WASHINGTON — A prominent conservative PAC has spent nearly $65,000 on copies of a book that hasn’t been published yet as part of its effort to boost Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley.
The Senate Conservatives Fund, a PAC founded by former South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, has emerged as one of the most vocal defenders of Hawley in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The group has already spent nearly $520,000 on Hawley’s behalf since January, according to its filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Most of that has gone toward pro-Hawley email and text campaigns, but it also includes a $64,750 payment to Regnery Publishing on Feb. 5 for copies of Hawley’s upcoming book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech.”
The Senate Conservatives Fund did not immediately respond to an email about the expenditure, but in a Jan. 28 post the PAC called on its donors to support Hawley with their pocketbooks.
“Nothing infuriates the liberal elites more than when Americans support conservative leaders financially. Why? Because when dollars flood in for conservatives like Josh Hawley, it has the effect of canceling the power held by the liberal elites,” the post said.
Political committees have routinely paid for books in order to boost their sale figures in recent years. The Republican National Committee paid roughly $100,000 for copies of Donald Trump Jr.’s book “Triggered” in 2019 and then shelled out more than $300,000 for autographed copies of the same book in 2020.
The preorder of Hawley’s book by the Senate Conservatives Fund follows an aggressive media campaign by the senator in the wake of its initial cancellation.
Hawley faced widespread furor as the first senator to announce his plans to challenge President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Hawley’s critics, including former Missouri Republican Sen. John Danforth, argue his announcement helped lead to the deadly riot.
The backlash caused Hawley’s original publisher, Simon & Schuster, to cancel his book a day after the riot.
Hawley decried the decision as “a direct assault on the First Amendment.” The First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting speech, but it does not require publishers to print material or forbid the cancellation of senators’ book contracts.
The Missouri Republican repeatedly appeared on Fox News to rail against Simon & Schuster.
Hawley’s book was soon scooped up by Regnery, a Washington-based publisher that specializes in conservative books. Simon & Schuster will still have to handle Hawley’s international distribution as part of a deal with Regnery.
Meanwhile, a grassroots group of social justice-oriented Christians has sent a petition with more than 15,000 signatures to executives at Barnes & Noble and other major booksellers asking them not to carry Hawley’s book.
Faithful America said in a statement Tuesday that it is “particularly important for Christians to help hold Hawley ... accountable” because his political rhetoric is often inflected with references to his Christian faith.
“This hateful Christian nationalism was an attack on the ballots of Black and Brown voters, and that is neither Christian nor patriotic,” the group said.
