Asa Hutchinson drops out of race for Republican presidential nomination

The former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, a stalwart conservative willing to sharply criticize Donald Trump, has suspended his beleaguered bid for the White House the day after the Iowa caucuses.

“My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa,” he said in a statement. “I stand by the campaign I ran. I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for our country’s future.”

A long shot from the start, Hutchinson launched his campaign in the spring with a pledge to “bring out the best of America”. But with opinion polls showing Trump far ahead of his Republican rivals in the early voting states and the scrap for second place increasingly a contest between the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, Hutchinson’s decision to exit the race was hardly surprising.

The 72-year-old former governor had struggled to gain traction among Republican voters, hovering below 1% in an average of public opinion polls. Though he competed in the first presidential primary debate, he failed to qualify for each subsequent debate.

In September, after failing to meet the Republican National Committee’s debate qualifications, which included fundraising and polling requirements, Hutchinson said his goal was to improve his polling numbers to 4% in at least one early state before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Hutchinson’s exit further winnows the Republican presidential primary field, following recent departures by Mike Pence, the former vice-president and Tim Scott, the South Carolina senator. The former Texas congressman Will Hurd, Miami mayor Francis Suarez, businessman