Tensions in the Missouri Senate race boiled over Tuesday, with Republican Rep. Billy Long launching a tirade against Sen. Josh Hawley after Hawley endorsed a rival GOP candidate in the 2022 race.
If Hawley hoped that his endorsement of Rep. Vicky Hartzler would set off a consolidation around the congresswoman, Long didn’t get the message. In an unsolicited phone call to POLITICO on Tuesday morning, Long tore into the senator over the endorsement and accused Hawley of repeatedly misleading him about his involvement in the race. Long also said emphatically that he won’t be dropping out to make way for Hartzler.
Long, a 66-year-old former auctioneer and radio show host, has aggressively sought out an endorsement from Hawley, a freshman senator and popular conservative figure in the state. The congressman said he first confronted Hawley about the possibility of him endorsing Hartzler last summer when it became clear that Hartzler had tapped the prominent Beltway-based Republican consulting firm OnMessage to run her campaign. The firm is also used by Hawley, a potential 2024 presidential candidate.
“I called Josh and I said, Vicky just hired your team, your consultants, does that mean you’re going to be supporting Vicky?’” Long said.
Hawley, Long recalled, responded by saying, “’Oh no, don’t read anything into that … That’s them, this is me, that has nothing to do with who I’m supporting in this race,’ yada, yada.”
Then, last week, Long said he was alerted to the possibility that Hawley would soon make an endorsement during a meeting between Long and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell, Long said, remarked to him that he’d recently been in touch with Hawley about the race.
“I thought, ‘Uh oh, it sounds like an endorsement is in the offing,’” Long said.
The congressman then scrambled to set up a meeting with Hawley, and eventually the two sat down last Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol Hill offices of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Long reiterated to the senator that he wanted his endorsement, and he said that he again asked Hawley about his consulting firm’s connection to Hartzler, adding that “it looks for all the world” like he was going to support the congresswoman. Hawley, Long said, denied that he’d made any such decision.
Long also noted that, as the conversations were unfolding last week, Hawley and Hartzler co-authored an editorial in which they called for a ban on congressional stock trading — more evidence, he argued, that Hawley was about to endorse the congresswoman. When Hawley eventually announced his support for Hartzler on Saturday morning, while the Senate candidates were attending a Lincoln Days confab in St. Charles, Long said he was taken aback.
“I’d always considered us to be friends, I’d always supported him, I think a lot of him and his wife and his kids still,” Long said of Hawley, who he said he first met during the early 2000s. “But it’s just disappointing, it very disappointing. Why didn’t he just say, ‘Hey, you’re not raising the money, you’re down in the polls, we need to consolidate, Billy I’m probably going to endorse Hartzler here pretty soon … I just wish he’d shot straight with me.”
A Hawley spokesperson declined to comment. In a statement, Hartzler called Hawley “a champion for our conservative values and a powerful voice for what we believe in” and said she was “honored” to have his endorsement.
On Tuesday morning, Long also appeared on a local Missouri radio station where he criticized Hawley on similar grounds — another sign he’s willing to take his grievances public over the rest of the Senate campaign.
It isn’t the first time there’s been tension between Long and Hawley. After Long launched his candidacy last summer, he sent out a fundraising invitation to an event that listed Hawley as an honorary co-chair — a label that Hawley’s team forcefully pushed back on. Hawley’s then-chief of staff, Kyle Plotkin, released a statement at the time saying that Long “asked Josh to be a host of this event, but as a congressional candidate and before he was a Senate candidate,” adding that Hawley was no longer a host of the event and “hasn’t endorsed anyone.”
Long’s comments represent the latest turn in one of the most complicated, high-stakes Republican Senate primaries of the midterms. Behind the scenes, disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens’ candidacy has been a point of concern for top Republicans for a year now, amid fears that Greitens, who resigned following allegations that he sexually assaulted his hairdresser, could jeopardize the party’s hold on the seat if he were to win the crowded primary with plurality support.
On Tuesday morning, Hartzler also won the backing of a newly formed super PAC spearheaded by a pair of top former National Rifle Association officials.
“He’s trying to keep Greitens out, and I think the swamp in D.C. are consolidating behind a candidate,” Long said.
“Everything is calculated that Josh does, so I can’t say it’s a mistake, and hey, congratulations to Vicky for getting it. He’s a very, very popular Republican in Missouri,” Long continued. “Josh is a very good politician, and I’m not, so he knows exactly what he’s doing, so it’s hard to call it a mistake. He’s very calculating.”
Former President Donald Trump has so far remained on the sidelines, and those involved in the race say it’s unclear whether he will endorse. Long, a longtime Trump ally, has been among those seeking the former president’s support.
“I’ve spoken to him several times,” Long said, “and he’s going to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it.”