Pool Getty Images North America Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020. (Win McNamee/Pool via AP) Republican Sen. Josh Hawley is divisive. Maybe nowhere more so than in his hometown, Lexington, Missouri. Josh Hawley sets himself up as an antidote to “cosmopolitan elites,” who he says are ruining America. Hawley draws his rural credibility from growing up in Lexington, a historic town of about 4,500 people on the Missouri River. But Hawley wasn’t born in Lexington, and many say he checked out years before actually leaving town.