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Little Rock, Arkansas (AP) — Asa HutchinsonThe Arkansas governor, who recently completed two terms, said on Sunday that he would seek the Republican presidential nomination, positioning himself as an alternative to Donald Trump. Just days after the former president was indicted by a grand jury in New York.
Mr Hutchinson argued that “the office is more important than the individual” and that Mr Trump should withdraw from the campaign.
Hutchinson, who announced his candidacy on ABC’s “This Week,” said he ran because “I believe the time is right for America and I am the right candidate for our country and its future.” He added: “I’m sure people want leaders who appeal to America’s best, not America’s worst instincts.”
He is the first Republican since Trump became the only former US president to face criminal charges.Hutchinson’s candidacy will test the Republican party’s appetite for people to speak out against Trump. Selectedfeel the difficulty of winning in the primary.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Hutchinson said it was important for voters to have alternative leaders instead of defaulting to someone who is truly tied to what happened in the past.
“I don’t think you have to be surly. I think you can be honest and genuine, and that’s what I want to be able to offer.
In a sign of Trump’s continued grip on the Republican base, most people in the party, even those looking to challenge Trump in the nomination race, have voted against the New York state indictment. Defending Mr. Trump. That makes Hutchinson a stark outlier among Republicans, at least for now.
In addition to Trump, Hutchinson joins the Republican field, which includes former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.Florida Governor Ron DeSantis South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Vice President Mike Pence I am considering bidding.
“I think I stand out by expressing my beliefs and my vision for this country,” Hutchinson told the Associated Press. As a country, I think it shows in how we’ve handled what we need to move forward as a country.”
The official campaign announcement will take place on April 26 in his hometown of Bentonville, home of Walmart. He will be campaigning in Iowa, Indiana and Kentucky over the next few weeks.
In places like Iowa, where campaigning involves “retail politics” like chatting with voters in diners, he’s very competitive, he said. He also said he believed he would be economically competitive, but “certainly won’t be on the level of Donald Trump in the world.”
Hutchinson, 72, resigned in January after eight years as governor.He has stepped up his criticism of the former president in recent months, saying another Trump nomination is a “worst-case scenario” for Republicans and likely to the benefit of President Joe Biden. 2024 is your chance.
The former governor, whose tenure was limited, has been a staple of Arkansas politics since the 1980s, when the state was dominated by Democrats. He is a former Congressman and was one of his House administrators to prosecute an impeachment case against President Bill Clinton..
Hutchinson is President George W. Bush’s He was the director of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
As governor, Hutchinson supported a series of income tax cuts as the state’s budget surplus grew. , signed several abortion laws. However, Hutchinson said he regretted that the measure did not include exceptions for rape and incest.
Hutchinson vetoed the bill last year, angering Trump and social conservatives Prohibition of gender-affirming medicine for children. Arkansas’ majority Republican Congress overturned Hutchinson’s veto and enacted a ban, but was temporarily blocked by a federal judge.
Trump called Hutchinson “Reno” and used his veto power.Hutchinson’s successor, former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sandersshe said she would have signed the bill.
Hutchinson, who signed the law into other restrictions on transgender youth, said Arkansas’ ban went too far and if it had focused solely on surgery, he would have signed the bill.
Hutchinson endorsed Sanders’ run for governor.
Sanders has not publicly endorsed Trump or anyone else in the 2024 presidential election.
Among the bills she signed into office since taking office was legislation intended to reinstate a ban on gender-confirmed care for minors, Hutchinson said it would be easier to sue providers of such care. She also disbanded the five panels Hutchinson had formed to advise him on the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing the state to focus on other health challenges. is hoping for
Although he has supported Trump’s policies, Hutchinson has become increasingly critical of the former president’s rhetoric and lies about the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s call to do so has hurt the country.
Hutchinson also criticized Trump for meeting with white supremacist leader Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye.He praised Adolf Hitler and spat out anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Hutchinson contrasted the encounter with his own career as a US attorney prosecuting white supremacists in Arkansas in the 1980s.
After taking office, Hutchinson, an opponent of the Federal Health Insurance Act, supported retaining the Arkansas version of Medicaid expansion. However, he defended the labor requirements of the law, which was blocked by a federal judge.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hutchinson tried to resist misinformation about the virus with daily press conferences and a series of town halls held across the state aimed at encouraging people to get vaccinated.
Hutchinson ordered eight executions in 2017, infuriating death penalty opponents Over the course of two weeks, I scheduled one of the state’s lethal injection drugs before it expired. The state ultimately carried out four executions of her.
The former governor is known more for talking about policy than for fiery speeches surrounded by charts and graphs at his press conferences in the state capitol. Instead of fighting on Twitter, he tweets Bible verses every Sunday morning.
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Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price, of New York, contributed to this report.
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