Old acquaintances of Sen. Josh Hawley, a rising firebrand from the Trump era, claim the Missouri Republican is not the man they once knew.
Andrea Randle carpooled with Hawley when they both attended Lexington Middle School and recalls the now-41-year-old as being very sociable. One of the three black students in her grade at the time, Randle said she wrote to Hawley about her concerns after George Floyd, a black man, died in Minneapolis police custody over the summer. Though she never received a reply, Randle said she was surprised by Hawley’s public comments saying Floyd’s death was not the result of systemic racism.
“He’s not who he was,” Randle told the Kansas City Star.
After graduating from Rockhurst High School, an all-boys Catholic preparatory school in Kansas City in 1998, Hawley attended Stanford University, followed by Yale Law School. Hawley later clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts.
Hawley now faces blowback after leading the charge in Congress to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Before Congress was able to certify the Electoral College votes in favor of now-President Biden, a mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the United States Capitol, resulting in the deaths of five people. Since the events, some of Hawley’s colleagues have called for his expulsion or his resignation from the Senate.
In St. Louis, hundreds of protesters took to the streets earlier this month to demand Hawley’s resignation. The Missouri Republican also faced backlash from corporate donors, and his book deal was pulled from Simon & Schuster after the siege of Congress.
“I am more than a little bamboozled by it, certainly distressed by it,” said David Kennedy, a Stanford professor emeritus of history who served as Hawley’s academic adviser. Kennedy wrote the foreword to Hawley’s 2008 biography about President Theodore Roosevelt.
Others who knew Hawley recall him as being a bright young man destined to get involved in public service.
“I just remember some of the teachers sitting around and saying, you know, that he was probably going to be president one day,” said Barbara Weibling, Hawley’s middle school principal, who added that she believed Hawley’s parents were grooming him for a future in politics.
Randle remembered herself and Hawley being among four eighth-graders who were granted the title of “Future President.” He also signed her eighth-grade yearbook then, “Josh Hawley, president 2024.”
After the Capitol riot, many lawmakers who followed Hawley’s lead to object to Biden’s certification took back their decision to do so, but Hawley kept his promise and refused to apologize for his stance.
“I will never apologize for giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections,” Hawley said. “That’s my job, and I will keep doing it.”
Hawley did condemn the violence and called for the prosecution of anyone who broke the law or attacked law enforcement.
Hawley was elected to the Senate in 2018 when he defeated two-term Democrat Claire McCaskill. He was the youngest member of the Senate at age 39 during the 116th Congress. Prior to serving at the federal level, Hawley served as Missouri’s attorney general from 2017 to 2019. He’s often been floated as a possible GOP presidential contender for the 2024 presidential election.
