Sen. Josh Hawley once faced questions about living in Missouri. Now he has fresh answers
Five years ago, Sen. Josh Hawley’s Missouri residency appeared murky.
The state’s junior Republican senator had purchased a house in Virginia and sold his central Missouri house where he lived as state attorney general. He listed his sister’s house in Ozark as his Missouri residence.
When The Star reported on the Virginia property in November 2020, Hawley’s office said he was building a new home in Christian County, south of Springfield, Missouri.
Now, as Hawley seeks reelection, property records show the Missouri Republican has established a more permanent footprint in Missouri. He now has two properties associated with his name in Christian County – the recently built home in Christian County and a second house, purchased in 2023.
Readers have asked The Star to look into whether Hawley has a home in Missouri. The two houses in Christian County, less than a mile apart, appear to settle the long-standing questions.
“Listen, I’ve always had a home in Missouri,” Hawley told The Star on the day he filed for reelection. In response to a request for comment this week, his campaign criticized Democratic opponent Lucas Kunce instead of addressing the topic of this story.
Hawley’s home
For at least two years, Hawley’s living situation in Missouri was in flux.
In January 2019, shortly after being sworn in to the Senate, the Hawleys purchased a home in the suburbs of Washington, in Northern Virginia, that is currently valued at $1.7 million.
Months later, in March, they sold the Columbia home where the family had lived while Hawley and his wife Erin had taught at the University of Missouri School of Law and during his term as Missouri Attorney General.
Around the same time, he was added to the deed of his parents’ home in Springfield. His parents sold that home in June 2019 and Hawley changed his voter registration to his sister’s address. His parents purchased a plot of land in Christian County in October of that year, around a mile from Hawley’s sister. They included Hawley on the deed.
Hawley told The Star in March that he wasn’t sure when construction finished on the house built on the lot, but property records from Christian County show it was finished in 2021 and is valued at $938,800. That year, the taxes on the plot of land leapt up, from just $709.82 in 2021 to $10,234.88 in 2022.
But in November 2023, Hawley made another purchase, buying a home just a half-mile from the newly-constructed house for $284,000. The home, which was built in 2005, is one story and has four bedrooms. This time, Hawley’s parents weren’t on the deed. He later transferred the property to a living trust.
Despite the purchase of the new home in 2023, Hawley used the address he shares with his parents when he filed for reelection.
Hawley’s residency has frequently been used by his critics over the past six years, as they questioned how much the senator split his time between his obligations in Washington and Missouri.
He is among a number of lawmakers who have been criticized over how they split time between Washington and their home state. The Star recently reported that while Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall maintains a three-room home in St. John, he owns a much larger home in Sarasota, Florida.
In his campaign against former Sen. Claire McCaskill, Hawley criticized the Democratic incumbent for being out of touch with Missourians – citing her use of a private plane during an RV tour and criticizing her apartment in Washington D.C., calling it a “luxury condo.”
Kunce, who is running against Hawley for Senate, has rarely brought up questions about where Hawley lives. Kunce also owns a property in Washington, D.C. that’s valued at $1 million. He told The Star he rents the property out.
The Star’s Kacen Bayless and Jonathan Shorman contributed.
This story was originally published October 3, 2024 at 12:53 PM.
