The youngest senator when he was elected in 2018, Hawley is a soaring orator with a sense for tapping into Trump’s confrontational style of populist politics. He often addresses the Senate floor in an unusual, direct-to-camera manner, pushing for bigger stimulus checks or condemning the Supreme Court decision expanding protections to LGTBQ employees. He’s distinguished himself within the GOP by promoting pricey solutions to the pandemic’s economic effects, tanking some judges supported by his own party and lashing out at technology companies.
The Senate’s Trump lane has three top names so far: Hawley, Cruz and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who shares a consulting firm with the junior senator from Missouri. Along with five other senators and 139 representatives, all three opposed certifying Biden’s Electoral College win — even after the deadly Capitol riot.
That vote had no parallel in modern U.S. politics, even compared to 2017 when Democratic resistance to Trump ran hot and senators like New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand voted against nearly every Trump nominee in advance of her 2020 presidential bid.
“Hawley’s made a decision that resistance is the path to Nirvana,” said Jef Pollock, a pollster who advised Gillibrand’s campaign.
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