Key facts
- Hawley’s 2016 attorney general ad attacked “career politicians just climbing the ladder, using one office to get another.”
- He took office as attorney general in January 2017 and announced his U.S. Senate run ten months later.
- A state audit found consultants who went on to run his Senate campaign had directed taxpayer-paid staff in his AG office.
The “Ladders” ad
In 2016, running for attorney general, Hawley ran a TV ad where he walked through a maze of ladders and attacked “career politicians just climbing the ladder, using one office to get another.”
Ten months later
He took office as attorney general in January 2017. Ten months later he was already climbing the next ladder, announcing a run for the U.S. Senate. You can’t make this up.
Campaign consultants in a taxpayer-funded office
A state audit later found that political consultants who went on to run his Senate campaign had been directing taxpayer-paid staff in the attorney general’s office, starting the month he took office.
What Hawley says
His defense: fellow Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft closed the case in 2019, saying he found no evidence Hawley broke election law, and Hawley insists there was “no campaign” until October 2017. The campaign consultants running meetings in the AG’s office that whole time might beg to differ.
Once he reached the Senate, he moved his family to a $1.7 million house in Virginia. And his habit of ignoring what he told voters continues with his push to overturn Missouri’s 2024 abortion vote.