Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson: Election shows consequences of ‘chaos’ under Trump

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday that Republicans’ widespread losses in the midterm elections show that the party needs to get back to focusing on issues that matter to voters.

Hutchinson, a Republican who served two terms as governor and unsuccessfully ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, said his party needs to understand voters’ frustration with the “chaos” that’s being created by President Donald Trump. Republicans need to show a level of independence from Trump, Hutchinson said.

“(The election) shows that there’s an independent streak among the voters and the Republican Party has lost its identity to a certain extent,” the former Republican governor and congressman told the Arkansas Advocate in a phone interview. “The Republican Party has always been trusted on economic issues, on crime and security and on America leading national defense issues. And we’ve lost the confidence of the voters on some of those issues.”

Democrats won control of the U.S. House and Senate and a majority of governorships in Tuesday’s election, in what was widely seen as a rebuke to Trump.

Hutchinson said Trump hurt the party with his fixation on things like the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, building a new 250-foot triumphal arch in Washington and complaints about not winning the Nobel Peace Prize rather than focusing on issues like diesel fuel prices.

“When President Trump is right on policies such as securing the border, he ought to be supported on it,” Hutchinson said. “But you know the chaos and the concentration on issues that are not important to average Americans has consequences, and that’s what we see in the election results.”

In Arkansas, Democrats did not claim the governor’s office or a U.S. Senate seat. But the party broke Republicans’ House supermajority for the first time in a decade.

Hutchinson said his successor Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ victory in the political environment was a “significant affirmation” but said the Democrats’ gains show both parties will have to work together.

“You can’t pass appropriations bills without some Democrat support, so it’s going to be a different type of session,” Hutchinson said. “I hope that it keeps Arkansas different from Washington, D.C.-style politics.”