Gov의 조카 인 아칸소 주 의원. Asa Hutchinson은 내년에 주지사로 출마 할 예정이며 공화당을 떠난다 고 말했습니다..
State Sen. 짐 헨 드렌, 9 분짜리 동영상으로, cited former President Donald Trump’s incitement of the riot at the Capitol on January 6 로 “last straw.”
“I asked myself, what in the world would I tell my grandchildren when they asked one day what happened, and what did I do about it?” Hendren said in the video he posted to YouTube on Thursday.
His move highlights the perils of the Republican Party’s continuing loyalty to Trump: While he is supported by the vast majority of the party’s base, he has also alienated some conservatives and ignited a ferocious opposition that smashed fundraising and voter turnout records in the 2018 midterms and 2020 선거.
“There’s a real danger that the Republican Party is going to be one that you can’t win a primary without being a Trump supporter, and you can’t win a general by being a Trump supporter,” Hendren said in an interview Friday. “What would have happened, 그때, is we’ve taken a party that was about principle and about conservative government to one that is about one man and a personality. And that is a race that doesn’t end well for the GOP.”
Hendren, 57, is an Arkansas native and former Air Force fighter pilot. He’s been a state lawmaker since 1995 — first in the House, 이후 2013 in the Senate, where he served four years as majority leader. His father was also an Arkansas state legislator, and his uncle, 허친슨, is in his second term as governor.
비디오에서, Hendren — who said he is now an independent — said his departure from the GOP was years in the making.
He highlighted Trump’s characterization during the 2016 campaign of Mexican immigrants as rapists, his ridiculing of a Gold Star family, his mockery of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain and his “encouragement of the worst voices of racism, nationalism and violence.”
“I watched the former President actively fan the flame of racist rhetoric, make fun of those with disabilities, bully his enemies, and talk about women in ways that would never be tolerated in my home or business,” 그는 말했다, faulting Republican leaders for failing to intervene.
Hendren tweeted Thursday night, 약 12 hours after he’d posted his video leaving the GOP: “I’ve heard from dozens of my former military brothers and sisters. 드러내다, like me, insurrections don’t go down well with them either.”
Democrats said Hendren’s decision underscored the GOP’s drift toward radicalism.
“He said what most of us already knew, that today’s Republican Party of Arkansas doesn’t focus on the needs of Arkansans but rather on the divisive rhetoric and issues that divide our country,” Arkansas Democratic Party chairman Michael John Gray said in a statement.
Hendren had already faced backlash from conservatives in Arkansas over his sponsorship of hate crimes legislation. He would have been a long-shot in a Republican gubernatorial primary in which former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the daughter of former Gov. 마이크 허커비, is the overwhelming favorite.
Lt. 정부. Tim Griffin dropped out of the governor’s race earlier this month, saying he will instead run for attorney general. Current Attorney General Leslie Rutledge is also running for governor.
Hendren said Friday he has not decided whether to run for governor as an independent. He said he is launching a new organization called Common Ground Arkansas, which he said is “about me building a place for people who are politically homeless.”
