FAYETTEVILLE — Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is working with the nonprofit, bipartisan National Council on Election Integrity to defend the legitimacy of U.S. elections, listing the issue of building public trust and countering misinformation on elections as a top priority in a speech Friday.
The group’s focus “will be to enhance the security of our elections, to build public confidence in our elections and the results of them, and to be able to speak the truth against misinformation,” Hutchinson said.
He was the guest speaker to a crowd of more than 200 attending Friday’s lunch meeting of the Northwest Arkansas Political Animals Club at Mermaids seafood restaurant in Fayetteville.
The 2020 presidential election resulted in 62 lawsuits among seven states and the District of Columbia challenging the results, none of which led to any change in the election’s outcome in any state.
The election integrity group’s goal is to counter baseless allegations, whether foreign or domestic, and support election workers, Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson ran unsuccessfully for U.S. president in the Republican primary. He and other challengers “hit a brick wall,” he said, of support for former President Donald Trump. But he has no regrets, Hutchinson said.
The U.S. is divided but the nation has overcome greater challenges before, Hutchinson said. He is reading a book on the 1860 Republican convention in Chicago. He also cited divisions of the 1920s, when socialism was gaining political strength, the isolationist America First movement of the 1930s and ’40s and the 1960s divisions over the Vietnam War and the struggle for civil rights.
“The difference today is that we have leaders who try not to overcome that division but that further divide us,” he said.
“We’re going to sort this through,” he said.
“The third thing that is important in 2024 — and it might not be important to everybody in this room because we have independents and Democrats here — but it is important from my standpoint that we reclaim the principled Republican Party that I believe was important when I became a Republican during the Reagan years,” Hutchinson said, referring to then-President Ronald Reagan.
“What is the state of the GOP? Well, you think about it, the Republican Party is totally united in the desire that we need to move away from Joe Biden as president, and I’m speaking as a Republican now and I’ve worked with all the administrations but I ran for president because I think Joe Biden takes us the wrong direction. … While we’re united that we need to replace Joe Biden, there is division in reference to Donald Trump.”
Four of the eight candidates in the first presidential debate of the Republican primary have endorsed Trump. But four have not, “myself being one of those,” Hutchinson said.
“I believe in a principled Republican Party that desires character, that is still important in office, that says America should lead and the strength of America is important and we should not abandon our allies, and these are defining moments in our party.”
“I want to see the Republican Party come together around principles again — and not (be) about anger, about personalities and about chaos.”
Hutchinson went on to say he disagreed with the filing of the criminal case in New York against Trump but that the trial is underway and, therefore, is important.
“I say that as someone who thought the case never should have been brought. I thought it was a misguided legal theory. But we’re in the courtroom now. I’m not saying the result in whether it’s an acquittal or a conviction is the critical point. To me the critical determining factor as to whether there’s a good result is whether the public sees our criminal justice system working in a fair way, in an honest way with integrity and with a jury having the responsibility to make a decision.”
“We have a jury system in America that should not be undermined, that should not be weakened, ” he said, and was then interrupted by applause.
“I am bothered when I see former candidates and national political figures going into the courtroom” in New York, Hutchinson said.
Matt Mendenhall of Springdale, a former chairman of Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District Republican Caucus, said he thought Hutchinson’s outlook was how to move the Republican Party forward.
“I think there are some divisions within both parties,” Mendenhall said. “They come and go. This is not the first and won’t be the last.
“He and I would like to see a little more civility in the political discourse,” Mendenhall said. “I think he’s very pragmatic.”
Lifelong Democrat Karla Bradley of Fayetteville said she thought Hutchinson was working on many of the right things.
“He cares about the future of democracy like I do,” she said.
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