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Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley takes a lot of idiosyncratic positions in the Republican Party: support for raising the minimum wage, skepticism of AI’s rise and extending the expiring Obamacare subsidies.
Turns out, his stances are pretty popular in a conservative state like Missouri, according to polling shared with Semafor.
A healthy majority of 55% of likely Missouri voters support extending the expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits, while 63% support raising the minimum wage.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents said AI is likely to cost US jobs and support banning AI chatbots for kids, as well as Hawley’s proposal to cut taxes on health care expenses.
And 69% of respondents support quicker union contracts.
“Those are working-class positions, so it just reflects a slice of their life. My job is to give voice to that,” Hawley told Semafor.
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The takeaway from the poll is clear: Hawley’s position may irk his GOP colleagues, but they aren’t doing damage to him back home. He was just reelected in 2024, and the poll shows his approval rating is 51%, versus 41% disapproving.
There’s a similar logic behind Sen. Rand Paul’s, R-Ky., continued popularity: You can be out of step with your national party if you are in step with your state.
Hawley argues that Congress should start executing more of his and President Donald Trump’s shared agenda, even if it requires an unusual bipartisan coalition. He says he’s not trying to be provocative: He’s just pushing what his constituents want.
“I’m just representing my state. People here are like, ‘why are you in favor of this?’ Well: I reflect my state, I hope,” he said. “That is a good window. Is it a conservative state? Yeah, very much so. But it is a working-class state, and that’s why I think you see people taking the positions that they do.”