JONESBORO -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, endorsed Arkansas Republican gubernatorial nominee Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday and then held a fundraiser for Hutchinson's campaign.
Romney, who campaigned for Hutchinson in Fort Smith during Hutchinson's unsuccessful 2006 bid for governor against then-Democratic Attorney General Mike Beebe, said Hutchinson has a sound plan that "will create better jobs, and better pay and better-educated young people."
Hutchinson has proposed lowering income tax rates for middle-income families, requiring computer science to be taught in the state's high schools, improving job training and increasing the state's minimum wage, Romney said during a news conference at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
Hutchinson, who opposes a proposed initiated act to raise the state's minimum wage from $6.25 to $8.50 by 2017, said he supports raising the minimum wage to at least the federal minimum of $7. 25 an hour through legislative action.
Romney said Hutchinson "had the good judgment to support me and to vote for me when I ran for president in 2012, and I don't think his opponent did vote for me and my guess is his opponent would not vote for me if he had to do it again."
In 2012, 60.6 percent of Arkansas voters cast their ballots for Romney, while 36.9 percent of them voted for Democratic President Barack Obama.
Sixty-four percent of the voters in Craighead County cast ballots for Romney in 2012, "so welcome home," Hutchinson noted. (Obama received 33.2 percent in the county.)
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mike Ross of Little Rock is vying with Hutchinson of Rogers to succeed Beebe, who is barred from seeking re-election under the state's term-limits law.
Green Party nominee Joshua Drake of Hot Springs and Libertarian Party nominee Frank Gilbert of Tull also are running for governor. The election is Nov. 4.
Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said Wednesday night that campaign officials didn't yet have an estimate for how much money was raised at the fundraiser.
Ross later said in a written statement that he's "not interested in playing Congressman Hutchinson's divisive, partisan games to try and divide this state into red teams or blue teams.
"We are too small a state to bring that type of Washington-style deadlock and dysfunction to Arkansas. We're all in this together, and I want to unite this state in a bipartisan way to focus on improving education, increasing access to pre-k and career tech, reducing domestic violence, cutting taxes for working families and small businesses, and creating more and better-paying jobs," Ross said.
Hutchinson is a former 3rd District congressman, federal Homeland Security Department undersecretary and director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Ross is a former 4th District congressman, state senator and Nevada County Quorum Court member.
Romney is scheduled to campaign for U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton in North Little Rock this morning.
Metro on 08/21/2014