Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley reportedly said that he is not running for president in 2024.
“No, I’m not running,” Hawley said Tuesday in the Capitol when asked about a White House bid, and he did not explain further, according to Business Insider.
Hawley’s Senate office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Tuesday night, Hawley reiterated his stance to Fox New host Maria Bartiromo, saying, “I’ve always said, Maria, that I’m not running for president. It’s a privilege to represent the state of Missouri in the United States Senate. I just got elected barely two years ago. There’s a lot of a work to do, and I look forward to continuing to fight for Missouri every day that I can.”
The Senate firebrand has stayed in the headlines after coming under heavy criticism for objecting to Electoral College results from Pennsylvania on Jan. 6, even after a mob broke into the U.S. Capitol building.
That led to book publisher Simon & Schuster canceling its book deal with Hawley, and Democratic colleagues have filed an ethics complaint against him, claiming he “lent legitimacy to the mob’s cause and made future violence more likely.”
Hawley, who joined the Senate in 2019 and is up for reelection in 2024, could change his mind about launching a presidential bid, of course.
Former Texas Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke initially ruled out a presidential bid before joining the crowded Democratic primary field a few months later.
Hawley himself has appeared to flip on matters of running for higher office in the past. During his 2016 Missouri attorney general race, the year he was elected to that post, one of his ads complained that “Jefferson City is full of insiders just climbing the political ladder.” He launched a Senate bid a little more than a year later.
