(NewsNation) — Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, ending a candidacy that served as a throwback to an earlier era of the GOP but ultimately failed to resonate in a party now dominated by Donald Trump.
Hutchinson’s exit came a day after he finished sixth in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses, well behind Trump and other top rivals but also behind Ryan Binkley, a pastor who failed to qualify for any of the debates. Hutchinson was the last GOP candidate remaining in the race who was willing to directly take on Trump.
“I am suspending my campaign for President and driving back to Arkansas. 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.
Hutchinson’s campaign manager, Alison Williams, said he wasn’t issuing an endorsement at this time.
During the campaign, he failed to register beyond a single percentage point in most polls and drew sparse crowds even as the Republican presidential field winnowed from more than a dozen candidates down to a handful. Another competitor, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, dropped out of the race Monday night after finishing fourth in Iowa.
Hutchinson stayed in the race even as better-financed and well-known candidates such as former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott dropped out last year.
He failed to meet the qualifications for the next four presidential debates, an unwelcome development that denied him needed exposure.
Hutchinson joins former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ramaswamy, Pence, Scott, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, radio show host Larry Elder, businessman Perry Johnson, former Texas congressman Will Hurd and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez in suspending his bid for the GOP nomination.
He formally launched his campaign April in Bentonville, the northwest Arkansas town where he got his start as an attorney and first ran unsuccessfully for elected office.
Hutchinson had used the city, which is also retail giant Walmart’s home, to portray himself as a business-friendly conservative. He had contrasted that with DeSantis, who has been engaged in a bitter public feud with Disney in Florida.
Hutchinson, who finished his two terms as Arkansas governor in 2023, is also a former congressman who served as one of the House managers prosecuting the impeachment case against former President Bill Clinton.
Previously, Hutchinson served in former President George W. Bush’s White House as the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration and as an undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security. He was also a federal prosecutor in Arkansas in the 1980s.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.