If you talk to Democratic strategists about the 2024 presidential election, there is a certain type of Republican nominee who they fear: Someone who knows how to speak in the language of inclusion; who can discuss abortion and guns without alienating suburban voters; who stands up to the GOP on some of the most fraught issues of the culture wars; who can argue that he or she has almost as much government experience as Joe Biden himself, but is still younger; who handled the pandemic in their state in a way that avoided some of the most unpopular decisions of both Democrats and Republicans; and who spends a lot of their time explaining to Republicans why they should leave Donald Trump in the past.\xa0\nAsa Hutchinson \u2014 who sounds an awful lot like that imaginary candidate that Democrats fear \u2014\xa0 is here on Playbook Deep Dive this week to tell us why you shouldn\u2019t count him out.\nHutchinson got his start in politics as a U.S. attorney during the Reagan Revolution, when his home state of Arkansas was still run by Democrats. He served two terms as governor and shortly after stepping down this year, he announced he\u2019s running for president.\nIf there\u2019s one thing that makes him stand out so far, it\u2019s that he\u2019s willing to say things about Trump that other Republicans aren\u2019t. Hutchinson recently wrote that the former President \u201chas led us astray,\u201d \u201cundermined the fabric of our democracy,\u201d and is emblematic of bad leaders who are, \u201cfocused only on themselves or on settling scores with political opponents.\u201d\nIn this episode of Playbook Deep Dive, host Ryan Lizza speaks with the former Arkansas governor after his first official trip to Iowa. He opens up about why he\u2019s running, how he thinks he can take down Trump, and why his record \u2013 which is among the most conservative in America \u2013 is full of surprises.\nRyan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.Asa Hutchinson is the former governor of Arkansas and a GOP presidential candidate.Afra Abdullah is an associate producer for POLITICO audio.Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.\xa0Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio.Jenny Ament is the executive producer for POLITICO audio.\n\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices