Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson will run for president in 2024, he told ABC News on Sunday.
“I’m going to run for president of the United States,” Hutchinson told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on This Week. “While the formal announcement will be later in April, in Bentonville [Arkansas], I want to make it clear to you, Jonathan, I am going to be running.”
The Sunday announcement comes months after Hutchinson, who was succeeded by Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year, floated the idea during Sunday show appearances and interviews. He told Karl he was compelled to run after touring the U.S. over the last six months and noticing that “people want leaders that appeal to the best of America, and not simply appeal to our worst instincts.”
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He’s aware, however, that he lacks the national profile of rivals like former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
“It’s still about retail politics in many of these states, and also, this is one of the most unpredictable political environments that I’ve seen in my lifetime,” Hutchinson said. “So my message of experience, of consistent conservatism and hope for our future in solving problems that face Americans, I think that that resonates.”
The former governor argued that Trump shouldn’t even be in consideration in the first place. Asked by Karl if he thinks Trump should drop out of the race over his pending criminal charges in New York, he responded with a simple: “I do.”
“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,” Hutchinson said, adding he wouldn’t have brought charges against Trump if he was the prosecutor.
He also hurled some criticism toward Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a presumed leading candidate for the Republican nomination who hasn’t yet announced a run.
“There is some differences of view, absolutely,” Hutchinson said, pointing to DeSantis’ relationships with businesses. “The [state] legislature supported him in many instances, but I think we as conservatives need to stop and say, ‘Is this the role of government to tell business what to do?’”
Hutchinson has tried to differentiate himself from Trump—and some fellow Republicans—in various ways during his tenure as governor. He vetoed a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, and he expressed remorse for having banned mask mandates as the Delta variant took hold in 2021.
Still, Hutchinson’s run could face complications. He was roundly criticized for enforcing a trigger law that banned abortions with no exceptions for rape and incest following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, and he told Karl he worried about “the cultural direction of our country.” However, he wanted to distinguish himself in a way that, while not “anti-Trump,” could speak to voters who are seeking a “non-Trump.”
“When I say ‘non-Trump,’ I want to be able to speak to the Trump voters,” he told ABC. “I want to be able to speak to all of the party and say, ‘This is the leadership that I want to provide, and I think that we need to have border security. I think we need to have a strong America; we need to spend less at the federal level.’ These are the values that I represent.”
