Ex-Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson drops out of 2024 US presidential race

One of the few Republican candidates to take aim at front runner Trump, Hutchinson never rose above 1 percentage point in opinion polls

He had sought to position himself as the ‘non-Trump’ candidate, saying the ex-US president bore ‘significant responsibility’ for the January 6 Capitol attack

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Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson speaks in Des Moines, Iowa, in July. Photo: AP

Published: 1:44am, 17 Jan 2024Updated: 8:31am, 17 Jan 2024

Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, one of the few Republican US presidential hopefuls to forcefully criticise front runner Donald Trump, dropped out of the race on Tuesday after struggling to gain traction in the polls.

“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 I ran,” Hutchinson said in a statement.

He congratulated Trump on his decisive victory Monday in the Iowa caucuses, the first nominating contest of the 2024 race.

Hutchinson, who launched his long-shot bid for the 2024 Republican nomination in April with a call for Trump to exit the race, never rose above 1 percentage point in opinion polls and did not qualify for the party’s second debate in September.

Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson talks to students during a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 3. Photo: AP

Hutchinson sought to position himself as the “non-Trump” candidate, saying the former president bore “significant responsibility” for the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters and that he was unfit to be president again.