Missouri Senate candidate Josh Hawley, the state’s Republican attorney general, is making Hollywood a major theme of his campaign against Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill. And it just might be working.
Hawley’s campaign has pounced eagerly on McCaskill’s scheduled fundraiser with Hollywood heavyweights (and Barack Obama) this weekend, using it to cast her as an out-of-touch elitist. (Don’t forget: Hawley mentioned Hollywood five times in his campaign launch announcement alone.)
“Calling in billionaire movie directors and liberal icons like former President Barack Obama, Senator McCaskill has made it clear she’s focused on the cash, not the constituents,” campaign press secretary Kelli Ford said in an email on Friday.
Conservative super PAC Missouri Rising Action launched an ad on Friday describing McCaskill as “Hollywood’s Senator,” accusing her of “hobknobbing with Obama and the Hollywood elite at a swanky Beverly Hills fundraiser.”
“Hollywood is bankrolling McCaskill because McCaskill supports their extreme agenda,” the ad’s narrator intones. “Gun grabs. Taxpayer-funded abortion. Even rejecting the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s presidency.”
As pictures of Alec Badlwin, Barbra Streisand, Meryl Streep, and other celebrities flash across the screen, the narrator asks, “If Hollywood stands with McCaskill, how can McCaskill stand with Missouri?”
And when it comes to the battle for her seat in the upper chamber, McCaskill’s opponents seem to be doing something right. Morning Consult poll this week found more than half of Missouri voters want McCaskill to be replaced, and that her 38 percent approval rating puts her last among Senate Democrats facing re-election in states President Trump won.
