Hawley visits Hannibal for first time since 2018 as campaign for U.S. senator reaches homestretch

HANNIBAL — As the saying goes, first impressions are everything.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) knows how to make a good one.

The Hawley campaign hosted a rally Tuesday afternoon at Becky’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor and Emporium in Hannibal — the same spot Ronald Pashia, a pastor and Army veteran, met Hawley in 2018. 

“I voted for him four years ago, and I’ll vote for him this time,” Pashia said. (He likely meant six years ago, as Hawley was elected in 2018 for a six-year term.)

Pashia said he was deeply moved by Hawley’s “heartfelt emotion over his family and our nation” from the first time he met him. Hawley’s eye contact and way of speaking went a long way with the pastor, who had an unmatched sense of enthusiasm for the senator at Tuesday’s rally. He said he prays for the senator and his family every day.

The senator arrived and departed in less than an hour. It had been a while since the senator had visited the area. When asked how long it’d been since his last visit, he couldn’t remember.

“Gosh! I don’t have an answer to that,” he said. “But it’s great to be here.”

Past news reports indicate he hadn’t been to Hannibal since October 2018 — the last time he was a few weeks out from an election with his name on the ballot.

Back on the ballot

After defeating the Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill in 2018, Hawley’s seat is back on the ballot. Jared Young of the Better Party, Nathan Kline of the Green Party and W.C. Young of the Libertarian Party are on the ballot, too, but Hawley’s biggest opponent is Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce, a lawyer and Marine veteran from Hartsburg who last made a public appearance in Hannibal during the summer of 2022.

Kunce has raised more than twice as much money as Hawley during the last three months — $7.6 million compared to Hawley’s $2 million — Hawley has a solid lead in the polls. 

Despite numerous policy disagreements and several heated exchanges this election season, Hawley and Kunce do have a few things in common.

Both candidates grew up in Missouri. Hawley was born in Arkansas to a banker and a teacher but grew up in Lexington, a rural town outside of Kansas City. Kunce grew up in a working class family in Jefferson City that became bankrupt by medical bills due to his sister’s heart condition. 

Both were valedictorians of their high school class — Kunce at Jefferson City High School and Hawley at Rockhurst High School, a private Catholic school in Kansas City. Both graduated from Yale University in the early 2000s.

Kunce served in the Marine Corps for 13 years, first getting deployed to Iraq then serving at the Pentagon. He’s currently the national security director at the American Economic Liberties Project, a non-profit organization advocating for antitrust reform.

Hawley clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts, taught at the University of Missouri School of Law and won his first political campaign in 2017 for Attorney General, a position he held until he was sworn into the Senate in 2019.

Hawley’s presence in Missouri

One of the biggest criticisms Hawley made against McCaskill in his 2018 campaign was that she was disconnected from her constituents. He claimed she was an elitist, citing her use of a private plane to travel around Missouri and her luxury apartment in Washington, D.C., which sold for $2.5 million in 2021.

Hawley’s campaign expenditures indicate nearly $140,000 in chartered flights since August, as reported by the Missouri Independent.

Hawley’s own residence has been a topic of debate throughout his six-year term in the Senate. The Kansas City Star reported in 2020 that the senator was using his sister’s address in the Ozarks while his home was being built. The senator used the address to vote in the 2020 election, and his campaign claimed the Hawleys were staying with family members while their house was being built — despite owning a $1.3 million home in Virginia.

The Star reported earlier this month that the debate was settled, but the situation is still murky. 

Christian County public records indicate that the five-bedroom, one-bathroom residence listed as Hawley’s mailing address belongs to his parents, who paid more than $10,000 in property taxes last year. Records show the Hawleys paid roughly $1,300 in personal taxes last year on two vehicles, but they’re not listed as owning any property in the county.

Hawley’s position on fossil fuels

The senator spent the majority of his 45 minutes in Hannibal talking about Kunce, the Biden-Harris administration and the “nuttiness and craziness that (he’s) up against.” He followed each claim about the opposing party with the phrase, “It’s nuts!” to which his supporters echoed back, “But it’s Kunce!”

One of the claims Hawley made was in reference to Kunce’s position on fossil fuels.

“(Kunce) wants to eliminate all gas and diesel from our economy — all of it. All of it,” Hawley said. “He wants to take away the keys to your car and shut off the power in your house.”

The senator was referring to an essay written by Kunce in 2021 that makes the case for reducing fossil fuel use in the United States to eliminate the country’s dependence on nations in the Middle East. No references to taking away people’s keys and shutting off their power were mentioned in the essay.

“As my generation enters middle age and we look back at the several decades of conflict we endured because of oil, and the effort we continue to put toward it, it’s hard to believe that it was worth the cost, or will be going forward. The time. The lives. The dollars,” Kunce wrote in the essay. 

Hawley supports the use of fossil fuels. He introduced the American Energy Independence Act of 2022, which would’ve “(defunded) the United States’ contributions to any provisions of the Paris Climate Agreement,” “(promoted) oil and natural gas leases on federal land following the Biden Administration’s moratorium” and “instruct federal agencies to identify and rescind existing regulations that have the effect of reducing American energy independence, bar new climate rules that reduce energy security or raise energy prices, and direct agencies to work to achieve energy independence by 2024.”

The bill was never brought to a vote.

Hawley’s position on abortion

The issue Hawley is perhaps most passionate about is defending the unborn. 

Anti-abortion groups have donated to Hawley’s reelection campaign more than any other senate race this season. The senator has been a vocal opponent of Amendment 3 and has defended the state’s abortion ban which went into effect in 2022. The state is said to have some of the strictest abortion laws in the country.

Hawley voted for and co-sponsored the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, both of which failed.  The latter would have made abortions performed after 15 weeks a criminal offense, effectively banning abortions nationwide past that point. However, he then claimed during a debate last month that he would not support a national 15-week abortion ban.

Come November, one party or the other will echo the climactic finale to his 15-minute stump speech.

“This is a tough time for a country. Yes, it is. But what a privilege to live in a time that matters. What a privilege to be called to this time,” the senator said. 

“What a privilege to be able to say that at a time of trial and a time of challenge, we stood up, we told the truth, we spoke and stood with courage — and we saved the United States of America.”

A request for further communications after Tuesday’s rally was not answered by representatives for the Hawley campaign when this story was published on Wednesday.