Josh Hawley

Josh Hawley (born December 31, 1979, Springdale, Arkansas, U.S.) is an American Republican politician who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018. Known for his firebrand conservative positions, Hawley was one of the first senators to announce that he would object to the certification of the 2020 presidential election in which Democrat Joe Biden defeated the Republican incumbent, Donald Trump. In 2024 Hawley won reelection against Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce.

Early years and education

Hawley was born in Springdale, Arkansas, in 1979 to Ronald Kim Hawley and Virginia Marie Hawley, a banker and teacher, respectively. In 1981 the family moved to rural Lexington, Missouri, where Hawley and his younger sister, Lesley Hawley, grew up.

After he finished middle school, Hawley’s parents sent him to Rockhurst High School, a Jesuit school in Kansas City, Missouri. It was during this time that Hawley began writing columns in the local newspaper, The Lexington News, and began to express some of the conservative views he would become associated with three decades later.

After the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, Hawley wrote:

“[Some Americans believe] ‘conspiracy theories’ about how the federal government is out to get them.…Those militias and ‘hate’ groups about which you read with your morning coffee are symptoms that mustn’t go unnoticed.”

After graduating as valedictorian of his high-school class, Hawley went on to study history at Stanford University, graduating in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree. He then studied law at Yale University.

Early career

After receiving a law degree in 2006, he clerked for Judge Michael W. McConnell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in 2006–07. Hawley also clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., in 2007–08. Hawley later worked as an attorney in private practice in Washington, D.C. In 2011 he moved back to Missouri, where he served as associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Law.

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From 2011 to 2015 Hawley was affiliated with a nonprofit organization known as the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The organization provided legal assistance to litigants involved in religious freedom cases. Through the Becket Fund, Hawley notably became involved in the 2014 case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. The arts-and-crafts retailer Hobby Lobby objected to a mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that required companies to provide coverage of certain contraceptives in their employees’ health insurance plans. The family owners of Hobby Lobby asserted that the mandate violated their religious beliefs. As cocounsel for Hobby Lobby, Hawley helped write legal briefs in the case, which made its way to the Supreme Court. In a landmark ruling, the Court sided with the retailer. The justices voted 5–4, determining that closely held private corporations (ones owned by a family or family trust) could opt out of the contraceptive mandate on religious grounds. Hawley touted his work on religious freedom cases during his successful run for attorney general in Missouri in 2016.

The makings of a politician

After taking office as attorney general, he focused much attention on the state’s growing problem of opioid addiction. Hawley sued several pharmaceutical companies in 2017, alleging that they had intentionally misrepresented the risks of the opioid drugs they distributed. Hawley also made headlines the following year when he opened an investigation into whether Missouri’s Republican governor, Eric Greitens, had illegally used the resources of a charity organization for political gain. On the basis of evidence discovered by Hawley’s office, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office filed criminal charges against Greitens in April 2018. However, the case was eventually dropped after Greitens agreed to resign.

Hawley was gaining the attention—and respect—of mainstream Republicans, some of whom had become harsh critics of President Trump. Former Missouri Republican senator John Danforth clearly saw Hawley as a future mainstream leader. In a letter to Hawley, he wrote: “You have the training and the ability to be a leading voice for the constitutional order, not only in Missouri but nationally.”

In part spurred by the letter, Hawley announced in October 2017 that he would run to unseat U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a moderate Democrat. Their highly competitive race in the 2018 midterm elections garnered national attention. During the campaign, Hawley portrayed himself as a strong ally of President Trump, who visited Missouri several times to rally support on Hawley’s behalf. In November 2018 Hawley defeated McCaskill by a margin of 51.4 to 45.6 percent.

Senator Hawley

Hawley’s arrival in the Senate in 2019 as the junior senator from Missouri was marked by high expectations, with political operatives quietly talking about Hawley as a candidate for the presidency in 2024. He continued to align himself with Trump Republicans, claiming in his first speech on the Senate floor that “the great American middle” has been overlooked by “a new, arrogant aristocracy.”

In much the way he had taken on the pharmaceutical industry as Missouri attorney general, he took on big technology companies in the Senate, comparing behemoths including Amazon, Facebook, and Google to the “robber barons” of the 19th century. His book The Tyranny of Big Tech was published in 2021. (The original publisher, Simon & Schuster, decided against publication after the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.)

Despite his clear allegiance to Trump, some Republicans were surprised when on December 30, 2020, Hawley became the first GOP senator to announce that he would challenge the results of the election. The announcement came in sharp opposition to the Senate’s Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, who encouraged members of the GOP caucus to accept the results with the words “the electoral college has spoken.”

On the morning of January 6, 2022, Hawley was seen in a now-famous photograph raising his fist in support of protesters outside the Capitol. In the wake of rioters’ breaching the building in actions that sent senators, including Hawley, running to safety, he has decried the actions of the “lawless, criminal mob.” But he defends his own actions that called into question the integrity of the election. He told The Washington Post in May 2021:

“In terms of having a debate about election integrity, I promised my constituents I would. I did. And I don’t regret that at all.”