Arkansas Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson teased declaring a run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in early 2023 on Sunday's edition of NBC's Meet the Press. But he conceded that former President Donald Trump's entry into the race following the November midterm elections forces himself and other prospective candidates to decide quickly.
Hutchinson – a right-wing religious conservative in every sense – has nonetheless emerged as a reliable critic of Trump since he incited the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol.
NBC News Moderator Chuck Todd asked Hutchinson to specify his intentions:
Tell me this. What is, what is your timeline and what would make you decide not to run for president?
Hutchinson replied that at the soonest it would be when his tenure as governor concludes next month:
Well the timeline would be I finish January 10th after two terms as governor of Arkansas. I can focus at that point more on the future.
The fact that President Trump has already announced accelerates everyone's timeframe. The first quarter of next year — you either need to be in or out.
Hutchinson also noted that carving out a receptive niche for somebody other than Trump to please the party's primary voters is no small task:
And of course, an important factor is not what President Trump is doing necessarily but what's the level of support out there, and that's important to know. And so we've got some work to do. But I expect a decision to be made the first part of next year.
Watch below:
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