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Asa Hutchinson’s run as a longshot Republican presidential candidate is now over. The former Arkansas governor ended his campaign after a sixth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses earlier this week.
Hutchinson’s bid was essentially based around telling the truth about Republican frontrunner and former President Donald Trump. And it seems that truth-telling was ultimately what did him in.
“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, as reported by the Associated Press. “Today, I am suspending my campaign for president and driving back to Arkansas. My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa.”
He was respectful and congratulatory in defeat, without backing away from his principled argument that Trump has reshaped the Republican Party — “and not in a good way.” The fact that this factual argument didn’t resonate with Iowa caucusgoers ( who only represented about 15 percent of registered Republican voters in that state, by the way) does not make it any less correct. Accuracy and popularity don’t always go hand in hand.
The tone of his statement stood in stark contrast to a statement from the Democratic National Committee, which mocked Hutchinson’s candidacy. A DNC spokesperson said the end of his campaign “comes as a shock to those of us who could’ve sworn he had already dropped out,” according to Politico. This statement has been roundly and rightly criticized by conservative voices who oppose Trump.
“I assume you guys want the support in November of that slice of Republicans who admire Asa for being a decent and principled person, and for not bending the knee to Trump?” conservative pundit Bill Kristol responded. “Or is Biden so far ahead that you don’t need every potential crossover vote?”
If anything, recent polls show Biden is struggling. And if Democrats plan to prevent a second Trump term, they’ll surely need help from independents and moderate Republicans. They won’t be able to convince those folks using snark and dismissiveness.
It was appropriate, then, that the White house apologized to Hutchinson on Wednesday. According to the Associated Press, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said chief of staff Jeff Zients called the former Arkansas governor “to apologize on behalf of the president,” and added that “President Biden has deep respect for Gov. Hutchinson and admires the race that he ran.”
If the Democratic establishment truly cares about the health and future of American democracy, they should welcome conservative opponents whose principles are actually conservative, and offer an opportunity for substantive policy debates rather than blanket demonization of anyone who disagrees with them.
If Trump is a threat to democracy (and we don’t think he should be anywhere near the presidency again), then shouldn’t anyone working to raise alarms about him be considered at least a respected opponent, if not ally, in the work to repudiate Trump’s brand of exclusionary populism?
The fact that Hutchinson’s message fell flat in Iowa says more about Iowa Republican voters (or at least the ones who showed up to caucus this week) and the state of the Republican Party generally than it does about Hutchinson. As candidates drop out after Iowa, it’s also worth wondering once again why we as a country allow such a small slice of one state’s electorate to play such a large role in shaping the presidential field.
Hutchinson has spent months making a conservative case against Trump. Anyone who, like us, agrees that Trump should not be president again should probably be showing respect for Hutchinson’s quixotic effort, not mocking it.
