Missouri attorney general moves to challenge Sen. McCaskill
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley will take the first step toward challenging incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill later this week, his spokesman said on Wednesday, potentially setting up a marquee 2018 race between a crafty Democratic veteran and a political newcomer touted as a rising star in the Republican party.
Spokesman Scott Paradise said Hawley, 37, will launch an exploratory committee this week as part of his “process to consider becoming a candidate.” An exploratory committee will allow Hawley to start raising money without officially entering the race.
McCaskill and Missouri Democrats wasted little time criticizing Hawley, who was elected to his current post in 2016. The Missouri Democratic Party late last month launched a digital ad suggesting he’s using his election to attorney general as a stepping stone to higher office, and on Wednesday sent out a copy of a tweet he sent during his campaign last year that slammed the state capital as being “full of insiders just climbing the political ladder.”
“Josh Hawley must want to set some kind of record – just a few months after promising Missourians he wouldn’t be a ladder-climbing politician, he decides he’d rather run for the next office than do the job he was elected to do,” McCaskill campaign manager David Kirby said in a statement.