4 promises Asa Hutchinson made in NH – and why voters across the country should care

GOP presidential hopeful Asa Hutchinson might be trailing in 2024 polls, but that hasn’t stopped the former Arkansas governor from making his case on the campaign trail.

At a Republican presidential town hall in Exeter, New Hampshire, hosted by Seacoastonline and the USA TODAY Network last week, Hutchinson outlined his platform focused on sending additional resources to the U.S. southern border, addressing school shootings and quelling the opioid crisis that has ravaged communities across the country.

“We have a nation that has its challenges. I’m running for president because I believe that we need new leadership,” Hutchinson told the small crowd of New Hampshire voters who gathered last Tuesday at the historic Exeter Town Hall, where party-founder President Abraham Lincoln spoke months before he was elected in 1860.

“We need a course correction in the Republican Party,” Hutchinson said, arguing that the current frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, “is not the right leader” for the party or country.

While Hutchinson is currently hovering around 1% in polls of Republican voters, he said he hopes to reach 4% by Thanksgiving and doesn’t plan on dropping out of the race before New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.

"It's up to the voters of this state to determine what kind of leadership we want," the former congressman and head of the Drug Enforcement Administration said.

The New England state has a comparatively small number of delegates in the Republican presidential nomination process. But its historic status as the first primary state on the party’s calendar, has made it a testing ground for White House hopefuls. Results of the state's primary can make or break campaigns.

As Hutchinson jockeys for more space in the Republican presidential contest, here’s a look at the issues he talked about in New Hampshire that would impact voters from coast to coast.

Making border security a top priority

Hutchinson described securing the U.S. southern border as “the most fundamental question and responsibility the next president will have.”

Among his first acts as president would be providing additional resources for the U.S. Border Patrol. Hutchinson also vowed to continue construction of the border wall that became a signature conservative policy during the Trump administration.

The former Arkansas governor called on leaders to streamline the processing of asylum seekers, “so we’re not catching and then releasing them and expecting them to show up four years later,” referring to the practice of releasing, rather than detaining, migrants while they await hearings.

Hutchinson suggested he would forge partnerships with southern allies, particularly Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, along with governors across the country to design solutions at the border. In particular, he expressed support for the 1,000-foot water barrier Texas Gov. Greg Abbott constructed in the Rio Grande earlier this year to prevent border crossings.

Curbing the opioid crisis

Nearly 110,000 people died of an opioid overdose in the U.S. in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tackling the issue is top of mind for millions of Americans, especially voters in New Hampshire, which is among the states with the highest rates of opioid-related deaths.

Addressing voters in the Granite State, Hutchinson said he’d take a three-pronged approach to thwart the epidemic by providing improving education about addiction, boosting treatment options and cracking down on drug trafficking from other countries.

“You’ve got to have treatment facilities that are expanded and available in our communities. That’s a joint federal and state responsibility,” he said.

Once head of the DEA during former President George W. Bush's administration, Hutchinson criticized candidates in the 2024 race who have called for using force against Mexico in an effort to stop the importation of fentanyl.

“We don’t invade Canada because we got marijuana coming in, and so we don’t invade Mexico” he asserted at the Exeter town hall. “We work with them in partnership, but we have to make sure that they support the rule of law.”

Addressing school shootings

Fielding a question about how he would protect children from school shootings and during active shooter drills, Hutchinson pushed for investing in security measures in schools and increased mental health resources for kids from coast to coast.

“Today, to have active shooter drills is not what we want our children to experience in life, but they are adaptable,” he said, noting that his generation experienced nuclear attack duck and cover drills. “The most important thing is parents need to know their children are safe when they drop them off for school, so we need to invest in our school security.”

However, Hutchinson's comments weren't an endorsement of gun control measures, and the Arkansas governor vowed that he would not take firearms away from Americans.

Hutchinson also spoke more broadly about the state of schools in the U.S. Responding to a voter's question about how he would slim down the federal bureaucracy, the former Arkansas governor said that, if Congress passed a bill abolishing the Department of Education, he would sign it to give states more authority over their school systems.

He said he also believes school choice is a “matter that should be left up to the states." School choice refers to the process of using taxpayer funds to potentially send a child to a school other than their local public school.

Protecting social security for future generations

A report published earlier this year by the Social Security Administration found that the estimated 67 million Americans who collect Social Security funds each month could see their benefits cut short by up to 25% by 2034, as the ratio of retirees to workers in the U.S. increases.

When asked about his plans to tackle the problem and keep social security solvent, Hutchinson said he’d employ a strategy used by former President Ronald Reagan, relying on a commission to investigate and make recommendations to Congress on how to finance Medicare and Social Security for the future.

“There are a lot of ideas out there, all of those ideas will be on the table,” he said.

But Hutchinson didn't suggest shrinking the program. For example, he said, if elected president, he would remove penalties for people ages 62 to 66 who are in the workforce and earn more than $21,240, but want to take Social Security benefits.

This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: Asa Hutchinson vows to address opioid crisis, school shootings in NH