The text message seems perfectly godly.
“It’s Josh Hawley. Do you have a second to pray with me?” reads the message sent today from the first-term U.S. senator and Donald Trump loyalist.
Click on the link and it goes to “My prayer for today - January 30th, 2024.”
“... let truth and justice prevail in this land once again,” Hawley’s prayer reads.
“Bless America with Revival!” it continues.
But the Republican from Missouri, who’s up for reelection in November, has an ulterior motive: money.
In bold-faced type highlighted in yellow, Hawley then asks his backers: “Your support means the world to me, can I count on you?”
Listed are a series of suggested donations, ranging from $25 — “Help bring faith back to America” it says next to that figure — to $3,300.
Any contribution will go to Hawley’s reelection campaign, the fine print notes.
“I’m not shy about my strong faith,” Hawley writes. “I’m beyond proud to be a man of God. We need to bring FAITH back into our government and I’m hoping you’ll stand with me.”
Then he hits another hot button: “Woke liberals have already started to attack me.”
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Hawley’s prayer is hardly the first time this campaign season that a MAGA-loving politico co-opted God in support of election goals. An extreme example came at a Donald Trump rally during October in Iowa, where pastor Joshua Graber asked God to “silence” critics of the Republican frontrunner for president and that the “horrendous actions against him and his family be exposed and struck down.”
Hawley’s Senate seat is rated “solid Republican” by the Cook Political Report.
His likely Democratic challenger, Lucas Kunce, touted a November poll from a primarily Democratic consulting firm showing him as only 4 percentage points behind Hawley — a gap within the polls margin of error. An October poll from Emerson College gave Hawley a double-digit lead.
Hawley is perhaps best known for pumping his fist in support of Jan. 6 insurrectionists and, when in potential danger from violence, running to safety.
Jared Young, an independent candidate running for Hawley’s Senate seat, wrote in the Kansas City Star that he gives Hawley a pass for running from what Young said was understandable concern.
But, Young added, “To someone like me who voted for Hawley in 2018, it is his actions in the weeks following Jan. 6 that demonstrate he is completely unfit for his office.”
He continued, “For most Americans, Jan. 6 was a shocking and disturbing day. … But it wasn’t a wake-up call for Josh Hawley. … That is not what we heard from our senator. That is not what we heard from our senator. Instead, he doubled down and leaned into his role in the events of that day, believing it would endear him to the Republican primary voters he hopes will one day choose him as their presidential nominee.”
