Who is Asa Hutchinson? What to know about the former GOP governor running for president

WASHINGTON — It was supposed to be a pick-up game of basketball. 

Asa Hutchinson had continued to play weekly when he was elected governor of Arkansas, gathering a crew to play at high school gyms on Friday nights.

Hutchinson's aides thought he would enjoy playing in Cuba when he made an official visit in 2015 shortly after the U.S. restored diplomatic ties with the communist country.

"I'm just thinking of a little pickup game," Hutchinson recalled. "They dropped me off at the Cuban national sports arena. I go in there, and they had the Cuban national team warming up on both ends of the court — with referees, in uniform — and the international media was there. I said, 'It's too late to back out.'"

Hutchinson says the basketball game in Cuba, where the professional players were hesitant at first to foul him and backed away when he went to shoot, made for a good ice breaker. It became a habit of his to play when he traveled outside the U.S.

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"So now I've played basketball in Switzerland, Bolivia, I played basketball in Mexico, in China, in Japan, in Israel, in Germany, on and on down the list," he told USA TODAY during a sit-down interview. "So I'm an international basketball player."

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Who is Asa Hutchinson?

• Age: 72
• Wife: Susan
• Children: Asa III, Sarah, John, Seth
• Grandchildren: 7
• Pets: American Eskimo named "Bandit;" cat named "Snowflake"
• Favorite Book: "Troublesome Young Men"
• Favorite Movie: "Cool Hand Luke"

Hutchinson announces White House bid

Hutchinson has been testing the waters for a presidential bid and said Sunday he will seek the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

He will formally announce his candidacy on April 26 in Bentonville, Ark.

Noting that it is where he was born and practiced law prior to becoming governor of the state, Hutchinson told USA TODAY, "I think that helps to tell the story as to who I am."

Former President Donald Trump became the first major Republican candidate to announce his 2024 bid last November. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy entered the fray in February. 

Several other Republicans may soon follow suit, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Vice President Mike Pence and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who competed in 2016, also recently held a town hall in New Hampshire. 

In an interview, Hutchinson, who left office earlier this year after serving two terms as Arkansas governor, said he hopes voters find him to be "authentic, a person of faith and somebody that loves my family." He also emphasized his experience battling white supremacists as a U.S. attorney and cartel leaders as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

What did Hutchinson do as governor of Arkansas?

Hutchinson approved tax cuts for individuals and corporations in Arkansas — a state he presided over for eight years as governor.

One of Hutchinson's most notable actions is the near-total abortion ban trigger law that he signed prior to the Supreme Court ruling overturning abortion rights last summer.

The ban provides an exception for when a mother's life is at risk and has no exclusions for victims of rape and incest. Hutchinson later lamented the ban's lack of exceptions, and said it should be "revisited," but has defended signing the bill, saying the aim of the law was to reduce abortions.

Hutchinson also made national headlines in March of 2021 when he signed a law that banned transgender women athletes from participating in women's sports teams in schools. The move drew widespread condemnation from LGBTQ rights groups.

Shortly after signing the bill, Hutchinson vetoed another piece of legislation in April of 2021 that would have banned gender-affirming care for anyone under 18, calling it “over broad” and “extreme.” The Arkansas state legislature overrode the veto.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Hutchinson banned COVID-19 vaccine requirements in state and local governments. He also signed into law a ban on state and local mask mandates, a move he later regretted as cases of the Delta variant were surging among children.

"People want to return to normal and they want to be able to have someone in office that's a problem solver. That's my experience in government, both as a prosecutor but also as a governor," he told USA TODAY.

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Asa Hutchinson worked on Bill Clinton impeachment

Early in his career, Hutchinson worked as a federal prosecutor. Former Republican President Ronald Reagan appointed him to serve as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas.

He was later elected to the House of Representatives, representing Arkansas' 3rd congressional district from 1997 until he joined former President George W. Bush's administration in 2001. He served first as DEA administrator and later became an undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

While in Congress, he served as an impeachment manager during fellow Arkansas native and former President Bill Clinton's trial in the House. Hutchinson, who said he was hesitant at first due to the potential electoral consequences of sharing a home state with Clinton, said he felt it was his “constitutional duty.”

“This was a constitutional crisis at that time, in the sense that we hadn’t done that in a 100 plus years, so I took on that responsibility, not knowing how that would impact me politically, but I thought it was necessary,” Hutchinson told USA TODAY.

He said he also worried, "If I don't do it, will somebody else do it that is not going to be balanced and fair and professional about it."

"The end result was I did get reelected, because I think the people of Arkansas saw that I was doing it for the right motivations and did it in a highly professional way."

Francesca Chambers is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. Follow her on Twitter @fran_chambers.