Josh Hawley is ruffling GOP feathers as he stakes out his ground: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, a newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, we have a deep dive into Sen. Josh Hawley’s effort to stake out ground for himself in the modern Republican Party. Plus, Adam Noboa breaks down how President Donald Trump’s renewed campaign against mail voting intersects with the redistricting fight.

Sign up to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday here.

— Adam Wollner

Josh Hawley irks fellow Republicans as he tries to carve out a lane

By Allan Smith, Julie Tsirkin and Matt Dixon

Since he took office in 2019, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has sought to place himself on the front lines of orienting the Republican Party around a mix of economic populism and social conservatism to appeal to an increasingly working-class base.

But now, with Republicans in full control of Congress for the first time since he arrived in Washington, Hawley’s mission is coming into conflict with members of his party, who are frustrated with his tendency to follow the beat of his own drum as he grows more critical of some of their policy aims.

Republicans, both in Congress and in the White House, are increasingly talking about Hawley’s moves with the assumption that he is considering a presidential campaign, five people familiar with such discussions told NBC News.

A senior Senate aide said it appeared that Hawley was “trying to load up policy prescriptions to lay the groundwork for a 2028 presidential bid.”

“He’s aligned himself with Democrats on most fiscal issues,” the aide added. “Frankly, it has irked a lot of his Republican colleagues.”

But Hawley’s allies say no 2028 plotting is afoot.

“Josh believes we’re at a critical inflection point in our history about where the party’s realigning,” a person close to him said. “He’s been on the same mission, focusing on the same project since he first ran for office, believing that the Republican Party needs to become a party of working people. What he’s done is consistent with that each year he’s been in Congress.”

Across the aisle: Hawley had been written off by Democrats after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, when he was seen entering the Capitol raising a fist to protesters assembled outside and later moved forward with his objection to the electoral vote count.

But this year alone, Hawley has teamed up with Sens., Gary Peters, D-Mich., on a bill to ban congressional stock trading; Cory Booker, D-N.J., on legislation to enhance child labor laws; Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on a bill to bar artificial intelligence firms from training models on stolen, copyrighted materials; Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on an effort to cap credit card interest rates; and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on legislation to further regulate pharmacy benefit managers, among other measures.

“Well, Jan. 6 remains in the back of a lot of people’s minds. At the same time, on issues where we can make progress stopping corporate greed or monopolistic control over markets, there’s a need for allies,” Blumenthal said in an interview. “The iconic Jan. 6 photo of him with a fist in the air can’t be erased from memory. But if he can bring Republican support to the table for ideas that will help people, sometimes working together makes sense.”

Read more →

California’s long ballot count may be Trump’s next target in the war over voting

By Adam Noboa

The latest salvo in President Donald Trump’s campaign against mail-in voting arrived Monday, as he announced he wants to “lead a movement” against mail ballots and advocate instead for in-person and paper ballots, which he says are “faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election.”

This push by Trump may also have the convenience of being the latest line of attack in the redistricting wars. In California, state Democrats are attempting their own mid-decade gerrymander to counter the Trump-led push by Republicans to draw more friendly districts in Texas. And California sticks out as one of the most prominent embracers of mail-in voting — and among the slowest to count them.

Overall, mail-in voting accounted for 30% of the total vote nationwide in 2024, down from its 2020 peak of 43%. However, in California, the practice made up 81% of the total vote, according to a recent report from the Election Assistance Commission.

Mail-in voting overall has proved to be a challenging process for many election administrators, with hurdles including voter and ballot verification and logistical issues like opening envelopes, keeping materials secure and, in many cases, hand-counting. Essentially, all of the processes that happen in person when someone votes at a polling place — especially checking in and verifying their registration — can pile up fast when it happens by mail.

But California has had some of the greatest difficulties sorting through mail votes quickly. Of the states with the highest share of mail-in voting in the 2024 election, California set a benchmark for slowest progress the morning after the election.