Asa Hutchinson announced that he qualified for the first Republican debate. The former Arkansas governor broke the news in an interview with CNN and it looks like he'll take the stage next Wednesday. He met all the necessary requirements to participate in the event before the deadline. Candidates had to present the required proof 48 hours before the informal start of the Republican primaries.
There are ten candidates who managed to qualify for the debate: Donald Trump (who will not attend), Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Doug Burgum, Perry Johnson and now the former governor of Arkansas.
"I'll be on stage. I’m pleased to announce that we have met all the criteria that the RNC set to be on the debate stage. We met the polling criteria and now we’ve met the 40,000 individual donor criteria. We’ve submitted to the RNC, 42,000 individual donors," Hutchinson said in an interview with Karen Hunt.
He also confirmed that he will sign the loyalty pledge, vowing to support the eventual Republican nominee. "I'm going to support the party's candidate. I don't expect it to be Donald Trump," he added.
#BREAKING: @AsaHutchinson tells @kasie on #CNNSOTU he has qualified for the Republican debate. pic.twitter.com/2t7r5DbVkC
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) August 20, 2023
Who is Asa Hutchinson?
Hutchinson has vast experience in government, both in the legislative and executive branches. He served in Ronald Reagan's administration between 1982 and 1985 and then was voted into Congress in 1993. He represented his state for four years in the House and then joined George W. Bush's administration.
There he served as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security. After a failed attempt to run for governor in 2006, he achieved his task in 2014 by defeating Democrat Mike Ross.
Four years later he was reelected, expanding his margin of victory by almost ten percentage points. If that wasn't reason enough to celebrate, he had the largest margin of victory for a Republican candidate in Arkansas history.
Thanks to your support, I announced this morning that we had surpassed 40,000 unique donors to qualify for the RNC’s first debate.
Thank you to everyone that donated for believing that consistent, commonsense, conservative leadership is needed to bring out the best of America! pic.twitter.com/HKeZLYV9FW
— Gov. Asa Hutchinson (@AsaHutchinson) August 20, 2023
As for his record as governor, he cut income taxes for individuals and corporations and signed an abortion ban that went into effect when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade (though he later regretted not including exceptions for rape and incest). He also enacted laws banning "biological males" from competing in women's sports. In addition, he vetoed a bill outlawing gender-affirming services for transgender youth, though the local legislature overrode his veto.
After leaving the governor's mansion in early 2023, he visited key states such as Iowa, South Carolina and Arizona to build a national profile while fundraising. He added his name to the debate list just a few hours before the deadline.
According to some political analysts, his role in the primaries is interesting because he has a lot of qualities that were seen in the Republican Party in the eighties and nineties, differentiating him from his current competitors.
Ben Birnbaum from POLITICO summed up Hutchinson. "You might call him the apotheosis of what comedian Bill Maher has dubbed “Republican Classic”: Pro-life, pro-gun, pro-free trade; anti-debt, anti-Putin, anti-coup."
"Hutchinson has struggled amid the shifting sands of his party. While policy-wise, he remains mostly in lockstep — as governor, he signed one of the country’s strictest abortion bans — he lacks the fire-breathing, troll-the-libs ethos that animates much of the modern GOP, and has displayed an occasional bipartisan streak."
