134 Facts About Josh Hawley

Joshua David Hawley was born on December 31,1979 and is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Missouri, a seat he has held since 2019.

In December 2020, Josh Hawley became the first senator to announce plans to object to the certification of Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 United States presidential election, and led efforts in the Senate to do so.

In January 2021, Josh Hawley said he did not intend to overturn the election results.

Joshua David Hawley was born on December 31,1979, in Springdale, Arkansas, to banker Ronald Hawley and teacher Virginia Hawley.

Josh Hawley attended Lexington Middle School and Rockhurst High School, a private Jesuit boys' prep school in Kansas City, Missouri.

Josh Hawley studied history at Stanford University, where his mother was an alumna.

Josh Hawley graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with highest honors and Phi Beta Kappa membership.

Josh Hawley studied under professor David M Kennedy, who later contributed the foreword to Hawley's book Theodore Roosevelt: Preacher of Righteousness.

Kennedy said Josh Hawley stood out in a school "which is overstuffed with overachieving and very talented young people" and called him "arguably the most gifted student I taught in 50 years".

The Kansas City Star reported that Josh Hawley's classmates regarded him as "politically ambitious and a deeply religious conservative".

In 2011, Josh Hawley returned to Missouri and became an associate professor at the University of Missouri Law School, where he taught constitutional law, constitutional theory, legislation, and torts.

From 2011 to 2015 Josh Hawley was with Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

Josh Hawley launched his campaign for attorney general of Missouri on July 23,2015.

When elected, Josh Hawley became the state's first Republican Attorney General since 1988.

Josh Hawley was sworn in as attorney general on January 9,2017, by Missouri Supreme Court chief justice Patricia Breckenridge.

Josh Hawley had gotten lost and was confused; he asked a gas station attendant to call the police for assistance.

Josh Hawley resigned after his plea and can no longer work as a law enforcement officer.

In 2017 Josh Hawley determined that those who had assaulted Sanders had not intended his death, and did not file murder charges.

In June 2017, Josh Hawley announced that Missouri had filed suit in state court against three major drug companies, Endo Health Solutions, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Purdue Pharma, for allegedly hiding the danger of prescription painkillers and contributing to the opioid epidemic.

In November 2017, Josh Hawley opened an investigation into whether Google's business practices violated state consumer protection and anti-trust laws.

Josh Hawley initially declined to prosecute, citing a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that the attorney general cannot simultaneously represent a state officer and take legal action against that officer.

Josh Hawley said text messages between government employees, whether on private or government-issued phones, should be treated the same as emails: a determination must be made as to whether the text is a public record, and if so, whether it is subject to disclosure.

Josh Hawley's investigation found that no laws had been broken.

Josh Hawley announced an investigation based on the new felony charges.

In February 2018, Josh Hawley joined 20 other Republican-led states in a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional.

Josh Hawley later published an op-ed in the Springfield News-Leader, explaining that he supported protecting those with preexisting conditions by creating a taxpayer subsidy to reimburse insurance companies for covering these high-cost patients.

In March 2018, Josh Hawley defended the 1995 sentencing of Bobby Bostic to 241 years in prison.

On November 14,2022, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem ruled that Josh Hawley violated Missouri's open records law during his 2018 US Senate campaign by withholding emails between his out-of-state political consultants and his taxpayer-funded staff.

Beetem granted summary judgment, ruled Josh Hawley's office had "knowingly and purposefully" violated Missouri's Sunshine Law, and fined the AG's office $12,000.

When Josh Hawley was AG, his staff used private email instead of government accounts to communicate with his political consultants.

An attorney on the case declared that Josh Hawley should pay from the proceeds of his book Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs rather than "sticking taxpayers".

Josh Hawley promised that he would investigate any crimes, publish a report for the public, and refer potential cases to local law enforcement officials.

Josh Hawley received substantial support from prominent Republicans, such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Donald Trump, and the Senate Conservatives Fund.

Josh Hawley won a large majority of the vote in the primary election.

Josh Hawley, meanwhile, highlighted McCaskill's upcoming vote on the confirmation of CIA Director Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, depicting her as obstructing Trump.

Josh Hawley dismissed this, saying that the Senate was not on his mind during the attorney general campaign.

Josh Hawley criticized McCaskill's use of a private jet, calling her "Air Claire".

Josh Hawley was, in turn, criticized for accepting a ride on a private jet owned by a Rex Sinquefield lobbyist.

On December 6,2018, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft launched an inquiry into whether Josh Hawley misappropriated public funds for his Senate campaign.

Almost a year later Josh Hawley's office said he had reimbursed the campaign for the inappropriate expenditures.

Josh Hawley faced Democratic nominee Lucas Kunce, a US Marine veteran.

Josh Hawley pushed for a forum hosted by Missouri Farm Bureau; Kunce pressed for broadcast debates and suggested that the Missouri Farm Bureau's endorsement of Josh Hawley presented legal complications.

Josh Hawley's campaign received $5,000 from the Teamsters, but has been criticized by other Missouri union leaders.

At a campaign event at First Baptist Church in Ozark, Missouri, Josh Hawley falsely claimed that the proposed Amendment 3, an abortion rights initiative, was related to transgender health care.

Josh Hawley was criticized for his reliance on private jets in his campaign, spending $132,000 between mid-December 2023 and June 2024.

Josh Hawley was sworn in as a US senator on January 3,2019.

In June 2019, Hawley played a major role in preventing Trump nominee Michael S Bogren from being appointed as a district judge for the Western District of Michigan.

Josh Hawley accused Bogren of "anti-religious animus" in a case he took as a lawyer, in which Bogren compared Catholic views on homosexuality to the Ku Klux Klan's views on interracial marriage.

On November 18,2019, Josh Hawley announced the National Security and Personal Data Protection Act, which would make it illegal for American companies to store user data or encryption keys in China.

Josh Hawley focused on TikTok, saying the bill would cover Russia as well as China, and "any other country the State Department deems a security risk".

Josh Hawley said the bill was "targeted at social media platforms and data-intensive businesses", and "would block such mergers by default without pre-approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States".

Josh Hawley joined President Donald Trump in his calls for an increase of the initial $600 coronavirus relief checks provided by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 to $2,000, which put him on the same side as "unlikely ally" Bernie Sanders.

Alongside Sanders and Chuck Schumer, Josh Hawley attempted to force a vote to increase the checks, but it was blocked by other Republican senators.

On February 8,2021, after he voted against the nomination of Denis McDonough for Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Josh Hawley became the only senator to vote against all of President Joe Biden's cabinet nominees except Cecilia Rouse, whom he voted to confirm as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Ten months into Biden's term, Josh Hawley had voted to approve only four of 118 executive appointments that received a Senate vote, and none in the preceding five months.

Josh Hawley has worked for months to distinguish himself from the Republican pack on national security, beginning with his blockade of Pentagon nominees in protest of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and his opposition to a $40 billion Ukraine aid package.

The New York Times wrote that Josh Hawley was elevating false claims that President-elect Joe Biden stole the election.

Josh Hawley's maneuver prompted bipartisan condemnation of his action as undemocratic.

On December 30,2020, Josh Hawley said, "some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws".

Josh Hawley repeated the assertion about Pennsylvania in a February 2021 fundraising email, which view was supported by a Pennsylvania appellate court in January 2022.

On January 4,2021, Josh Hawley tweeted that his Washington, DC home had been vandalized and his family had been threatened by "Antifa scumbags" in an act of "leftwing violence" due to his claims of fraud.

Tom Coleman, a former US representative from Missouri and a fellow Republican, said Josh Hawley's "clenched fist in front of the Capitol will seal his fate".

Later that day, video showed Josh Hawley running through the Capitol, fleeing the rioters who had invaded the building.

That same day, The Kansas City Star's editorial board published an editorial arguing that Josh Hawley "has blood on his hands" due to the event, which they called a "coup attempt".

The next day, it published an editorial calling for Josh Hawley to resign or be removed from office.

Political scientists Henry Farrell and Elizabeth N Saunders called Hawley's ploy a "cynical theatrical gesture" with Hawley "pursuing short-term political gain at the risk of long-term chaos".

David M Kennedy, who served as Hawley's academic adviser at Stanford, said he "absolutely could not have predicted that the bright, idealistic, clear-thinking young student that I knew would follow this path" and was "more than a little bamboozled by it, certainly distressed by it", though he said he did not believe Hawley directly incited the mob.

Josh Hawley has since faced bipartisan calls for his resignation, to which he has responded that he "will never apologize for giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections".

Several political donors and companies associated with Josh Hawley have cut off financial ties.

David Humphreys, who with his mother and sister donated more than $6 million to Josh Hawley's campaigns, called for him to be censured, having "revealed himself as a political opportunist willing to subvert the Constitution and the ideals of the nation he swore to uphold".

Josh Hawley filed an ethics complaint of his own against the seven senators, alleging their complaint was unethical due to potential coordination with Democratic Party leadership and claiming that he was a victim of cancel culture.

On May 28,2021, Josh Hawley voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the riot.

On July 21,2022, the House Select Committee broadcast video footage of Josh Hawley running through the halls of Congress to escape the mob on January 6, contrasting it with his earlier fist-raised encouragement of the crowd.

In March 2023, Tucker Carlson criticized footage of Josh Hawley running as "deceptively edited", saying the committee did not show other senators fleeing.

Josh Hawley opposes abortion and has called for the appointment of "constitutionalist, pro-life judges" to the US Supreme Court and other federal courts.

Josh Hawley has called Roe v Wade "one of the most unjust decisions" in American judicial history.

In July 2020, Hawley wrote that to earn his support, a Supreme Court nominee must have publicly, on the record, before nomination, asserted that Roe v Wade was incorrectly decided.

In October 2024, Josh Hawley was a featured speaker at Sean Feucht's rally on the National Mall, calling for a revival to rebuild the country on "the truth of Jesus Christ".

In October 2024, Josh Hawley said that workers should not pay more taxes than corporations.

Josh Hawley previously supported Trump's proposed corporate tax cuts and announced his reversal on the issue at a campaign event in Cottleville, Missouri.

Josh Hawley's proposal faced "swift bipartisan opposition", including from Hawley, leading the restrictions to be dropped.

Josh Hawley's proposal was similar to programs that various European countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands, and the UK, had implemented.

In December 2020, Josh Hawley teamed up with Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, to demand that any new stimulus deal include direct payments of at least $1,200 to American workers.

In June 2021, Josh Hawley called for Anthony Fauci to resign from his role as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

In 2023, Hawley introduced the Ending Corporate Influence on Elections Act, a bill that would reverse aspects of Citizens United v FEC, specifically banning publicly traded companies from making independent expenditures, political advertisements for campaigns, and Super PAC contributions.

Mitch McConnell criticized the bill and warned other Republican senators against signing on, naming a list of senators, including Josh Hawley, who benefited directly from the Senate Leadership Fund.

In 2023, Josh Hawley cosponsored an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would reauthorize and expand Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

Josh Hawley called it a betrayal and vowed to vote against a defense bill that does not include the amendment.

Some of his former colleagues at St Paul's School claimed Josh Hawley was "very hawkish" in his early 20s, supporting the Iraq War in its early stages and at one point making himself popcorn to eat while watching news coverage of the 2003 invasion.

Since entering the US Senate, Josh Hawley reoriented himself as a staunch opponent of US wars in the Middle East.

Josh Hawley has advocated that the US shift its focus away from the Middle East and toward China, which he sees as a grave threat to both democracy and national security.

In October 2019, Josh Hawley co-sponsored the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

Josh Hawley commented on Twitter that Beijing was trying to turn Hong Kong into a "police state".

Josh Hawley has worked to create legislation that would prohibit data transmission to a set of blacklisted nations, including China.

Josh Hawley's statement was called antisemitic by several political commentators and Jewish leaders, as well as by the Anti-Defamation League, which called for Hawley to apologize.

Andrew Silow-Carroll wrote for J The Jewish News of Northern California that Hawley was using his connections with Jewish people as a way to dodge allegations of antisemitism.

On October 21,2019, Josh Hawley attacked Jewish Washington Post reporter Greg Sargent as a "smug, rich liberal elitist"; Sargent responded in a column that he was in fact raised in poverty.

Mehdi Hasan argued Josh Hawley's attack was antisemitic, though Sargent did not make that claim.

On November 6,2019, Josh Hawley recommend that the US impose sanctions and freeze assets of Mexican officials he did not feel were doing enough to address Mexican drug cartels.

On January 19,2021, Josh Hawley blocked the quick confirmation of Department of Homeland Security secretary nominee Alejandro Mayorkas after Mayorkas would not commit to spending $1.4 billion the US government had appropriated for a border wall expansion.

Josh Hawley has called the Mueller report a "hoax" and the Steele dossier "lies from a Russian spy".

In January 2019, Josh Hawley was one of 11 Republican senators to vote for legislation aimed at blocking Trump's intended lifting of sanctions on three Russian companies.

In January 2022, Josh Hawley called on Biden to drop support of plans for Ukraine to eventually join NATO, on the basis that committing troops to defend Ukraine would undermine the United States' ability to prevent Chinese hegemony in the Indo-Pacific.

In October 2019, Josh Hawley called for an independent investigation into Joe Biden related to alleged dealings with Ukraine.

Josh Hawley defended Donald Trump's phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and criticized Trump's first impeachment, saying Trump's words were "certainly not a crime".

Josh Hawley was one of six Republican senators to vote against advancing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which would allow the US Justice Department to review hate crimes related to COVID-19 and establish an online database.

Josh Hawley said the act "was never constitutional" and spoke proudly of his involvement in the lawsuit.

Josh Hawley later published an op-ed in the Springfield News-Leader saying that he supports protecting those with preexisting conditions by creating a taxpayer subsidy to reimburse insurance companies for covering these high cost patients.

Josh Hawley co-sponsored federal legislation that would have defined human life and personhood as beginning at the moment of fertilization, without exceptions for in-vitro fertilization or embryonic stem-cell research.

Josh Hawley defended Missouri's state laws, which allow IVF, but which define an "embryo" as an "unborn child".

In June 2024, Josh Hawley voted against a measure that included a mandate for insurance to cover IVF treatment.

In 2021, Josh Hawley expressed support for a $15 minimum wage for businesses that make over $1 billion a year.

Josh Hawley supported a tax credit for workers making less than $16.50 an hour.

In May 2022 Hawley said he would be "shocked" if Obergefell v Hodges, the Supreme Court decision ruling same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional, were overturned, calling it "settled law".

Josh Hawley opposed and voted against the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act, which requires states and the federal government to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial marriages if they were legal in the jurisdiction where they were performed.

Josh Hawley co-sponsored a 2021 bill to restrict transgender women from sports and signed a letter that objected to Title IX protections for transgender students.

Josh Hawley has voted against several bills, including National Defense Authorization Act for both 2023 and 2024, that included funding for military housing at Fort Leonard Wood.

Josh Hawley's office released correspondence with US Army secretary Christine Wormuth that shows he has advocated for funding, but subsequently voted against the associated measures.

Josh Hawley linked his vote against the 2024 NDAA to its lack of expanded compensation for victims of nuclear radiation exposure.

Josh Hawley is known for his criticism of Big Tech and social media companies and has often broken with other Republicans in his support for regulation of Internet companies.

Josh Hawley cosponsored Do Not Track legislation with Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Mark Warner.

Previously, Josh Hawley had called the app "a Chinese-owned social media platform so popular among teens that Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly spooked".

Josh Hawley has criticized Section 230, and has proposed legislation that would regard Internet access as a privilege rather than a right.

Josh Hawley supported Trump's imposition of trade tariffs, saying he hoped the tariffs would be temporary, eventually resulting in lower tariffs on US agriculture than before the trade battles.

Josh Hawley voted to acquit Trump during his first Senate impeachment trial and accused Democrats of having abused the Constitution by starting the impeachment inquiry, declaring that it was "the first purely partisan impeachment in our history".

The day after the Republican-held Senate acquitted Trump, Trump praised Josh Hawley as having played a key role in his acquittal.

An NBC News reporter tweeted that Josh Hawley could be seen "sitting up in the gallery with his feet up on the seat in front of him, reviewing paperwork".

Later accused of ignoring the proceedings, Josh Hawley called them "a total kangaroo trial".

On October 27,2020, Josh Hawley voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett.

Josh Hawley was sharply critical of Ketanji Brown Jackson's 2022 nomination to the Supreme Court, saying her tenure as a judge and member of the United States Sentencing Commission showed a "pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes".

On September 9,2020, Trump announced that Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton were on his shortlist for nominations to the Supreme Court should a vacancy occur.

Josh Hawley expressed his appreciation but declined the offer, saying, "Missourians elected me to fight for them in the Senate".

In 2010, Josh Hawley married Erin Morrow, a fellow Yale Law School graduate and an associate professor of law at the Regent University School of Law.

Josh Hawley was raised Methodist, but he and his family now attend an Evangelical Presbyterian Church.