Hawley raised $3 million in 2021’s first quarter after objecting to electoral votes Biden won
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley raised $3 million in the first quarter of 2021, a person familiar with his fundraising said — a total that showcases how the Republican base is rewarding loyalty to former President Donald Trump.
Hawley received more than 57,000 donations in that three-month period from more than 44,000 individuals — a pool of grassroots donors that he can continue to tap if he pursues the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination.
Included in his fundraising haul is $600,000 raised between the afternoon of January 6, the day the Missouri Republican objected to the certification of electoral votes from some states President Joe Biden had won and Trump supporters rioted at the US Capitol, and January 25. During that window, the senator’s team had paused its usual text and email outreach to donors — which means those donors were responding to Hawley’s actions without being asked to contribute.
Hawley finished the first quarter with $3.1 million in the bank. Politico first reported Hawley’s first-quarter fundraising numbers.
Hawley’s total comes the week after Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she raised $3.2 million in the first quarter of this year, an amount that came after reports detailed her embrace of conspiracy theories. The hauls underscore the dramatically different responses their actions on Capitol Hill have provoked.
In Washington, Democrats and some Republicans say Hawley and Greene, who also objected to Biden’s electoral votes, are undermining democracy by fanning the flames of Trump’s lies about election fraud. And in Missouri, some of Hawley’s most prominent backers — including former Sen. Jack Danforth and businessman and major donor David Humphreys — lambasted the senator, cutting ties with the former state attorney general who was elected to the Senate in 2018.
But among the GOP’s conservative base, both lawmakers are being rewarded for their loyalty to Trump with enormous figures for freshman lawmakers.
Hawley has been treated as a hero at GOP gatherings, including the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, earlier this year, where he claimed he was standing up for “election integrity” by objecting to the certification of electoral votes from states Biden won.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here. I’m gonna stand up for you,” he said then.
He has also picked up on Trump’s criticisms of big tech corporations. On Monday, he introduced legislation he said ushers in “a new era of trustbusting.”
“I’m introducing legislation to cut #BigTech and the mega corporations down to size,” Hawley tweeted.
