Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (R) is reportedly creating an exploratory committee for a possible U.S. Senate bid next year.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley
Missouri Democrats are responding by saying that Hawley is breaking a campaign promise.
Hawley, who grew up in western Missouri’s Lexington, is the youngest Attorney General in the nation. He was elected to that post in November 2016.
Sources tell the “Washington Examiner” that Hawley will file the federal paperwork on Friday. The newspaper cites sources close to Hawley.
Former Missouri Senator John C. “Jack” Danforth, who served 18 years in Washington, has been urging Hawley to run for the Senate in 2018.
“He really is an unusual I think once-in-a-generation political talent,” Danforth says. “He’s very bright, he’s very able and and broad-gauged.”
Danforth tells Missourinet that Hawley is committed to the Constitution.
“Josh Hawley is a constitutional scholar. He understands the structure of the Constitution,” says Danforth.
Danforth and former Missouri GOP Senators Kit Bond, John Ashcroft and Jim Talent have signed a letter, asking Hawley to run.
Their letter describes Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill (D) as an “active participant in the Resistance.”
Danforth, who served in the Senate from 1977 to January 1995, describes today’s Senate as “dysfunctional.”
“There are 100 members of the U.S. Senate, 52 are Republicans, 48 are Democrats,” Danforth says. “Under Senate rules because of the possibility of filibuster, 40, 41 senators can block anything.”
Danforth says that’s what Senate Democrats have done. The letter from Danforth, Bond, Ashcroft and Talent says that “no senator in the history of our state has matched Claire McCaskill in opposing presidential nominees.”
Senator Claire McCaskill
McCaskill is seeking her third term in Washington.
She was elected to the Senate in 2006, ousting Republican incumbent Talent. McCaskill was re-elected to a six-year term in 2012, beating then-Congressman Todd Akin, R-Town and Country.
The Missouri Democratic Party Wednesday posted a Hawley tweet from June 14, 2016, which read: “Jefferson City is full of insiders just climbing the political ladder. Missouri voters deserve better. #MOAG”.
In that tweet, there are people in suits climbing ladders behind Hawley.
McCaskill campaign manager David Kirby has released a statement, noting that Hawley was sworn-in as Attorney General in January.
“Josh Hawley must want to set some kind of record- just a few months after promising Missourians he wouldn’t be a ladder-climbing politician, he decides he’d rather run for the next office than do the job he was elected to do. That’s exactly what Missourians can’t stand about politics – it represents the worst kind of politician, and calls into question what other promises Josh Hawley will break,” Kirby says in his statement.
State Rep. Paul Curtman, R-Pacific, launched an exploratory committee for the Senate race last weekend. Curtman, who served as a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, is in his fourth and final term in the Missouri House. He was first elected in 2010.
Austin Petersen is also running for the GOP Senate nomination. Petersen describes himself on Twitter as “Pro Liberty, Pro Life, Pro Constitution.”
Click here to listen to Missourinet news director Brian Hauswirth’s full interview with former Missouri Senator John Danforth, which was recorded on July 20, 2017:
