CORRECTED: Hawley used a state-owned car for campaign travel as AG: report

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was sometimes driven in a state-owned vehicle to campaign-related events, according to a report published Tuesday by the Kansas City Star.

Hawley was elected to the Senate in November.

State and federal laws do not allow politicians to use state resources for political reasons, though government staffers may do political work on their own time. 

{mosads}Hawley was Missouri’s attorney general at the time of the travel.

The Star reported that Federal Elections Commission filings show Hawley’s campaign paid the driver, a state employee, $437 for “security / travel.”

A spokesperson for the freshman senator said any incidental travel would have been of minimum cost according to its estimates and that the campaign was happy to pay for it.

“The campaign paid what it was billed by the state,” Hawley’s spokesperson Kelli Ford told the Kansas City Star. “We’ve tallied up the incidental travel and if the state would like to send the campaign an invoice for the estimated $27 for the mileage traveled, we’re happy to pay it.”

She told the paper that the car was only used  “a handful of times.”

Hawley defeated incumbent then-Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) in November. He announced his Senate bid in October 2017. 

This story was corrected at 6:40 p.m.