Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson speaks during the Florida Freedom Summit held at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee, Florida, on Nov. 4, 2023.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday suspended his Republican presidential campaign, a day after finishing a distant sixth place in the GOP’s Iowa caucuses.
Hutchinson’s departure narrows the Republican primary field to just former President Donald Trump, who won Iowa in a landslide; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; and Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador and ex-South Carolina governor.
“I congratulate Donald J. Trump for his win last night in Iowa and to the other candidates who competed and garnered delegate support,” Hutchinson said in a statement.
“Today, I am suspending my campaign for President and driving back to Arkansas.”
Hutchinson defended his campaign message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front-runner.
But he acknowledged that message “did not sell in Iowa.”
Hutchinson won just .2% of the votes in the Iowa caucuses, or 191 caucusgoers. He finished nearly 600 votes behind the fifth-place finisher, Ryan Binkley, a pastor and entrepreneur whose campaign focused on Iowa but has won little national traction.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur and political newcomer whose media-friendly and energetic campaign generated outsize attention, ended his own GOP bid Monday night and endorsed Trump.
Ramaswamy had finished in fourth place with less than 8% of the caucus vote.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who appeared on the Iowa ballots despite suspending his campaign the previous week, received 35 votes.
Trump won more than 51% of the Iowa caucusgoers’ votes.
The former president’s allies have urged his few remaining Republican competitors to drop their long-shot challenges and back him as the party’s nominee.
But Haley and DeSantis have shown no signs — yet — of giving up.
DeSantis appeared emboldened by his second-place finish in Iowa, interpreting that result as a vindication over critics who “were writing our obituary months ago.”
Haley, who finished in third place, hopes for a stronger result next week in New Hampshire, where the first primary election of the 2024 cycle will be held. Polls show her competing closely with Trump there.
Trump is scheduled to appear later Tuesday at a campaign event in New Hampshire.
He began the day in New York, where he attended jury selection in the civil trial for a lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll.
The trial will determine the monetary damages that Trump would have to pay Carroll for defaming her when she accused him in 2019 of sexually assaulting her decades earlier.
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