GOP’s Hutchinson tells fellow governors to shun 2020 vote fraud claims

WASHINGTON — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said that elected officials shouldn’t focus on untrue claims about the 2020 election and instead look ahead.

Speaking at the National Governors Association winter meeting on Saturday, Hutchinson rejected unsubstantiated claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election that have been made by former President Donald Trump.

“First of all, I don’t believe the election was stolen, and I respect the results,” said Hutchinson, a Republican who won a second term as governor in 2018. “They were challenged as need be, and the result is the fact that President (Joe) Biden is in office.”

Hutchinson said that states have recently both expanded voting access as well as created new restrictions about “making sure that the votes have integrity,” which he said is “their prerogative.”

“To me, it’s all about the future,” he said. “Anybody who wants to talk about the last election is going to lose the next election.”