Asa Hutchinson dumbfounded and frustrated by GOP voters’ blind loyalty to Trump

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has made it his mission to wrestle the Republican Party away from Donald Trump, but he can’t escape the former president’s shadow.

Three months into his presidential campaign, the proud Reagan conservative is facing the harsh reality that primary voters are so enamored with Mr. Trump that they won’t even listen to the message Mr. Hutchinson has honed over four decades of fighting for the Republican Party.

“That is the big surprise,” Mr. Hutchinson told The Washington Times. “It is one thing to have Donald Trump high in the polls. It is another thing for his every word to influence the voters and how they think, and when there has been misinformation in the past, there have been other leaders that would counter that message.

“But now you have many leaders who are just continuing down that path and backing up Donald Trump whatever he says. So that is a surprise as to the depth of the influence over the Republican base, and it’s going to take time to change that.”

That was a rude awakening for Mr. Hutchinson, 72, who has been living in the trenches of Republican politics since 1982 when President Reagan made him the youngest U.S. attorney at age 31.

Mr. Hutchinson became head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, a member of Congress representing Arkansas and undersecretary of border and transportation before serving as Arkansas’ 46th governor from 2015 to 2023.

“He is absolutely the most experienced candidate in this race,” said Austin Barbour, head of the pro-Hutchinson political action committee America Strong and Free.

Mr. Barbour said Mr. Hutchinson has been a tried-and-true conservative in the political arena and would put his record against anyone else in the race.

“Asa Hutchinson is as pro-life as probably anybody in this race. Asa Hutchinson is as tough on social issues as anybody running for president,” he said. “He is a social conservative, a commonsense conservative and a fiscal conservative, and he has a damn good record of being governor for eight years.”

In past years, that resume would likely capture more early attention of primary voters.

That has not been the case since Mr. Hutchinson left the governor’s mansion because of term limits and passed the keys, notably, to a Trump acolyte: former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, an advocate of the “America First” agenda that has energized the Republican base.

Mr. Hutchinson revealed Sunday that he had qualified in the nick of time for the Republican presidential debate Wednesday in Milwaukee.

Despite his fierce opposition to Mr. Trump, Mr. Hutchinson said he would sign the Republican National Committee’s required loyalty pledge to support whoever wins the nomination.

“I’ll sign the pledge. I’m confident that Donald Trump is not going to be the nominee of the party, and I’ve always supported the nominee,” he said.

Mr. Trump has said he won’t participate in the debate nor sign the loyalty pledge because of his commanding lead in the polls.

“I think the time for the self-loathing lovable loser Republican is over,” said Hogan Gidley, who served as a deputy press secretary in the Trump White House and cut his political teeth in Arkansas politics. “I think Asa oftentimes is fine playing the court jester in the kingdom of liberalism, and when you are trying to run a national race for president, you have to have at the very least a hook, politically.

“Forget charisma or relatability or strength. There is no real big agenda he can point to that resonates with the conservative base,” Mr. Gidley said. “Asa, it seems, is trying to carve out an entirely separate lane of ‘I don’t like the former president, I don’t like many of his policies, so I am just going to kind of drive this busted-up, beaten hooptie down the road and hope voters come along and pimp my ride.’”

Mr. Hutchinson’s inability to connect with the core of the Republican Party came into focus last month in Iowa after former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson pressed him on his veto of legislation that would have made Arkansas the first state to ban sex-change treatments or surgery for transgender youths.

In response, Mr. Hutchinson said he hoped the conversation would get into “some issues.” Mr. Carlson countered that sex-change procedures on minors was “one of the biggest issues in this country, and every person in this room would agree.” Christian conservative activists in the audience applauded.

Mr. Gidley called Mr. Hutchinson’s disconnect with Republican voters “staggering.”

“He seems like a candidate straight out the late ’90s and early 2000s of ‘Let’s forget the social issues, and let’s focus on tax cuts,’” Mr. Gidley said.

Mr. Trump likely strengthened his grip on the Republican Party when he was hit with criminal charges in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Campaigning in New Hampshire when the news broke, Mr. Hutchinson doubled down on his call for Mr. Trump to end his presidential run.

“In my view, every GOP candidate must state a clear position on this, and in my judgment, they should disavow the conduct of Donald Trump on Jan. 6 and hold him accountable,” Mr. Hutchinson told The Times. “You’re either on the side of the rule of law and democracy, or you’re on the side of Trump and anarchy.

“I think that’s the defining issue, one of the defining issues, for 2024,” he said.

Some of Mr. Trump’s other rivals for the Republican nomination are moving in the same direction as Mr. Hutchinson.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has said Mr. Trump’s willingness on Jan. 6 to run roughshod over the Constitution in an attempt to retain power shows he is unfit to be the nation’s commander in chief.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has been trying to persuade the party to turn the page, says Mr. Trump cares only about himself and is a proven loser.

Former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas said Mr. Trump’s time has come and gone.

Still, plenty of voters remain on Team Trump.

That helps explain why most of the Republican presidential hopefuls have stopped short of demanding Mr. Trump’s exit from the race.

Seeking a middle ground, they are raising concerns about the weaponization of the Department of Justice. They also warn that Mr. Trump’s nonstop relitigating of the 2020 election and mounting legal baggage are sucking all the oxygen out of the room and pulling the spotlight away from the bungling Biden administration.

On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and most rank-and-file Republicans are sticking with Mr. Trump.

The Real Clear Politics average of recent polls shows Mr. Trump capturing 44% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses and gaining another massive lead in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire.

Support for Mr. Hutchinson is hovering around 1% in those state polls.

Mr. Hutchinson’s allies are trying to gin up support for his bid.

The Barbour-led super PAC recently released an ad highlighting President Reagan’s praise of Mr. Hutchinson in 1982. There is no indication that the ad moved the needle.

Mr. Hutchinson plans to keep fighting. He said the stakes for the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election could not be higher.

“I believe in the Republican Party that supports the rule of law, that supports the justice system, that supports our federal law enforcement, and that stands strong and tall for our freedoms and our democracy,” he said. “I want to get back to that message.”

• Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.