Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced on Tuesday that he is suspending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, failing to register in the Iowa caucuses.
Hutchinson notched 0.2% of the vote in Monday's caucuses, finishing a distant sixth in the race which was won by former President Donald Trump.
"My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front-runner did not sell in Iowa," Hutchinson said in a statement quoted by NBC News. "I stand by the campaign I ran."
Hutchinson was a vocal critic of Trump during the campaign, even suggesting that the former president might be disqualified from running in 2024 under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which has a provision barring candidates who have engaged in insurrection.
“Whenever you’re looking at four indictments, and the fact that not everybody can recite what each of those indictments entail, they know this is not good for our country and that no one under that kind of pressure can lead our country, particularly with a mindset that he wants to get revenge as the next president,” Hutchinson said last year in an interview with NBC News. “And so if anyone should drop out, it should be Donald Trump.”
During the first Republican debate this past August, candidates were asked whether they would still support Trump as the party’s choice of nominee if Trump were convicted of felonies. All raised their hands with the exception of Hutchinson.
Hutchinson later admitted he was surprised more candidates did not agree with his position.
The former Arkansas Gov. notably donned a pin with both the US flag and the Israeli flag at that debate.
He becomes the second candidate to drop out of the race in the wake of the results of the Iowa caucuses, joining businessman Vivek Ramaswamy who announced his decision hours after the vote.
Other candidates who have dropped out of the Republican presidential race are former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who dropped out in mid-November, and former Vice President Mike Pence who withdrew in late October.