Hawley and Election Security: Why Now?

Michael Gearhart
4 min readFeb 27, 2021

Firemen save basement of burning house.

Photo Credit: Marcus Winkler

On January 6th, 2020 Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) objected to the Electoral College victory of Joe Biden.

Given the fact that Josh Hawley is one of my Senators and I don’t have anywhere to go while quarantined, I have the time to reflect on the 2020 election and ask: “Why does Hawley care about election security now?”

The objections to the 2020 election results were largely driven by former President Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was “rigged.” But it’s easy to forget that Trump also claimed there was fraud in the 2016 election.

So Trump’s accusation of fraud don’t appear to be why Hawley is talking about election security. So why now?

Hawley repeatedly claims that he is voicing his constituents’ concerns about the integrity of the election.

But between 2006 and 2019, 40%-69% of Americans said that they “do not have confidence in the honesty of U.S. Elections,” each year.

Faith, or lack thereof, in American elections doesn’t appear to be why Hawley is talking about election security. So why now?

The Democrat-controlled house passed $600 Million in election security funding prior to the 2020 election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who was the Senate Majority Leader at the time, reduced that number to $250 Million. When asked to justify the decrease McConnell said that, “The Trump administration has made enormous strides to help states secure their elections without giving Washington new power to push the states around.”

Yet there was no public outcry from Hawley to dedicate more funds for election security. In fact, Hawley’s partner in the Senate, Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) released a policy paper stating, “Americans should feel confident that their vote will be counted accurately, whether it is cast in person or by mail.”

McConnell had multiple election security-related bills in his “legislative graveyard.” He characterized the bills as, “Partisan legislation from the Democratic House of Representatives.” But, McConnell has stopped bipartisan efforts as well.

If Hawley was unapologetically concerned about, “Giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections,” he could have worked across the aisle on any of the election security bills that were introduced during his tenure.

Instead, he promoted his election security bill after it was too late. If Senator Hawley cared about election security prior to the 2020 election, then the name of his bill should be, “Firemen Save Basement of Burning House.”

But if Hawley’s very active social media presence is any indication, election security was not a priority until after November 3rd.

True to Hawley’s brand as someone trying to reign in Big Tech, something I support, he has a Facebook post on October 16th, 2020 where he mentions asking the FEC to investigation election law violations by Facebook and Twitter.

He tweeted an interview with Tucker Carlson on November 1st, 2020 where he discussed Big Tech’s spending on the Biden campaign.

Unless I missed something, Hawley didn’t mention key pieces of his legislation: collection and transmission of ballots, counting procedures, observation regulations, or ballot harvesting; until after the 2020 election (go ahead, search twitter yourself: election security (from:hawleymo) until:2020–11–03 since:2016–11–01).

Oddly enough, election security doesn’t appear to be why Hawley is talking about election security. So why now?

Hawley did nothing to address President Trump’s claims of fraud until after he lost the 2020 election.

Hawley did nothing about election security despite decades of declining public faith in our elections.

Hawley could have spoken out against his colleagues as they reduced spending on election security and killed bipartisan bills in the senate.

Hawley could have done anything. But he didn’t. So why the about face on election security?

Hawley is a lawyer who has argued cases in our country’s highest court, meaning he probably knows what he is doing. Linking his Johnny come lately stance on election security to the 2024 election is old news.

Hawley is someone to watch in the lead up to the 2024 election. Despite hosts cancelling fundraisers and donors pausing contributions to the Republican Party, he still received a standing ovation at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

But voting is the heartbeat of America. We deserve politicians who care about our elections because it is the heartbeat of America, not because it suits their political ambitions.

Had Trump won, Hawley likely would have done exactly what he did between 2016 and 2020 — nothing. Not even a tweet.

Biden has four years to make the case that he deserves to be re-elected. But Hawley has already shown that Republican Party deserves a better candidate in 2024. Either he authentically cares about election security and is incompetent, or he ignored a crisis of faith in American elections until he could capitalize on it.

Besides, I think America deserves a more competitive 2024 Presidential race than “Biden v. Trump’s Toady.”

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