Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas, has declared his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. He will take on former President Donald Trump, who is still the front-runner despite the possibility of being charged with a crime.
In an interview with ABC New that aired on Sunday, Hutchinson stated, “I believe people want leaders who speak to the best of America and not just play to our darkest instincts.”
GOP primaries are still in their early stages. Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the UN, became Trump’s first significant challenger when she declared her candidacy in February of last year, the same year he started his third presidential bid. Several other Republicans, including former vice president and Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
Early in January, Hutchinson resigned from his position as governor of Arkansas, limiting himself to running for a third term but freeing him to consider running for president.
He visited Iowa on his last day in office, the first Republican primary of the 2024 cycle, and has subsequently increased his trip to other crucial early-election states. He has been a vocal opponent of Trump for months and has frequently demanded that the Party take a different path. He has also been a frequent critic of Trump.
I actually think that having more votes in opposition right now or providing an alternative to Donald Trump is the best thing in the right direction,” Hutchinson told CNN’s Dana Bash last month.
After Trump’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury last week, Hutchinson was the rare Republican to call for the former president to pull out of the 2024 race, and Fox Business said the case was a “distraction” and a “disgrace to America.”
Some Republican strategists say a crowded primary field in 2024 would be beneficial for Trump, who still enjoys significant base support, and could fragment the anti-Trump vote, allowing the former president to walk away with the nomination.
But Hutchinson has repeatedly maintained that a big field early in the competition would ultimately be good for the party.
“In the early stages, having several candidates who have an alternative vision to what the president has is good for our party, good for the debate, good for the upcoming debate that’s going to happen in August,” Hutchinson told CNN last month .
“So sure, that’s going to narrow, and it’s probably going to narrow pretty quickly. We have to have a lot of self-assessment over time, but I think more voices now that provide alternative messages and solutions to problems and ideas is good for our party,” he added.
