Would Josh Hawley object to election results if Kamala Harris wins? Here’s what he said
Nearly four years after becoming the first U.S. senator to announce an objection to the certification of the 2020 presidential election, Sen. Josh Hawley now says he’ll vote to certify the upcoming election even if Democrat Kamala Harris wins.
If, he says, “the laws are followed.”
“Yeah, so long as it’s fair,” Hawley, a Republican, said Thursday when asked by The Star whether he would vote to certify the results if Harris won. “If the laws are followed and she’s elected, then that’s fine. That’s the will of the people.”
Hawley made the comments after a campaign event in Jefferson City as Election Day draws near. As polls show a razor-thin race for president between Harris and former President Donald Trump, Hawley has faced criticism for his role in objecting to the results of the 2020 election, which was fueled by false claims of election fraud.
But Hawley, who is running for reelection against Democrat Lucas Kunce, said he hasn’t seen anything that gives him concern about the legitimacy of the election as early voting begins.
Hawley’s objection to the 2020 results focused on a decision by the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania legislature to expand mail-in voting. A case challenging the legislature’s decision was dismissed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2020. The court dismissed a similar lawsuit in 2022.
“Am I seeing that recurring? I’m not,” Hawley said Thursday. “Which is great, and I hope it never will.”
While Hawley said he would vote to certify a Harris victory, he still gave himself some leeway to object.
“But, you know, I want to make sure that every vote is counted that should be counted,” he said. “That there are not votes counted that were cast by illegal immigrants, for example.”
Some top U.S. House Democrats have not fully committed to certifying a Trump victory, including Rep. Jamie Raskin from Maryland, AXIOS reported earlier this month. However, those dissenters make up a small minority, the outlet reported.
Hawley’s comments about non-citizen voting come as Republicans have seized on fears about illegal immigration. Some falsely allege large numbers of non-citizens are voting, or could vote, which election experts and Democrats argue is a tactic to lay the groundwork for Trump to dispute the results of the election if he loses.
Hawley’s power to object
Even if Hawley were to object to the election results, Congress raised the threshold on the process, devaluing the importance of one lawmaker’s objection to the results in a state.
In a 2022 law, partially authored by former Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, Congress attempted to address some aspects of election law that were exploited by Trump and his allies in the aftermath of the 2020 campaign.
The law now says the vice president has a ceremonial role over the process – eliminating Trump’s argument that Vice President Mike Pence could have stopped the certification of the election. It also made it more difficult for lawmakers, like Hawley, to object to the results.
Instead of allowing just one representative and one senator’s objection to force a vote, the new law raises the threshold to 20% of the House and Senate. That means Congress won’t have to vote to accept the electors from individual states unless at least 87 Representatives and 20 Senators choose to raise objections.
Even if it went that far, David Becker, the executive director for the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said it is unlikely Congress would throw out the electors for an entire state.
“To throw out electors from a state is to not just disenfranchise those who voted for the winner, it’s to say that entire state has no say in who gets to serve as president of the United States,” Becker said. “And I cannot come up with 51 senators who will vote for that.”
While it originally appeared Hawley would face political repercussions for his role on Jan. 6, 2021, it appears to have had little effect on his reelection chances.
Kunce launched his campaign on the second anniversary of the riot with a depiction of Hawley running away from rioters nearing the Senate chamber. But he hasn’t talked about the issue much since – instead attempting to use Hawley’s role in the process as an example of cowardice.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans who served on a House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack, only briefly mentioned Hawley’s role on that day at a campaign stop in Kansas City this week.
“How much of a coward do you have to be to launch a fire like that and then run away from them in fear and then later pretend like it was nothing but a nice tourist visit, and we’re making too big of a deal of it,” Kinzinger said.
Star reporter Jonathan Shorman contributed reporting
This story was originally published October 24, 2024 at 3:07 PM.
