Hawley's political views have been described as
nationalist and
populist. He has been called a
Trump loyalist. He has called
Roe v. Wade "one of the most unjust decisions" in American judicial history. Missouri's Right to Life PAC endorsed Hawley for Senate. Later that year he voted to confirm
Amy Coney Barrett, who had strongly criticized
Roe v. Wade without explicitly saying it was wrongly decided and declined to do so during hearings. Hawley said the nominee was "the most openly pro-life judicial nominee to the Supreme Court in my lifetime."
Christian nationalism Hawley has advocated
Christian nationalism, writing: "Some will say now that I am calling America a Christian nation. So I am [...] And some will say that I am advocating Christian nationalism. And so I do." He asserts that the United States was "founded by Christian believers and that our fundamental ideals, including those in the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights all come to us from a Christian tradition." Political scientist Tim Lewis says this is inaccurate, citing secular philosophers
Hobbes,
Locke, and
Rousseau as providing the tenets for the founding of the country.
Corporate taxes In October 2024, Hawley said that workers should not pay more taxes than corporations. He previously supported Trump's proposed
corporate tax cuts and announced his reversal on the issue at a campaign event in
Cottleville, Missouri. In 2025, Hawley voted for the
One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
COVID-19 pandemic During early negotiations on COVID-19 relief spending, Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell proposed a partial rebate for around 70 million households with net incomes below about $50,000. His proposal faced "swift bipartisan opposition", including from Hawley, leading the restrictions to be dropped. In April 2020, Hawley proposed that the U.S. government pay businesses to keep their workers on payroll for the duration of the
COVID-19 pandemic and rehire any workers who had already been laid off. His proposal was similar to programs that various European countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands, and the UK, had implemented. In December 2020, Hawley teamed up with Senator
Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, to demand that any new stimulus deal include direct payments of at least $1,200 to American workers. As leverage, Hawley and Sanders used the upcoming Christmas recess and the deadline to pass a new
continuing resolution to avert a
government shutdown. In June 2021, Hawley called for
Anthony Fauci to resign from his role as Director of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Elections In 2023, Hawley introduced the Ending Corporate Influence on Elections Act, a bill that would reverse aspects of
Citizens United v. FEC, specifically banning publicly traded companies from making independent expenditures, political advertisements for campaigns, and
super PAC contributions. Mitch McConnell criticized the bill and warned other Republican senators against signing on, naming a list of senators, including Hawley, who benefited directly from the
Senate Leadership Fund.
Environment As Missouri attorney general, Hawley pushed for the
deregulation of environmental protections put in place by President
Barack Obama, and filed four lawsuits against the
Trump administration in an attempt to expedite that process. He acknowledged the irony in his maneuver, saying "it turns out the best way to help President Trump pursue his agenda of rolling back federal overreach is to sue him." In 2023, Hawley cosponsored an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would reauthorize and expand
Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. It was stripped from the final version despite wide support in the Senate. Hawley called it a betrayal and vowed to vote against a defense bill that does not include the amendment. Missouri communities near
West Lake Landfill are among the groups impacted by radiation exposure seeking assistance.
Foreign policy Patrick M. Shanahan in 2019 Some of his former colleagues at St Paul's School claimed Hawley was "very hawkish" in his early 20s, supporting the
Iraq War in its early stages and at one point making himself popcorn to eat while watching news coverage of the
2003 invasion. At the time, he supported a proactive
democracy promotion foreign policy. saying that "the quest to turn the world into a liberal order of democracies was always misguided," as it "depended on unsustainable American sacrifice and force of arms."
Afghanistan After the
2021 fall of Kabul and the
2021 Kabul airport attack, Hawley was one in "a wave of other Republicans" who called on President Biden to resign.
China and Hong Kong in April 2019. Hawley is an outspoken critic of China, which he has called "the greatest security threat to this country in this century." He has said the U.S.'s goal should not be "to remake China from within" but rather "to deny Beijing's ability to impose its will without, whether it be upon
Hong Kong, or
Taiwan, or our allies and partners, or upon us." On November 19, 2019, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the act. On August 10, 2020, the
Chinese government sanctioned Hawley and 10 other Americans for "behaving badly on Hong Kong-related issues". Hawley has worked to create legislation that would prohibit
data transmission to a set of blacklisted nations, including China. On July 10, 2020, Hawley sent a letter to
NBA commissioner
Adam Silver criticizing the league for allowing players to put messages on their jerseys supporting the
Black Lives Matter movement but not the
2019–20 Hong Kong protests or law enforcement officers. To promote the letter, Hawley's press office emailed it along with an announcement to several NBA reporters, including
ESPN reporter
Adrian Wojnarowski. Wojnarowski responded, "Fuck You." On September 23, 2020, Hawley once again criticized Silver for the NBA's business in China, tweeting, "Adam Silver just comes right out and says it: NBA's relationship with China involves 'trade offs' but overall is a 'net positive.' And by 'net positive,' he means billions of dollars for the NBA and by 'trade offs,' he means slave labor." Hawley opposes the
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Iran In 2026, Hawley said he opposed a
War Powers Resolution on the
2026 Iran war.
Against "cosmopolitan priorities" On July 16, 2019, at the National Conservatism Conference, organized by Israeli professor
Yoram Hazony, Hawley said: In his address, Hawley also denounced the "cosmopolitan agenda", the "cosmopolitan class", the "cosmopolitan consensus", the "cosmopolitan economy", and the "cosmopolitan elite".
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency specifically compared his reference to "cosmopolitan elites" to the term "
rootless cosmopolitan", an antisemitic smear popularized by
Joseph Stalin and also used by Nazis. In response to the allegations, Hawley tweeted, "The liberal language police have lost their minds."
Mehdi Hasan argued Hawley's attack was antisemitic, though Sargent did not make that claim. On November 6, 2019, Hawley recommended that the U.S. impose sanctions and freeze assets of Mexican officials he did not feel were doing enough to address Mexican
drug cartels. On January 19, 2021, Hawley blocked the quick confirmation of
Department of Homeland Security secretary nominee
Alejandro Mayorkas after Mayorkas would not commit to spending $1.4 billion the U.S. government had appropriated for a
border wall expansion.
Russia Hawley has called the
Mueller report a "hoax" and the
Steele dossier "lies from a Russian spy". In January 2019, Hawley was one of 11 Republican senators to vote for legislation aimed at blocking Trump's intended lifting of sanctions on three Russian companies. In July 2020, Hawley said he did not believe news reports about a
Russian bounty program funding the
Taliban, but still said, "if they so much as think about putting bounties on the heads of American soldiers, there will be punishment."
NATO expansion In January 2022, Hawley called on Biden to drop support of plans for Ukraine to eventually join
NATO, on the basis that committing troops to defend Ukraine would undermine the United States' ability to prevent Chinese hegemony in the Indo-Pacific. On August 3, 2022, Hawley cast the sole vote against the Senate resolution agreeing to
Sweden and
Finland joining the NATO defense alliance; it passed, 95–1. After the
2019 Abqaiq–Khurais attack, Hawley said, "we shouldn't attack anybody on behalf of Saudi Arabia for Saudi Arabia's national interests" and instead should "preserve the security of the American people and the prosperity of our middle class."
Ukraine In October 2019, Hawley called for an independent investigation into Joe Biden related to alleged dealings with Ukraine. He defended
Donald Trump's phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and criticized
Trump's first impeachment, saying Trump's words were "certainly not a crime". During the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hawley was one of 11 Republican senators to vote against a $40 billion emergency military and humanitarian aid package for Ukraine that the U.S. Senate passed on May 19, 2022. The measure had overwhelming bipartisan approval. Hawley wrote that the bill "is not in America's interests", adding, "It neglects priorities at home (the border), allows Europe to freeload, short changes critical interests abroad and comes [with] no meaningful oversight."
Venezuela On April 3, 2019, Hawley was part of a group of eight Republicans and seven Democrats to sponsor the Venezuelan Emergency Relief, Democracy Assistance and Development (VERDAD) Act, which was aimed at recognizing
Juan Guaidó as the
president of Venezuela rather than
Nicolás Maduro. The bill would provide $200 million in aid for Venezuela, $200 million in aid for neighboring countries accepting Venezuelan refugees, revoke U.S. visas from sanctioned Venezuelan officials, and remove sanctions on officials not accused of human rights abuses who recognized Guaidó.
Gun policy Hawley received a 93% rating from the
National Rifle Association (NRA) for 2018 and an 86% rating for 2016. He does not support an
assault weapons ban, but does support some gun-control measures, including strengthening background checks, banning
bump stocks, and banning mentally ill people from having guns. During his Senate campaign, Hawley used National Media as a media consultant, the same firm the NRA employs.
Hate crimes Hawley was one of six Republican senators to vote against advancing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which would allow the
U.S. Justice Department to review hate crimes related to COVID-19 and establish an online database. He was the sole senator to vote against the passage of an amended version of the act that would help investigate anti-Asian hate crimes, saying, "It's too broad. As a former prosecutor, my view is it's dangerous to simply give the federal government open-ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents."
Health care Hawley has criticized the
Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). As attorney general of Missouri, he joined a lawsuit with 20 other states seeking to have it declared unconstitutional. Hawley said the act "was never constitutional" Hawley has said that the appropriate place for sex is "within marriage".
Immigration Hawley supports funding the construction of a
wall along the southern border to stop illegal immigration. Hawley supported the Trump administration's
family separation policy, saying "It is an entirely preventable tragedy. Don't cross the border illegally and this won't happen."
In-vitro fertilization and embryonic stem-cell research Hawley co-sponsored federal legislation that would have defined human life and personhood as beginning at the moment of fertilization, without exceptions for
in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or embryonic stem-cell research. In 2013, he said he believed that human life and personhood begin at fertilization, before conception, and that he opposed forms of birth control that prevent conception "by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg". After public backlash to the
Alabama Supreme Court's ruling that embryos are human persons under state law and that IVF clinics are therefore liable for the loss of embryos as if the embryos were human infants, Hawley announced that he supports legal access to IVF. He defended Missouri's state laws, which allow IVF, but which also define an "embryo" as an "unborn child". In July 2025, he was the only Republican to vote in favor of a bill to prevent
insider trading.
Labor In his 2018 Senate campaign, Hawley did not take a firm position on
right-to-work legislation that was subject to a referendum by Missouri voters at the time. His spokesperson said of right-to-work, which would hamper
labor unionizing, that "nobody should be forced to pay union dues." In 2023 and 2024, Hawley pivoted on union issues and joined
United Auto Workers at a
picket line, saying, "These guys deserve a raise. They've worked hard. They all just deserve better, and the company can absolutely afford to pay it." Hawley said he does not support workers in
public-sector trade unions, saying they have "held government hostage". Also in 2018, Hawley expressed opposition to a raise in the Missouri
minimum wage from $7.85/hour to $8.60 in 2019 and $12 by 2023. In 2021, Hawley expressed support for a
$15 minimum wage for businesses that make over $1 billion a year. In 2025, he is co-sponsoring a bill with
Peter Welch to make it $15 an hour and indexed to inflation for all businesses. He also supported a
tax credit for workers making less than $16.50 an hour.
LGBT rights In December 2015, Hawley supported exemptions for Missouri "businesses and religious groups from participating in same-sex ... marriage ceremonies". In June 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in
Bostock v. Clayton County that federal law prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation or
gender identity, Hawley criticized the decision, saying it "represents the end of the conservative legal movement". In May 2022 Hawley said he would be "shocked" if
Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision ruling
same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional, were overturned, calling it "settled law". Nevertheless, he stated his opposition to the decision. Hawley opposed and voted against the 2022
Respect for Marriage Act, which requires states and the federal government to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial marriages if they were legal in the jurisdiction where they were performed. The Respect for Marriage act ensures that valid marriages are recognized even if the Supreme Court decisions protecting them are overturned. At the same time, Hawley reiterated his position that "the issue of marriage" should be left to the states and "I don't think that the underlying Supreme Court decision was rightly decided". Missouri's constitution bars same-sex marriages. After incidents such as his exchange with a law professor in a Senate hearing on
Roe v. Wade, his negative comments about
transgender people in reelection campaign fundraising emails, and a 2022 speech at the
National Conservatism Conference, Hawley was accused of
transphobia. He co-sponsored a 2021 bill to restrict transgender women's participation in sports and signed a letter that objected to
Title IX protection of transgender students.
Military housing Hawley has voted against several bills, including
National Defense Authorization Act for both 2023 and 2024, that included funding for military housing at
Fort Leonard Wood. His office released correspondence with US Army secretary
Christine Wormuth that shows he has advocated for funding, but subsequently voted against the associated measures. Hawley linked his vote against the 2024 NDAA to its lack of expanded compensation for victims of nuclear radiation exposure.
Social media and Big Tech Hawley is known for his criticism of
Big Tech and social media companies and has often broken with other Republicans in his support for regulation of Internet companies. He cosponsored
Do Not Track legislation with Democrats
Dianne Feinstein and
Mark Warner. His book
The Tyranny of Big Tech was published in May 2021. According to Gilad Edelman of
Wired, the book "raises valid concerns about the technology industry, and he proposes solutions worth taking seriously. But he embeds these ideas in a broader argument that is so wildly misleading as to call the entire project into question." Edelman writes that Hawley distorts the history of anti-trust in the United States, inaccurately portraying early-20th-century
antitrust efforts and completely ignoring conservative opposition to antitrust enforcement since the 1970s. Per the bill, users would be unable to use a platform for more than 30 minutes per day unless they manually change the settings once a month. In March 2020, Hawley and several other senators proposed the "No
TikTok on Government Devices Act", which would prevent federal employees from downloading the app. Previously, Hawley had called the app "a Chinese-owned social media platform so popular among teens that
Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly spooked". Hawley has criticized
Section 230, and has proposed legislation that would regard Internet access as a privilege rather than a right. His proposal faced bipartisan criticism as "poorly drafted, imprecise, and fatally vague." In January 2025, Hawley proposed legislation to criminalize use of Chinese-developed AI models like
DeepSeek, with penalties of up to 20 years in prison and/or a $1 million fine. Language in the bill also prohibits academic collaborations with AI researchers in China, and obstructs transparency requirements as well as research developments outside proprietary Big Tech environments.
Social programs In October 2025, Hawley called
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) an "essential" "lifeline", "not an optional extra", and "one of our most vital forms of aid". He wrote, "nobody in America, this richest of nations, should go to bed hungry, and certainly no child". Previously, Hawley voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included provisions
restricting access to SNAP the
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities called the largest cut to SNAP in history. On May 5, 2020, Hawley wrote an op-ed in
The New York Times calling for the abolition of the
World Trade Organization, arguing it did not serve American interests and "enabled the rise of China." Shortly afterward, he introduced a resolution to withdraw the U.S. from the WTO.
Donald Trump Hawley has been characterized as a Trump loyalist. and accused Democrats of having abused the Constitution by starting the impeachment inquiry, declaring that it was "the first purely partisan impeachment in our history". Both senators voted to acquit in Trump's
second impeachment trial. During Trump's second impeachment trial in the Senate, Hawley was in the
Senate gallery rather than at his desk with the rest of the senators on the Senate floor. An NBC News reporter tweeted that Hawley could be seen "sitting up in the gallery with his feet up on the seat in front of him, reviewing paperwork". Later accused of ignoring the proceedings, Hawley called them "a total kangaroo trial".
Food benefits On the 28th day of the
2025 federal government shutdown, Hawley wrote a
New York Times op-ed titled "No American Should Go to Bed Hungry", in which he wrote "Saturday (Nov. 1) will be another grim milestone. That is the day about 42 million Americans will lose federal food assistance. Congress must not let that happen." He called for bipartisan cooperation to end the shutdown and/or to ensure food assistance would not go unfunded.
U.S. Supreme Court nominations asks Hawley about the
Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination in a 2018 episode of
The Circus (1 minute, 2 seconds). Hawley's first commercial in the 2018 Senate campaign focused on
Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, which he supported. After Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault, Hawley staunchly defended him and said that Democrats had staged an "ambush". Multiple news media fact-checks disagreed with Hawley's assertions. Conservative former prosecutor and commenter
Andrew C. McCarthy wrote, "The allegation appears meritless to the point of demagoguery." Hawley and other Republican senators focused on the charges during Jackson's
confirmation hearings, which fueled right-wing conspiracy and
QAnon theories.
Supreme Court shortlist On September 9, 2020, Trump announced that Hawley, Ted Cruz and
Tom Cotton were on his
shortlist for nominations to the Supreme Court should a vacancy occur. Hawley expressed his appreciation but declined the offer, saying, "Missourians elected me to fight for them in the Senate". After
Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, Trump instead
nominated Amy Coney Barrett on September 29.
Caucus memberships •
Senate Taiwan Caucus == Personal life ==