Huckabee, Hutchinson, Cotton to speak at Republican National Convention

Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sen. Tom Cotton and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (file photos)
Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sen. Tom Cotton and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (file photos)

Three Arkansans will address the nation next week at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, officials announced this week.


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Gov. Asa Hutchinson, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton and former Gov. Mike Huckabee each will take the stage, delivering short comments in the convention hall.

During a telephone news conference from Berlin, where a new Arkansas Economic Development Commission office is opening, Hutchinson said he expects to speak Tuesday evening during prime time.

While declining to discuss the contents of the speech, he said he’ll be busy while he’s in Cleveland, giving media interviews and visiting with state delegations.

“My goal, as I have the opportunity to go to the convention, is to help shape the debate, to help broadcast some of the successes in Arkansas and obviously to make sure that we have a convention that will lay a good foundation for Donald Trump to run on in the fall,” the governor said.

Cotton will speak during prime time Monday about “national security and foreign policy and defense and our troops,” his spokesman, Caroline Rabbitt, said.

The speech likely will take place during the 9 o’clock hour and “he’s writing it himself,” she said.

This will be the first time either Hutchinson or Cotton has addressed one of the conventions.

Cotton said he is pleased to be going to Cleveland with other Arkansas Republicans.

“I’m looking forward to being with our delegation and celebrating some of the gains we’ve made and also speaking about our troops and our veterans,” he said.

Huckabee, who gave prime-time speeches in 2008 and 2012, also has been invited to address the delegates, his daughter said earlier this week.

Trump invited Huckabee, his former rival, to appear, according to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the ex-governor’s former campaign manager and a senior Trump campaign adviser.

The time slot and additional details have not yet been announced.

It’s unusual for three Arkansans to get speaking slots. Republican Party of Arkansas Chairman Doyle Webb, who has attended every convention since 1980, said he’s unaware of it ever happening before.

It “speaks highly of each of these individuals and the leadership role Arkansas has … in the Republican Party and the nation as a whole,” he wrote in a text message.

In addition to speaking, Hutchinson will head the Arkansas delegation on the convention floor.

The governor initially endorsed Huckabee for president, switching his allegiance to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida after the Hope native dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses.

Cotton and Huckabee did not endorse any of Huckabee’s rivals during the primaries, but both said early on that they would back whomever their party nominated for president.

In May, shortly after Trump’s two remaining challengers suspended their campaigns, Hutchinson said he was willing to support the New York billionaire.

“I do not agree with everything Mr. Trump has said nor have I endorsed every policy he’s announced, but I do believe the Republican Party’s fiscally conservative approach to government and the values we stand for are far greater than what the other side has to offer the American people. Those are the reasons why I will support the nominee of the party in November,” he said in a written statement.

In June, Hutchinson was one of a handful of Republican governors who traveled to New York to meet with the presumptive nominee.

Hutchinson, Cotton and Huckabee will be the latest in a long line of Arkansans to address the party’s quadrennial convention. Someone from the Natural State has spoken at every Republican convention since at least 2000, according to news reports.

That year, a 26-year-old single mother from Rogers named Kim Jennings spoke in Philadelphia about the challenges she faced working two jobs and raising her daughter while completing her studies at John Brown University.

In 2004, Princella Smith, a 20-year-old Ouachita Baptist University student, was invited to speak in New York City after winning a contest sponsored by MTV. Smith went on in 2010 to run, unsuccessfully, for Congress.

Information for this article was contributed by Brian Fanney of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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