Senator-Elect Hawley Plans to Take Up Duck Boat Legislation in New Congress

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Senator-elect Josh Hawley plans to reintroduce Sen. Claire McCaskill’s duck boat legislation in the new Congress. Hawley issued the following statement:

“The NTSB’s recommendations to improve duck boat safety should have been implemented long ago. Senator McCaskill was right to introduce legislation to codify these recommendations, and I will introduce legislation in the new Congress to do the same.

“The investigations into the tragedy on Table Rock Lake must continue. But as they do, Congress must act to ensure tragedies like this one do not happen again—in our state, or anywhere else.”

Details of the bill and additional information will be provided in the new Congress.

Senator-Elect Hawley Announces Chief of Staff, State Director

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Senator-elect Josh Hawley has named two key hires in his new office. Hawley has selected U.S. Senate campaign manager Kyle Plotkin to serve as his Chief of Staff and Daniel Hartman, currently chief of staff in the Attorney General’s Office, to serve as State Director.

Senator-elect Hawley said, “Kyle and Daniel have made it their mission to serve the people of our state, and they know how to get the job done. It will be the mission of my office to deliver real results for the people of Missouri. They deserve someone fighting for them in Washington. We look forward to hitting the ground running in January.”

More information about Senator-elect Hawley’s Chief of Staff and State Director:

Kyle Plotkin managed Josh Hawley’s successful U.S. Senate campaign. He has previously served as chief of staff and chief spokesperson for the Governor of Louisiana, and in a variety of roles in state government and political campaigns. In addition to his government and political experience, Plotkin has worked in the private sector at firms including McKinsey & Company and Purple Strategies.

Daniel Hartman serves as Chief of Staff to the Missouri Attorney General. A native Missourian, Daniel served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army’s First Infantry Division, where he led a 40-soldier rifle platoon in combat during the Surge of Baghdad. On a subsequent tour in Iraq, Daniel developed reconstruction programs to strengthen Iraqi business and governance while attached to the US Department of State. After leaving the Army, he earned a law degree at the University of Missouri and later managed the successful 2016 campaign of Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley.

New Video: McCaskill Closes Out Campaign by Insulting Trump Voters

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – As Senator Claire McCaskill closes out her campaign, she’s been caught echoing a message used by Hillary Clinton – almost verbatim. The Hawley campaign released this new web ad in response.

“Senator McCaskill, like Hillary Clinton, is still trying to overturn the results from 2016,” said Hawley for Senate spokesperson Kelli Ford. “Senator McCaskill and Hillary Clinton still haven’t gotten the message that voters sent when they elected President Trump, who won Missouri by almost 20 points. That’s why Missourians are ready to send her home on Tuesday.”

WATCH HERE

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Resorting to desperate and false attacks less than two weeks out from Election Day, Claire McCaskill’s dark money allies are lying about Attorney General Josh Hawley’s record going after human trafficking and deceptively taking past comments out of context. In response, Hawley campaign spokesperson Kelli Ford issued the following statement:

“Women and men across Missouri should be appalled by the disgusting lies being pushed by Claire McCaskill’s dark money allies. Attorney General Hawley is proud to have made stopping human trafficking a priority in Missouri, including leading the largest raid in state history. Senator McCaskill is behind in the polls and her history of brutal campaign tricks proves her team will do whatever it takes, even lie, in a last-ditch effort to save her seat for the Democrats. She should do what’s right and condemn Chuck Schumer’s attacks immediately.”

SMP Claim: Attorney General Hawley Hasn’t Addressed Human Trafficking

FACT: General Hawley Has Taken Numerous Actions To Combat Human Trafficking, Including Leading The Largest Raid In Missouri History.

“Hawley issued consumer regulations targeting such criminals, formed a statewide task force to combat the illegal activity, and led the largest anti-trafficking raid in Missouri history.” (MissouriNet, 9/27/17)

AG Hawley Created A Unit To Combat Human Trafficking. “AG Josh Hawley creates new unit to combat human trafficking. Attorney General Josh Hawley has created a new Anti-Trafficking Enforcement Unit within the Attorney General’s Office. The new unit includes experienced prosecutors and investigators and will focus exclusively on fighting human trafficking and exploitation. The creation of this unit represents the first time that Missouri’s Attorney General has taken direct action against human trafficking.” (Attorney General Josh Hawley, Accessed 10/25/18)

AG Hawley Created A Standing Task Force To Coordinate Anti-Trafficking Efforts. “AG Josh Hawley announces standing task force to coordinate statewide anti-trafficking efforts. Attorney General Josh Hawley announced the creation of a permanent, statewide Human Trafficking Task Force that includes law enforcement officials, local prosecutors, social-service providers, victims’ advocates, and individual human-trafficking survivors. The Task Force will coordinate law enforcement efforts and services for victims.” (Attorney General Josh Hawley, Accessed 10/25/18)

AG Hawley Launched A New Anti-Trafficking Task Force And Regulations To Fight Human Trafficking. “Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is going on offense when it comes to human trafficking in Missouri following the launch of his new anti-trafficking task force and regulations on Monday. The regulations which will fall under Missouri’s consumer protection laws, will prohibit the use of businesses as ‘fronts’ for trafficking, make debt bondage illegal and provide for new civil and criminal penalties on traffickers.” (KOMU-TV, 4/3/17)

AG Hawley Took Emergency Action To Shut Down Businesses Connected To Human Trafficking. “AG Hawley takes emergency action to shut down Missouri businesses connected to human trafficking. Attorney General Josh Hawley has taken emergency legal action to shut down a series of Southwest Missouri businesses connected to human trafficking. This action follows raids across the Springfield region by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Attorney General’s Office and other agencies targeting businesses believed to be involved in illegal trafficking.” (Attorney General Josh Hawley, Accessed 10/25/18)

AG Hawley Issued Innovative Regulations To Fight Human Trafficking. “AG Josh Hawley issues innovative new regulations to fight human trafficking. Attorney General Josh Hawley has issued innovative new regulations, the first of their kind in the country, that target human trafficking under Missouri’s consumer-protection laws. Among other things, the regulations would prohibit the use of “front” businesses in trafficking, prohibit “debt bondage” arrangements used to coerce victims into trafficking, and impose stiff new civil and criminal penalties for human trafficking.” (Attorney General Josh Hawley, Accessed 10/25/18)

AG Hawley Went After The Online Advertiser Backpage For Promoting Human Trafficking. “Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley has begun the process of investigating the online advertising website Backpage, using a new unit in his office tasked with prosecuting human traffickers under the state’s consumer protection laws. Hawley told the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday that evidence already points to Backpage and its affiliates knowingly participating in illegal trafficking activity and concealing it…” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 5/9/17)

AG Hawley Partnered With Missouri Businesses To Clamp Down On Human Trafficking. “The Missouri business community is taking a stand against human trafficking. On Sept. 26, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced the formation of a new business council to help educate companies about this problem and empower them to take action.” (Missouri Chamber Of Commerce And Industry)

“Our goal is to help every business in this state take a bold stand against trafficking,” Hawley said. “To say that trafficking will not happen in their business, it will not happen during business hours, it will not happen during business resources.” (Missouri Chamber Of Commerce And Industry)

SMP Claim: Josh Hawley Said “Sex Trafficking Exists Because It’s Too Easy For Women To Get Contraception”

FACT: Josh Hawley Reiterated His Support For Contraception In January

Attorney General Hawley’s Remarks Didn’t Even Mention Contraception

VIDEO: Attorney General Hawley’s Full Remarks. “Let me briefly mention one other major area, one of the major sources of challenge I think that we are facing, and this is the effects in our society of the so-called sexual revolution. You know what I’m talking about, the 1960s, 1970s, it became commonplace in our culture among our cultural elites, Hollywood, and the media, to talk about, to denigrate the biblical truth about husband and wife, man and woman. To denigrate the biblical teaching about the sanctity of marriage and the sanctity of family, the sanctity of children and the appropriate place for sexual practice and expression within the family, within marriage, and we’re living now with the terrible after-effects of this so-called revolution, which was in fact I think a great step back. And one of them is, one of those effects is a crisis in our country that goes by the name of human trafficking. Human trafficking, and more in particular trafficking in sexual labor, do you know there are thousands, and thousands, and thousands of Americans, almost all women, 97% women, who are coerced or defrauded or forced into commercial sexual exploitation in our country and moved across state lines and bought and sold as if they were animals. It is happening all over our country, it is happening here in the state of Missouri. Several months ago I was privileged to lead the largest anti-trafficking raid in Missouri’s history. We served 18 warrants, on 18 different locations in southwest Missouri, in the Springfield area, we shut down 13 business that were acting as fronts for human trafficking. We uncovered a trafficking ring that stretches all the way back to East Asia and Asian organized crime. I met young women who could not even speak English, who had been taken from their homes in China and elsewhere, brought through California and to our state, from our state were being sent out to states in the south. It’s unbelievable. You have to see it to believe it. It’s happening here. It’s happening in Missouri, it’s happening in this city. It’s happening everywhere. Why is it happening? Well partly because the criminals are not getting the penalties they deserve. The criminals don’t live in fear of the law like they should and I’m telling you I’m working day and night to see that that changes. There’s another reason and the simple sad and terrible truth is we have a human trafficking crisis in our state and in this city and in our country because people are willing to purchase women, young women, and treat them like commodities. There is a market for it. Why is there? Because our culture has completely lost its way. The sexual revolution has led to exploitation of women on a scale that we would never have imagined, never have imagined. And brothers and sisters in Christ, this is a crisis toward which we must run; this is a place where our witness is most needed. We must both seek to hold accountable those who perpetrate this terrible crime. We must seek to help the victims of this crime to recover, to find new life, to find healing, and wholeness, and a new start. But we must also deliver a message to our culture that the false gospel of anything goes ends in this road of slavery. It ends in the slavery and the exploitation of the most vulnerable Among us. It ends in the slavery and exploitation of young women. It will destroy our families. It will destroy our communities if we do not take a stand and say not here, not here. And this too is a fight for the character of our society. It comes down to a question of what kind of a country are we going to be. And you and I know, you and I know the antidote to the cultural darkness that we are facing. There is no more dignifying message on the face of the earth than the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you want to protect the equality of women, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you want to protect the liberty of all people, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. You want to see society transformed and true liberty and opportunity spread, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is time to take that gospel anew to this place of great and tremendous need and so I ask you on those score also, I ask you to help your congregations understand this isn’t just a theory. Trafficking isn’t a thing that happens somewhere else. It happens here. It’s happening in your hometown. I promise you this—believe me—I’ve seen the statistics, I can’t tell you about all the investigations we have underway, believe me if you live in the state of Missouri, it’s happening. In a community near you.”

You read that right. While the Washington Missourian correctly categorizes this as “the most bitter and polarizing U.S. Supreme Court confirmation processes in history,” Senator McCaskill thinks it won’t hurt Democrats, and that “Republicans will view the confirmation as a win and move on.”

She went on to explain, “I hope Missourians will notice I stayed out of it.”

The reality is that Senator McCaskill refused to stand up to Chuck Schumer and her party’s tactics, then she voted against Justice Kavanaugh, and now she says it won’t matter in 15 days?

For the record: Claire McCaskill was wrong on the last 6 of 6 Supreme Court nominees, she votes with Chuck Schumer almost 90% of the time, and she supported 100% of President Obama’s judicial nominees.

That’s not the kind of party-line record Missourians will be forgetting anytime soon.

Was This Claire McCaskill’s Last Debate?

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Josh Hawley for Senate campaign manager Kyle Plotkin released the following statement after the Nine Network-KSDK-St. Louis Public Radio Debate against Claire McCaskill tonight:

“After nearly four decades in politics, Claire McCaskill proved that she is a party line liberal. Everyone who watched this debate has to wonder if she will even show up for the final debate next week. Now it makes sense why she didn’t want to join Josh on his debate trailer this summer.”

Senator McCaskill should be ashamed.

That’s why her event in Kansas City this morning is a total joke. Claire McCaskill feigns concern that “dark money” is ruining politics – but only when it’s being spent against her. She’s gladly allowed Chuck Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC and Majority Forward to spend nearly $20 million in Missouri to-date – and they’ve reserved millions more to come in the final three weeks.

Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself, just in the last 24 hours:

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “The most prolific outside spender in Missouri so far has been a political action committee and a separate dark money nonprofit affiliated with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. They’re running ads attacking Hawley and praising McCaskill.”
• Bloomberg Government: “Buying $20 million in advertising in one short month was enough to make a group backing Democratic candidates the new No. 1 among campaign bankrollers that keep their money sources secret. The Democratic-allied nonprofit Majority Forward has bought nearly $30 million worth of campaign ads this year, surpassing similar groups helping Republicans.”

“Missouri has been Chuck Schumer’s number one spending target, and with millions more dollars to come in the final days of the campaign, Senator McCaskill has benefited more than any other Senate Democrat this cycle. He’s pulling out all the stops to keep this seat because he desperately wants to keep Claire McCaskill’s vote in his back pocket.

“She could tell them to stop, but she doesn’t. Instead she makes a big show of attacking outside money while secretly encouraging them to run more false ads with signals straight from her campaign. She’s just another Washington liberal now and Chuck Schumer’s money is proof.” –Kelli Ford, spokesperson for the Hawley for Senate campaign

Hawley Launches New Ad: McCaskill Stops Pretending She Cares for All of Missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Hawley campaign launched a new TV ad today highlighting footage of Senator McCaskill admitting she has been pretending to be a Senator for all of Missouri.

At a campaign event with her liberal supporters, Senator McCaskill said that she can “give up” on voters in Missouri’s Bootheel, showing how little she values their support and contradicting her own claims that she works for the blue and red parts of the state.

WATCH HERE

Transcript

Announcer: Claire McCaskill, caught on tape.

Claire McCaskill: If we do our job in St. Louis County, you know, I can give up a few votes in the Bootheel.

Announcer: Listen again.

McCaskill: I can give up a few votes in the Bootheel.

Announcer: No wonder Claire McCaskill votes against your gun rights, against agriculture and against conservative judges like Brett Kavanaugh.

McCaskill: I can give up a few votes in the Bootheel.

Announcer: Claire McCaskill has given up on you.

Josh Hawley: I’m Josh Hawley and I approve this message.