Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson suspended his presidential campaign on Tuesday morning after receiving just 0.2 percent of the vote in Monday night’s Iowa caucuses.
In a statement released by the Asa for America campaign, Hutchinson said he “sounded the warning” to his party about the “risks in 2024 and presented hope for our country‘s future.“
“My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa. I stand by the campaign that I ran,” the statement said.
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In August, Hutchinson joined the race and presented himself as a “non-Trump” candidate.
“When I say ‘non-Trump,’ I want to be able to speak to the Trump voters,” Hutchinson explained to ABC News.
He also indicated that he believed Trump should drop out of the race due to his pending criminal charges in New York. “The office is more important than any individual person. And so for the sake of the office of the presidency, I do think that’s too much of a sideshow and distraction and he needs to be able to concentrate on his due process and there is a presumption of innocence,” he said in August.
In his statement on Monday, Hutchinson congratulated Trump on his victory in Iowa.
Hutchinson is the second Republican candidate to drop out following the Iowa caucus results, after Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his campaign on Monday night.
