Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson formally launched his bid for the GOP presidential nomination Wednesday in his home state, touting his long career in public service and a commonsense conservative approach on the economy, crime and border security.
“In this campaign for president, I stand alone in terms of my experience, record, and leadership,” Hutchinson said, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. “This campaign is about courage. It is about making the tough decisions to rebuild our economy; to give peace a chance through America’s strength, and to renew the American spirit of freedom.”
Hutchinson, 72, didn’t mention former President Donald Trump or any of his other declared or potential opponents in his remarks, sticking mostly to kitchen-table issues and steering clear of the GOP’s culture wars. Hutchinson has previously said that Trump, who’s mired in legal troubles stemming from a hush money payment to a porn actor, should drop out of the race.
“Growing up in these hills, I learned the value of work. I hauled hay, worked in four different factories, sacked groceries, and through college, I was a janitor cleaning campus buildings,” Hutchinson said in Bentonville, Arkansas, the birthplace of Walmart, where Hutchinson launched his career as a prosecutor. “All to pay the bills and to get an education. In law school, I benefitted from the federal student loan program. And, yes, I paid my loan off.”
Hutchinson is putting his long resume front and center in his campaign. His second term as Arkansas governor ended in January. Hutchinson was elected to the U.S. House in 1996 and served as one of the managers in President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment. He resigned from the House in 2001 to serve in President George W. Bush’s administration as an undersecretary in the Department of Homeland Security and leading the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“If people look at my history, I fought against the establishment, I fought in the courtroom for justice, I fought as governor for credible reform, so there’s a lot of different ways to fight. You can fight with common sense and reason, and then you can fight as a screamer. Well if they’re looking for a screamer, that’s not me,” Hutchinson told HuffPost in Iowa last weekend.
Hutchinson’s formal campaign launch comes a day after President Joe Biden announced his reelection bid, framing himself as a guard against increasingly authoritarian MAGA Republicans led by Trump.
It also came a day after his one of his rivals, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, sought to distinguish herself as a moderate on abortion without offering any specifics about the policies she prefers. Hutchinson has said he would sign a national 15-week abortion ban.
Hutchinson joins a GOP field that so far includes Haley and Trump, as well as former radio host Larry Elder and anti-woke author Vivek Ramaswamy. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott are also expected to launch campaigns soon.
Igor Bobic contributed reporting.