Hutchinson seen to take turn away from Trump
Today at 3:08 a.m.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson answers a question during the weekly covid-19 update on Tuesday, June 29, 2021, at the state Capitol in Little Rock. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)
Leading a state that went heavily for Donald Trump in the 2020 election and that has enacted some of the most aggressive laws on social issues, Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson has been in the national spotlight this year.
But not for embracing the state's Trumpian turn. It's for distancing himself from it.
At a time when red state governors like Ron DeSantis in Florida and Kristi Noem of South Dakota are carrying forward Trump's rhetoric and policies, Hutchinson is doing the opposite. He's taking a contrarian position that's making him an outsider in the state party he helped build and that now could test whether there's a path forward for ambitious Republicans in the reddest parts of the country that doesn't rely on the former president.