Asa Hutchinson drops out of GOP primary, with Trump, Haley and DeSantis remaining

• Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson suspended his 2024 presidential campaign.
• Hutchinson came in sixth in the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses.
• The move narrows the GOP primary field to former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley.

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