If denying the verified results of a democratic election is your business, then business is good.
Two months after leading the effort to overturn the results of a democratic election on the back of baseless conspiracy theories, Sen. Josh Hawley is raking in donations from disgruntled Trump fans, according to Axios.
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Hawley, who is not up for Senate re-election until 2024, brought in $1.5 million from almost 28,000 donors—many of whom reportedly contributed to Hawley for the first time—between January 1 and March 5, his campaign told the outlet. The fundraising quarter ends on March 31, but Hawley has already raised 12 times what he did in the first quarter of 2020.
The Republican establishment has apparently noticed. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the fundraising arm of the Senate GOP, raised more money using Hawley’s name in fundraising appeals in February than any other senator except for NRSC chairman and Florida Sen. Rick Scott, Axios reported. Scott also voted against the certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over former President Donald Trump.
Trump, Hawley, and other Republicans hyped thoroughly debunked claims following Trump’s loss in November that Biden’s win was the result of massive electoral and voter fraud assisted by foreign governments, voting machine companies, and elected Republican officials, just to name a few.
The claims did not hold up to basic legal scrutiny, but that didn’t stop well over half of Congressional Republicans from voting against certifying the results of the election just hours after the pro-Trump riots at the Capitol, which left five people dead. Over 300 people have been arrested and charged in connection to the riot in the months since.
There was widespread conjecture after Hawley voted against certifying the election results that he would suffer a major donor backlash.
His book deal was canceled, his mentor and former U.S. Sen. John Danforth basically disowned him, and a Missouri businessman who had contributed millions to his campaigns called for his censure by the Senate. But Hawley has managed to survive and even thrive due to the GOP’s right-wing base amid the outrage, as speculation builds that he’ll run for president in 2024, though Hawley appeared to shut down the idea in January.
Hawley isn’t the only Republican who’s seen a financial boost in the past few months.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the freshman Congresswoman from Georgia, was expelled from her committee assignments last month as a result of her past endorsement of violence against colleagues, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But she told the Washington Examiner she raised $300,000 in just two days prior to her removal, an astronomical sum for a House candidate.
