Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley said Thursday that voter backlash against Democrats for the rough treatment of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh gave his run a “huge boost.”
Mr. Hawley, who is in a neck-and-neck race with Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri, told The Washington Times that he’s seen a shift among voters.
He said Senate Democrats’ no-holds-barred fight to stop Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation had galvanized GOP voters and turned independents against Democrats.
“It is a huge boost for us. It refocuses attention on the fact that Washington is a disaster and Senate Democrats have a radical left-wing agenda that they are just itching to impose and they haven’t accepted the 2016 election,” Mr. Hawley, the Missouri attorney general, said in an interview.
“That’s what this really comes down to. This isn’t about Judge Kavanaugh. It isn’t really about the Supreme Court per se. It is about the fact that Democrats, including Claire McCaskill, have never accepted the outcome of the 2016 election,” he said. “They never accepted that Missourians voted by 20 points for this agenda and for this president. That is what I think really sticks in the craw of voters and that’s what this race is about down the stretch.”
The same phenomenon is taking shape in other states on the front line of the battle for control of the Senate. Democrats say the energy will shift in their favor if Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed this weekend.
The McCaskill campaign did not respond to questions about repercussions from the Kavanaugh fight.
Mrs. McCaskill has said the sexual-misconduct allegations did not influence her decision to oppose Judge Kavanaugh, which she announced as the issue just began to catch fire.
The Missouri race remains in a virtual tie, according to a Fox News poll. The Real Clear Politics average of recent polls gave Mr. Hawley a razor-thin 0.4 percent advantage.
“What I hear from people all over is they just cannot believe the behavior of these Senate Democrats and the disgraceful sham that this confirmation process has been,” said Mr. Hawley.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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