iowa caucuses, “if someone doesn't sound the alarm that we could all go up in flames if we have the wrong nominee?” ?”
He tried to brand himself as a voice of “consistent conservatism” in the race, saying he chose to run to give Republican voters a variety of non-Trump options.
But after wading into the Republican National Committee's first debate in August, Mr. Hutchinson failed to make one of the rest as candidates were expected to meet increasingly high polling and fundraising thresholds .
Along the way, Mr. Hutchinson highlighted his extensive political resume, which includes two terms as a representative in the U.S. Congress and leadership roles at the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Homeland Security Department. His platform included calls to reduce federal workforces and increase border security and criminalization of fentanyl distribution.
Despite Mr. Hutchinson's numerous trips to early states, including in the final days of his campaign for the Iowa caucuses, his message never really caught on. He struggled to break the 1 percent mark in the polls; his events did not draw large crowds; and he received the least speaking time during his only debate appearance.
He had raised just $1.2 million through September and spent $924,015 of that, a fraction of the amounts raised by other major candidates. His only television advertisement did not receive much air time.
Mr Hutchinson's original campaign manager, Rob Burgess, left at the end of October and shortly afterwards Mr. Hutchinson said on social media that he would not register to vote in South Carolina – there is no point in competing there, Mr Hutchinson has said. Nikki Haley, who is also seeking the nomination, is the state's former governor.
Mr. Hutchinson broke with others at several points in the race, taking positions that are more moderate than typical of Republicans in the Trump era — although he is not a moderate Republican.
He said he would maintain a trade relationship with China, and he was not in favor of a full border wall. He has also pushed back on legislation related to transgender rights, vetoing a bill in Arkansas in 2021 that banned transitional care for minors. But he has supported several other restrictions on transgender rights, signed an abortion ban that makes no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, and has taken other conservative positions.
Jonathan Weisman reporting contributed.