Josh Hawley

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 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, he 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. His political beliefs have been described as strongly socially conservative.^[1] Critics have characterized his ideology as reactionary and theocratic.^[2][3][4]


In December 2020, Hawley provoked a political backlash when he became the first senator to announce plans to object to the certification of Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 United States presidential election. He led Senate efforts to overturn the Electoral College vote count^{[5][6][7][8][9]} and rallied supporters of the notion that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen. Although he did not directly encourage the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, observers perceived his actions as inflammatory.^{[10][11][12][13][14]} In late January 2021, Hawley denied trying to overturn the election results.^[15][16]

Early life and education

Joshua David Hawley was born on December 31, 1979,^[17] 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 Boatmen's Bancshares there.^{[18][19][20][21][22]}


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.^[23] According to his middle school principal, Barbara Weibling, several of Hawley's teachers thought "he was probably going to be president one day".^[23] While in high school, Hawley regularly wrote columns for his hometown newspaper The Lexington News, 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.^[23] He then studied history at Stanford University, where his mother was an alumna.^[22] Hawley graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with highest honors and Phi Beta Kappa membership.^[22][24] He studied under professor David M. Kennedy, who later contributed the foreword to Hawley's book Theodore Roosevelt: Preacher of Righteousness.^[25] Kennedy said Hawley stood out in a school "which is overstuffed with overachieving and very talented young people"^[23] and has called him "arguably the most gifted student I taught in 50 years."^[22]


After spending ten months in London teaching at St Paul's School from 2002 to 2003,^[19][26] Hawley returned to the U.S. to attend Yale Law School, graduating in 2006 with a Juris Doctor degree.^[21][22][25] The Kansas City Star reported that Hawley's classmates saw him as "politically ambitious and a deeply religious conservative."^[23] At Yale, Hawley was articles editor of the Yale Law Journal, editor of the Yale Law & Policy Review, and president of the school's Federalist Society chapter.^[25][27]

Personal life

In 2010, Hawley married Erin Morrow (now known as Erin Morrow Hawley), a fellow Yale Law School graduate and an associate professor of law at the Regent University School of Law.^[289][290] They have three children.^[291] 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.^[292] 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.^[125][293] Hawley's voter registration has his sister's address in Ozark, Missouri, so that he can be eligible to run again for Missouri's U.S. Senate seat.^[294]


Hawley was raised Methodist, but he and his family now attend an Evangelical Presbyterian Church.^[29][1][295]