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- Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is challenging Trump for the GOP presidential nomination.
- Insider interviewed him on Thursday morning, a day after the third GOP presidential debate.
- "There's a lot yet to be determined and you've got to stick with it," Hutchinson said.
With just about a year left until the 2024 election and his campaign struggling, GOP presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said there's still "a lot yet to be determined."
Hutchinson, who is also a former member of the House of Representatives and US district attorney, has been running on a platform built around showcasing his decades of political experience while also directly opposing former President Donald Trump's campaign to move back into the White House.
The morning after the third Republican presidential debate, which Hutchinson did not qualify for, Insider spoke to the former governor about the state of the race.
What do you believe right now is your current path to the nomination?
Through hard work and diligence and sticking with it.
When you look at the fact that Iowa and New Hampshire voters both are late deciders, there's a lot of movements going to take place with the voters before the caucus and primary. They're late deciders, so it's important to lay the foundation and be ready to move whenever they start deciding.
People are still getting to know me in Iowa and New Hampshire, and that's the path to moving up in the polls and having success.
Then, you've got to have a longer look too, that this is going to be a dynamic election environment next year in which there is more unpredictability than ever before in my lifetime, with the uncertainty of President Trump and his distractions, with the fact that no one has really broken out on the Republican side.
So there's a lot yet to be determined and you've got to stick with it, and that's the key to success for me.
At this point in the race, what do you feel or think that people are missing in your appeal to them?
Well, I think they just don't know me as well.
I come from a smaller state that doesn't have the national media presence that Florida or Texas has, and so I have a longer uphill for developing that national understanding of who I am, what I've done, and where we want to go as a country.
And so as they do get to know me, that's what builds more support. So that's the challenge I have and that's what we're working on daily, just like last night in Atlanta meeting with young Republicans where it was a Q+A and I built support and I did it last week in New Hampshire with my in-home parties as well as other meet and greets, and I'm going to do it next week in Iowa.
That's the key for me and we're having success at it.
In what ways, if any, do you feel misunderstood by voters?
That's a challenge for any candidate is that there's a lot of misinformation out there, and so you've got to pick and choose as to what's important to respond to and what isn't.
But I don't know that there's any misunderstanding as much as there's still a strong base of support for Donald Trump and the voters are looking at other candidates and just haven't made a decision as to where they're going to go yet.
And so the burden's on me to make sure they know the experience that I bring on border security, on the fentanyl crisis. I want them to understand my breadth of experience in law enforcement and that no candidate brings a higher level of experience at the federal and state level than I do — that's the biggest surprise I get. Probably the biggest misunderstanding is they think of me sometimes just as a governor, but the breadth of experience I bring in national security issues is something that we've got to create more understanding on.
Did you end up watching or seeing any of the highlights from last night's debate?
I did. I had a counter-programming event here in Atlanta — and I say that a little bit jokingly — I actually had accepted an invitation to speak to the Atlanta Young Republicans. We had a great event and then the debate went on after that.
I did get to see some of it, and one important question was asked, which is: "What can we do on day one to fight fentanyl addiction in the United States?"
I would love to have been on the stage to answer that very clearly, that I'm the only candidate that says on day one I will elevate the 'Drug Czar'' to a cabinet position again to showcase that this opioid addiction and drug abuse in the United States will be a top priority in my administration.