Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson defended his decision to stay in the 2024 presidential race despite having failed to qualify for the third Republican primary debate.
CNN’s Jim Acosta asked Hutchinson whether it is time for him to drop out of the race to allow the party to get behind a single “anti-Trump or non-Trump candidate.”
“I think most people that make the case, ‘We need to narrow the field,’ they’re talking about . . . after the first four states, that’s the case that Mitt Romney made,” Hutchinson replied.
“And there’ll be a time down the road that consolidation will happen, but the voters . . . have to have an opportunity to express themselves, and you’re gonna see a lot of changes,” he added.
Five Republican presidential contenders faced off on a debate stage in Miami last week; Hutchinson and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum were absent after failing to meet the fundraising and/or polling requirements needed for participation.
Hutchinson is currently in last place in the race, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average, with just 0.6 percent support.
Former president Donald Trump leads the race with an average of 58.5 percent, while Florida governor Ron DeSantis sits in a distant second place with 14.4 percent support. Recent polling has shown former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley competing with DeSantis for second place.
Hutchinson, meanwhile, recently suggested there is a “significant likelihood” that Trump will be found guilty by a jury on a felony offense next year. His comments, which came during the Florida Republican Party’s annual Freedom Summit, earned him boos from the crowd.
Hutchinson has repeatedly called on Trump to drop out of the race amid his legal woes “for the good of the country.”