Josh Hawley : Net Worth, Family, Wife, Education, Children, Age, Biography and Political Career

Joshua David Hawley is an American politician, lawyer, and former professor who has served as the junior United States senator from Missouri since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Hawley served as the 42nd attorney general of Missouri from 2017 to 2019, before defeating two-term incumbent Democratic senator Claire McCaskill in the 2018 election.

Born in Springdale, Arkansas, to a banker and a teacher, Hawley graduated from Stanford University in 2002 and Yale Law School in 2006. He was a law clerk to Tenth Circuit Judge Michael W. McConnell and Chief Justice John Roberts and then worked as a lawyer, first in private practice, from 2008 to 2011, and then for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, from 2011 to 2015. Before becoming Missouri Attorney General, he was also a post graduate intern at St Pauls School in London, an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Law, and a faculty member of the conservative Blackstone Legal Fellowship.

As Missouri attorney general, Hawley initiated several high-profile lawsuits and investigations, including a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, an investigation into Missouri governor Eric Greitens, and a lawsuit and investigation into companies associated with the opioid epidemic. In the Senate, Hawley became widely known for his criticism of Big Tech, as well as for his criticism of the Chinese government and his support for an independent Hong Kong.

In December 2020, Hawley provoked an intense political backlash when he became the first senator to announce plans to object to the certification of Joe Bidens victory in the 2020 United States presidential election. Hawley led Senate efforts to obstruct the Electoral College vote count and rallied supporters of the baseless Stop the Steal conspiracy theory that motivated a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, with figures across the political spectrum arguing that Hawley was morally responsible for the riot and the deaths it caused, and some calling on him to resign or be expelled from the Senate.

Joshua David Hawley was born on December 31, 1979, in Springdale, Arkansas, to banker Ronald Hawley and teacher Virginia Hawley. In 1981, the Hawleys moved to Lexington, Missouri, after Ronald joined a division of Boatmens Bancshares there.

Hawley attended Lexington Middle School and then Rockhurst High School, a private Jesuit boys prep school in Kansas City, Missouri, from which he graduated in 1998 as a valedictorian. According to his middle school principal, Barbara Weibling, several of Hawleys teachers thought "he was probably going to be president one day." While in high school, Hawley regularly wrote columns for his hometown newspaper The Lexington News, writing about such topics as the American militia movement following the Oklahoma City bombing, media coverage of Los Angeles Police Department detective Mark Fuhrman, and affirmative action, which he opposed. He then studied history at Stanford University, where his mother was an alumna. Hawley graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with highest honors and Phi Beta Kappa membership. Hawley studied under professor David M. Kennedy, who later contributed the foreword to a book Hawley wrote, Theodore Roosevelt: Preacher of Righteousness. Kennedy said Hawley stood out in a school "which is overstuffed with overachieving and very talented young people," and has described Hawley as "arguably the most gifted student I taught in 50 years."

After spending ten months in London as a post graduate intern at St Pauls School from 2002 to 2003, Hawley returned to the U.S. to attend Yale Law School, graduating in 2006 with a Juris Doctor degree. The Kansas City Star reported that Hawleys classmates saw him as "politically ambitious and a deeply religious conservative." While at Yale, Hawley was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and served as president of the schools Federalist Society chapter.

In 2010, Hawley married Erin Morrow, an associate professor of law at the University of Missouri. The couple have three children. Following complaints that, after becoming attorney general, he was not abiding by a statutory requirement that the attorney general must reside within the city limits of the state capital (Jefferson City), Hawley began renting an apartment there, while his family continued to live in Columbia, Missouri. The Hawleys own a house in Vienna, Virginia, which they bought in 2019 after Hawley was elected to the U.S. Senate, after selling their Columbia home. Hawleys voter registration has his sisters address in Ozark, Missouri so that he can be eligible to run again for Missouris U.S. Senate seat.

Hawley was raised Methodist, but he and his family now attend an Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Hawley wrote in a 2012 essay: "Government serves Christs kingdom rule; this is its purpose. And Christians purpose in politics should be to advance the kingdom of God — to make it more real, more tangible, more present."

Josh Hawley Net Worth

Josh Hawley Net Worth is $ 1.1 Million in 2021.

Josh Hawley Family

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

In 2010, Hawley married Erin Morrow, an associate professor of law at the University of Missouri. The couple have three children.

Josh Hawley Wife and Children

In 2010, Hawley married Erin Morrow, an associate professor of law at the University of Missouri. The couple have three children.

Josh Hawley Career and Achievement

Hawley spent two years as a law clerk after law school, clerking first for Judge Michael W. McConnell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 2006 to 2007, then for Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court from 2007 to 2008. While at the Supreme Court, Hawley met his future wife, Erin Morrow, a fellow Yale Law graduate who was also clerking for Roberts.

After his clerkships, Hawley worked in private practice as an appellate litigator at the law firm Hogan & Hartson from 2008 to 2011. From 2011 to 2015, he worked for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty at its Washington, D.C., offices before moving to Missouri. At Becket, he wrote briefs and gave legal advice in the Supreme Court cases Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, decided in 2012, and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, decided in 2014. In 2011, 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.

In June 2013, Hawley served as a faculty member of the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, which is funded by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian organization that has been designated an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

Attorney General of Missouri (2017–2019)

2016 Election

In 2016, Hawley ran for Attorney General of Missouri. Of the $9.2 million raised for the campaign, $4.4 million was provided by David Humphreys, CEO of Joplin-based Tamko Building Products. On August 2, Hawley defeated Kurt Schaefer in the Republican primary with 64 percent of the vote. He defeated Democrat Teresa Hensley in the general election on November 8 with 58.5 percent of the vote. During the campaign, Hawley criticized "career politicians" who were "climbing the ladder" from one position to another, which later became a point of bipartisan criticism of him when he ran for the U.S. Senate two years later.

Death of Tory Sanders

On May 5, 2017, Tory Sanders, a black motorist who had taken a wrong turn in Tennessee ran out of gas in rural Mississippi County, Missouri. He had gotten lost and was confused and asked a gas station attendant to call the police for assistance. Deputies responded and put him in the county jail. His mental condition had deteriorated further and he resisted when jail staff, under the command of Sheriff Cory Hutcheson, tried to release him as they had no grounds on which to hold him. Hutcheson, who himself faced and later was convicted of a variety of federal and state charges, led a team of police and jailers who repeatedly pepper-sprayed and tasered Sanders throughout the day. Hutcheson eventually led a team of cops and jailers into the cell and swarmed Sanders, who went into cardiac arrest and died. The cause of death was judged to be "excited delirium", a condition frequently cited in custody-related deaths but not recognized by major psychiatric authorities.

Hawley determined that those who had assaulted Sanders had not intended his death, and decided not to file murder charges. When the case was reviewed by Hawleys successor, Eric Schmitt, insufficient evidence caused him to reject first or second-degree murder charges, but the statute of limitations had expired for any lesser offenses, so no one could be held criminally accountable for Sanderss death. Hawleys handling of the case led to criticism from black lawmakers and the NAACPs Missouri chapter. Following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, there was renewed interest in the case, with activists hoping that Schmitt would file charges. In February 2021, he chose not to do so.

Opioid Manufacturer lawsuit and Investigation

In June 2017, 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. The state argued that the companies violated Missouri consumer protection and Medicaid laws. The damages sought were among the largest in state history, on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars.

In August 2017, Hawley announced that he had opened an investigation into seven opioid distributors (Allergan, Depomed, Insys, Mallinckrodt, Mylan, Pfizer, and Teva Pharmaceuticals). In October 2017, Hawley expanded his investigation into three additional pharmaceutical companies (AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson Corporation), the three largest U.S. opioid distributors.

Rape Kit Audit

On October 29, 2017, the Columbia Missourian published an exposé describing a large backlog of untested rape kits in Missouri and the long-ignored efforts of rape survivors and law enforcement agencies to have the state address the backlog. On November 29, Hawley announced a statewide audit of the number of untested rape kits. The results were made public in May 2018; there were 5,000 such kits. In August 2018, One Nation, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit connected to Republican campaign strategist Karl Rove, ran commercials giving Hawley credit for identifying the problem, a claim The St. Louis Post-Dispatch labeled misleading. In September 2020, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced that of the 16 rape kit tests that were consequently uploaded to the national DNA database, 11 revealed the names of known criminals, and were referred for possible prosecution.

Investigations Into Tech Companies

In November 2017, Hawley opened an investigation into whether Googles business practices violated state consumer protection and anti-trust laws. The investigation was focused on what data Google collects from users of its services, how it uses content providers content, and whether its search engine results are biased.

In April 2018, after the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Hawley announced that his office had issued a subpoena to Facebook related to how the company shares its users data. The investigation sought to find whether Facebook properly handles its users sensitive data or collects more data than it publicly admits.

Greitens Scandals

In December 2017, Missouris Republican Governor Eric Greitens and senior members of his staff were accused by government transparency advocates of subverting Missouris open records laws after The Kansas City Star reported that they used Confide, a messaging app that erases texts after they have been read, on their personal phones. 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, but on December 20, 2017, he announced his office would investigate, saying that his clients are "first and foremost the citizens of the state". Hawley said text messages between government employees, whether made 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 record, and if so, whether it is subject to disclosure. Hawleys investigation found that no laws had been broken. In March 2018, six former Missouri attorneys released a letter describing the investigation as "half-hearted"; Hawleys spokesperson called the letter a partisan attack.

When allegations emerged in January 2018 that Greitens had blackmailed a woman with whom he was having an affair, Hawleys office said it did not have jurisdiction to look into the matter; St. Louis circuit attorney Kimberly Gardner opened an investigation into the allegations. In April, after a special investigative committee of the Missouri House of Representatives released a report on the allegations, Hawley called on Greitens to resign immediately. The next week, Gardner filed a second felony charge against Greitens, alleging that his campaign had taken donor and email lists from The Mission Continues, a veterans charity Greitens founded in 2007 and used the information to raise funds for his 2016 campaign for governor.

Hawley announced an investigation based on the new felony charges. On April 30, he announced that his office had launched an investigation into possible violations of the states Sunshine laws following allegations that a state employee had managed a social media account on Greitenss behalf. The same month, Greitens asked a judge to issue a restraining order blocking Hawley from investigating him.

On May 29, 2018, Greitens announced that he would resign effective June 1, 2018; Hawley issued a statement approving of the decision.

Affordable Care Act lawsuit

In February 2018, Hawley joined 20 other Republican-led states in a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional. Though some argued the lawsuit would eliminate insurance protections for people with preexisting conditions, Hawley said he supported protections for preexisting conditions. In September 2018, amid criticism from Hawleys U.S. Senate opponent Claire McCaskill about the lawsuits impact on preexisting conditions, Hawleys office said that he supported protections for individuals with preexisting conditions. 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 December 2018, Judge Reed OConnor ruled the entirety of the ACA unconstitutional, but on appeal, the Fifth Circuit did not agree that the entire law should be voided.

Catholic Clergy Investigation

In August 2018, after a Pennsylvania grand jury released a report detailing over 1,000 cases of sexual abuse by Catholic clerics, as well as protests by survivors of clergy sexual abuse in St. Louis, Hawley announced that he would begin an investigation into potential cases of abuse in Missouri. Missouri was one of several states to launch such investigations in the wake of the Pennsylvania report; the attorneys general of Illinois, Nebraska, and New Mexico began similar inquiries. Hawley promised that he would investigate any crimes, publish a report for the public, and refer potential cases to local law enforcement officials. Archbishop of St. Louis Robert James Carlson pledged cooperation with the inquiry.

The investigation, which was inherited by Hawleys successor, Eric Schmitt, charged 12 former priests with sexual abuse of minors in September 2019.

U.S Senate

Elections

2018

In August 2017, Hawley formed an exploratory campaign committee for the U.S. Senate. In October 2017, he declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination in Missouris 2018 U.S. Senate election for the seat held by Democrat Claire McCaskill. Before the official announcement, four former Republican U.S. Senators from Missouri (John Ashcroft, Kit Bond, John Danforth, and McCaskills predecessor, Jim Talent) asked Hawley to run for the Senate seat.

The tightly contested Republican primary had 11 candidates hoping to unseat McCaskill. Hawley received substantial support from prominent Republicans, such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Donald Trump, and the Senate Conservatives Fund. He won a large majority of the vote in the primary election.

Trump endorsed Hawley in November 2017. During the general election campaign, Obamacare was a key issue, with both candidates pledging to ensure protections for preexisting conditions. McCaskill criticized Hawleys participation in a lawsuit that could end insurance protections for people with preexisting conditions by overturning the Affordable Care Act. Hawley made McCaskills upcoming vote on the confirmation of CIA Director Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State a campaign issue. His campaign spokesperson asked, "Will Senator McCaskill ignore her liberal donors and support Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State, or will she stick with Chuck Schumer and continue to obstruct the president?", adding, "It is deeply troubling how focused Senator McCaskill is on doing whats politically convenient instead of doing whats right."

Hawley met criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for initiating his Senate campaign less than a year after being sworn in as attorney general, as during his attorney general campaign, Hawley had put out advertisements criticizing "ladder-climbing politicians." Hawley dismissed this, saying that the Senate was not on his mind during the attorney general campaign.

During the campaign, Hawley released his and his wifes tax returns and called on McCaskill to release her and her husbands returns. McCaskill released her returns, which she files separately from her husband. When asked if he thought Trump should release his returns, Hawley did not say.

In the November 2018 general election, Hawley defeated McCaskill, 51 percent to 46 percent.

On December 6, 2018, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft launched an inquiry into whether Hawley misappropriated public funds for his Senate campaign. Hawleys office denied any wrongdoing. On February 28, 2019, Ashcroft closed the investigation because there was insufficient evidence that "an offense has been committed." A 2021 New York Post investigation of questionable campaign expenditures revealed that Hawley had apparently illegally spent such funds, for instance charging $80.04 at Jimmy Buffetts Margaritaville to "travel", on a lobbyist-funded junket to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Almost a year later Hawleys office said he had reimbursed the campaign for the inappropriate expenditures.

Tenure

Hawley was sworn in as a U.S. Senator on January 3, 2019.

During the Hong Kong protests in October 2019, Hawley and Senator Ted Cruz visited Hong Kong and spoke in favor of the protests. Hawley called the city a "police state". Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam said Hawleys assertion was "irresponsible and unfounded".

On November 18, 2019, 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. Engadget noted the bill might cause "serious problems" for companies that are legally obligated to store data in China, such as Apple and TikTok, and "might force them to leave China altogether". It was not Hawleys first technology-related bill; he had also introduced proposals to ban loot boxes in gaming and to restrict social network features "deemed addictive", among others. 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". He 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". The bill also prevents the collection of "more user data than is necessary to conduct business".

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, 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, Hawley became the only senator to vote against all of President Joe Bidens cabinet nominees, with the exception of Cecilia Rouse, whom he voted to confirm as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Role in the 2020 Presidential Election

After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Hawley announced his intention to object to the Senates certification of the Electoral College vote count on January 6, 2021. He was the first senator to do so. Trump had refused to concede and made frequent baseless claims of fraud in the election. Hawley said that his attempt to reverse the election result was on behalf of those "concerned about election integrity." He made numerous statements suggesting that Trump could possibly remain in office. The New York Times wrote that Hawley was elevating false claims of a stolen election. His maneuver prompted bipartisan condemnation of his action as undemocratic.

On December 30, 2020, Hawley said, "some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws", though multiple courts had rejected such claims. He repeated the false assertion about Pennsylvania in a February 2021 fundraising email, though the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had unanimously rejected the argument and the United States Supreme Court had declined to consider an appeal.

On December 30, 2020, after Hawley tweeted he would join the effort to object to Bidens victory, Walmarts official Twitter account responded, "Go ahead. Get your 2 hour debate. #soreloser." Hawley responded, accusing Walmart of using "slave labor" and "driving mom and pop stores out of business". Walmart deleted the tweet, apologizing to Hawley and saying it was "mistakenly posted by a member of our social media team." The event led the hashtag #BoycottWalmart to trend on Twitter.

On January 4, 2021, Hawley tweeted that his Washington, D.C. 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. He said he was in Missouri at the time. ShutDownDC, the group that staged the event, said it was a peaceful candlelight vigil and claimed they did not vandalize Hawleys house or knock on the door. A video of the event shared by the group showed that some protesters wrote on the sidewalk in chalk, chanted through a megaphone, and left a copy of the U.S. Constitution at Hawleys door. Vienna, Virginia police said the protesters were peaceful with "no issues, no arrests" necessary; police spokesman Juan Vazquez said the police "didnt think it was that big of a deal."

Storming of the U.S. Capitol and Public Reaction

On January 6, 2021, when Congress met to count the electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election, they were interrupted by pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol building, forcing members of Congress to evacuate. The events led to five deaths. Before the counting of the votes, to which Hawley had publicly announced he would object, he was photographed saluting the protestors with a raised fist outside the Capitol. The photograph immediately became a subject of controversy; The Kansas City Star called it "the image that will haunt Josh Hawley" and "one of the iconic images to emerge from the day the Capitol was breached by rioters" and Pulitzer Prize-winning St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger said "the staging was perfect" and recommended the photograph be known as Hawley: The Face of Sedition. Tom Coleman, a former U.S. representative from Missouri and a fellow Republican, said Hawleys "clenched fist in front of the Capitol will seal his fate." The photographer, Francis Chung, declined to weigh in on the photographs political impact, saying it "is what it is" and "kind of speaks for itself."

That same day, The Kansas City Stars editorial board published an editorial arguing that Hawley "has blood on his hands" due to the event, which they called a "coup attempt", saying that "no one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible" than Hawley, "who put out a fundraising appeal while the siege was underway". The next day, it published an editorial calling for Hawley to resign or be removed from office. Similarly, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouris other major newspaper, published an editorial on January 7 calling for Hawley to resign and Republican "silent enablers" to denounce Trumpism, writing that "Hawleys tardy, cover-his-ass condemnation of the violence ranks at the top of his substantial list of phony, smarmy and politically expedient declarations" and "Trumpism must die before it morphs into Hitlerism. Defenders like Hawley deserve to be cast into political purgatory for having promoted it". The newspapers editor, Gilbert Bailon, explained the editorial boards decision in an interview with Boston-based radio station WBUR:

He has been in the forefront of people who have been claiming the Electoral College vote was based on fraudulent votes, and we believe, as I think many Americans do, that that has been tried and tested in courts, and that is not true, and he continues to say that, as well as President Trump, and so both of them, we feel, were participants in this narrative that helped lead to the attack on the Capitol. Now, whether that was their intent, I dont think that necessarily has to be the case, but they were proponents of that, and in the case of Josh Hawley, he represents our state, and even after the riot, he continued to oppose the certification of the vote in the Senate, and we believe that hes not going to change his mind, and we feel that it would be better if he were to resign.

Political scientists Henry Farrell and Elizabeth N. Saunders called Hawleys ploy a "cynical theatrical gesture" with Hawley "pursuing short-term political gain at the risk of long-term chaos." John Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri and Hawleys political mentor, said that supporting Hawley was the "worst mistake I ever made in my life". Danforth said Hawley was directly responsible for the riot. David M. Kennedy, who served as Hawleys 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. Prominent conservative columnist George Will wrote on the day of the riot that Hawley, Trump and Senator Ted Cruz "will each wear the scarlet S of a seditionist." Comedian Bill Maher called Hawley "a far-right JFK with a little dash of KKK." On January 9, NBC News reported that several Republican Party insiders anonymously condemned Hawleys actions, with one strategist saying of the fist salute that Hawley "looked phony and out of place and like a doofus" in a manner reminiscent of Michael Dukakiss tank photograph. Following the riot, Hawleys approval rating dropped six percent among all Missouri voters, and nine percent among Missouri Republicans.

In the wake of the riot, other Republican lawmakers tried to persuade Hawley to abandon his objections to Bidens win, but he voted in support of the objections to the electoral votes for Arizona and Pennsylvania, making baseless claims that Pennsylvania election officials violated state election laws. Both senators from Pennsylvania, including Republican Pat Toomey, rejected his objections, and the Senate rejected his objections by votes of 6–93 and 7–92, respectively. Some political commentators and Democratic lawmakers dubbed Hawley and other senators who sought to overturn the election the Sedition Caucus. 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." Thousands of law school students and alumni, including at Hawleys alma mater Yale Law School, also called for Hawley and Cruz to be disbarred. On January 9, hundreds of protesters assembled in Downtown St. Louis in front of the Old Courthouse to demand Hawleys resignation.

Several political donors and companies associated with Hawley have cut off financial ties. David Humphreys, who with his mother and sister donated more than $6 million to Hawleys 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." On January 7, Simon & Schuster canceled its planned publication of Hawleys book The Tyranny of Big Tech, saying it "cannot support Senator Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat"; the book was later picked up by Regnery Publishing, which frequently publishes books by conservative authors. On January 11, several companies, including Airbnb, American Express, AT&T, Best Buy, Dow Inc., and Mastercard, announced they would end fundraising for all Republicans who objected to Bidens victory, including Hawley; Hallmark Cards, based in Kansas City, said it had asked Hawley and Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas to return all contributions. Conversely, the Senate Conservatives Fund, a conservative political action committee, began raising money for Hawley and aggressively supporting him following the riot, raising $700,000 and spending nearly $400,000 to send texts and emails in support of him. A group of former Claire McCaskill staffers created a political action committee aimed at unseating Hawley with the backronym JOSH PAC (Just Oust Seditious Hacks).

On January 21, seven Democratic senators filed a complaint against Hawley and Cruz to the Senate Ethics Committee, arguing that they "lent legitimacy to the mobs cause and made future violence more likely." Hawley called the complaint "a flagrant abuse of the Senate ethics process and a flagrant attempt to exact partisan revenge". In response, 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.

After the storming of the Capitol, several people sent disparaging messages intended for Hawley to Representative Josh Harder, a California Democrat, as they had confused the two due to their names similarity.

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