Last month, the only Republican vote in the Senate aimed at protecting consumers from overdraft fees came from an unexpected source: Senator Josh Hawley. This Missouri conservative is well-known for criticizing “wokeness” across various areas and for raising his fist in support of Trump supporters shortly before the Capitol riot on January 6.
However, this vote on overdraft fees wasn’t the first time he diverged from the Republican norm. In 2023, he introduced legislation to limit out-of-pocket expenses for insulin to $25 per month, but it failed due to a lack of Republican backing. He also opposed his party’s attempts to make cuts to Medicaid during budget discussions.
In March, he partnered with Democrat Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey to propose a bill aimed at expediting the union contracting process. While Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio co-sponsored it, Hawley remarked in a recent phone interview that “not a single Republican would touch it.”
Since joining the Senate in 2019 as its youngest member at just 39 years old, Hawley has navigated two distinct paths: vigorously promoting socially conservative agendas while quietly embracing populist ideals, often aligning with Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, on various working-class issues.
“His primary aim is to disrupt the partnership between social conservatives and corporate interests that has existed since Reagan’s era,” noted Matt Stoller, a former aide to Sanders.
The term “populist” often brings to mind two notable figures from the agrarian South—Andrew Jackson and Huey Long—who appear quite different from the nimble Hawley, a banker’s son from Missouri educated at Stanford and Yale Law School. Nevertheless, the emphasis on putting working-class Americans ahead of elites has been key in Donald Trump’s political rise, a sentiment Hawley has adopted.
His influential allies in this movement include not just the former president but also Vice President JD Vance and Stephen K. Bannon, one of Trump’s closest associates.
“The Senate is essentially a Trump-hate club,” Bannon remarked in an interview. “Hawley is the only populist we have in there.”
While he may often seem isolated, Hawley raises an important question for Trump’s potential second term: How will the president enhance the lives of the working-class individuals who helped re-elect him?
Hawley points to tariffs as “a possibly crucial tool” for reviving American industry, despite the current financial market uncertainties and concerns about rising costs, particularly for low-income families.
He expressed particular enthusiasm for the 25 percent tariffs on imported vehicles, “which are met with cheers from workers in my state.” He also praised Trump’s “spot-on” instincts about eliminating taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security.
Nonetheless, he remains doubtful about extending the corporate tax cuts from Trump’s first term. “The populist-nationalist argument claimed these cuts would help companies pay their workers better and bring back American jobs,” he said. “The critical question is: Have they achieved that? Not really.”
Critics argue that Hawley’s form of populism, particularly in its Trump-influenced state, resembles previous political movements more focused on grievances than on actionable economic improvements.
“As seriously as I’d like to consider their perspectives, I usually find myself skeptical about the term,” said Hannah Gurman, an associate professor at New York University specializing in U.S. history. “Take Vance, for instance—he claims to support unions, but not those in the public sector or for teachers. And then there’s Hawley, who wants more American industry yet opposes Biden’s initiatives because they are too ‘woke’. There always seems to be a cultural agenda that serves as an excuse to avoid addressing real policy advancements.”
A Time Like Roosevelt’s
Hawley says his populist beliefs started forming in his twenties while writing a book titled “Theodore Roosevelt: Preacher of Righteousness,” which focused on the economic disparities of the Gilded Age, published by Yale University Press in 2008. “I came to realize that we’re living in a time reminiscent of Roosevelt’s,” he noted, “where economic power has increasingly consolidated among the wealthy at the expense of everyday Americans.”
He began marking his populist stance as Missouri’s attorney general. In 2017, he took legal action against three major opioid manufacturers for violating state consumer protection laws. That same year, he became the first state attorney general to investigate Google for possible antitrust issues.
These themes have only intensified in the Senate, where he has found that “the concentration of economic and political power is exceptionally real.” In his inaugural Senate speech in May 2019, Hawley condemned “big banks, big tech, and large multinational corporations, alongside their allies in academia and the media,” as the aristocratic architects of a system that primarily serves their own interests.
However, his populist initiatives were soon eclipsed by his loyalty to Trump, who, following Hawley’s strong support during the impeachment trial in February 2020, singled him out as “one of the greatest defenders against the impeachment hoax.” Ten months later, Hawley became the first Republican senator to announce he would object to the results of the 2020 election.
Simultaneously, Hawley was collaborating with Sanders to direct $1,200 payments to Americans as part of COVID relief efforts.
A year later, Hawley showed respect for President Biden’s Federal Trade Commission chair, Lina Khan, in a committee meeting. He even provided her an opportunity to counter an accusation from fellow Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, who suggested that Khan held Marxist viewpoints. The Wall Street Journal editorial board subsequently published a piece titled “Josh Hawley Loves Lina Khan.”
Nonetheless, Hawley is often viewed as an outlier who has not cultivated a collaborative network within the Senate.
Senator Hawley has kept his distance from forming alliances in the Senate, as evidenced by his own admission to The New York Times five years ago: “I’m not an arm-twister.”
His detachment is noticeable even with those who share similar views, like Representative Emanuel Cleaver II, a Democrat from Missouri. Cleaver expressed his agreement with Hawley on issues such as improved mail services in rural areas and banning stock trading for Congress members. However, he mentioned he hasn’t heard back from Hawley, stating, “He’s our state’s senior senator, but he’s not actively involved in our delegation.”
On cultural matters, Mr. Hawley is much more vocal. He has criticized large companies for what he described in a 2023 interview with Fox Business as having a “radical ideological agenda” that promotes diversity while suppressing conservative viewpoints.
In a speech last month at Liberty University, an evangelical institution, he claimed that America is the greatest nation ever due to its biblical foundations. He also published a book in 2023 titled “Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs.” Furthermore, he sent a letter in December to Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, accusing him of focusing on “progressive gender experimentation at the expense of military readiness” for housing a transgender service member in women’s quarters.
Hawley’s wife, Erin Morrow Hawley, a lawyer, played a significant role in the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade, and he himself is a staunch pro-life advocate. This year, he presented a proposal to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
Exploring Populist Ideas
Mr. Hawley is part of a conservative intellectual group that includes Oren Cass, a key figure at the think tank American Compass. Both Hawley and Cass, who is 41, came into prominence not during the free-market era of Reagan but in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Cass noted, “A major influence for us is the realization that free markets aren’t meeting the most important needs we care about.”
Some Republican leaders, as noted by Mr. Cass, have begun exploring populist themes. This includes Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who has suggested raising the minimum wage with an e-verify system; Senator Jim Banks of Indiana, who has partnered with Democrat Elizabeth Warren to investigate the impact of private equity on fire truck production and the communities that depend on efficient firefighting; and Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, who collaborates with Senate Democrats to lower credit card transaction fees.
“I didn’t run for office with a populist agenda,” Mr. Marshall explained in an interview. “However, on the campaign trail, I heard from farmers, ranchers, and union members who felt neglected by their senators. I focus on local concerns over Wall Street interests.”
Not all conservatives agree with this new wave. George Will, a columnist for the Washington Post and experienced conservative commentator, criticized such populism as “performative rhetoric,” arguing that it simplifies complex issues.
Will characterized populism as “the notion that the public’s wishes should be directly transformed into policy without interference from established institutions.”
He added that this concept is contrary to James Madison’s vision of using Congress to analyze and refine public sentiment, emphasizing a government that isn’t swayed by fleeting public emotions.
Representative Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, likened the evolving party dynamics to a role reversal. “It feels like we’re experiencing a mix of shifting political identities,” he remarked in an interview. “This new populism reminds me of liberal Democrats from the ’70s: they were apologists for the Russians, protectionists, and suspicious of law enforcement. Now these populists are expressing weariness of war while we aren’t even involved in one. The last time the Republicans were this isolationist was in the 1930s, leading to a long-term loss of Congress.”
Mr. Hawley, who many believe has presidential aspirations, is being cautious not to stray too far ahead of his party or former President Trump.
However, he stated: “Donald Trump’s election highlighted this: for the Republican Party to become a true majority we need to support workers. The electorate is giving us an opportunity now, but they haven’t fully committed. We must follow through.”
