WASHINGTON — Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley has managed to plant a foot in both camps of a warring Republican Party.

Hawley has convinced the GOP establishment that he’s one of them — snagging the support of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP power players as a candidate who will embrace a traditional Republican agenda.

But Hawley has also convinced anti-establishment forces — led by former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who has declared war on McConnell and his allies — that he will be a conservative hardliner willing to buck the GOP leadership.

How Hawley managed to win the blessing of both the establishment and anti-establishment forces is unclear, since his courting of each camp has unfolded during private conversations and closed-door meetings.

Hawley’s allies say he transcends typical party labels and is a new brand of conservative. But critics say Hawley is walking a politically tricky line between pleasing his ultra-rich elite donors and Bannon’s insurgent forces.

Bannon’s support for Hawley became official on Sunday, when Breitbart, the hard-right news site Bannon runs, published its list of preferred Senate candidates. The Breitbart article said “GOP establishment forces” might be trying to sell Hawley as their candidate, but in fact he is more in line with the ultra-conservative firebrand politics embraced by Bannon.

"McConnell being behind any candidate should obviously make conservatives do a double-take,” said Andrew Surabian, a top Bannon ally. Surabian is helping Bannon plot “a new economic nationalist electoral wave in 2018,” as the Breitbart article describes their electoral crusade, and they're taking on GOP incumbents across the country.

Surabian said Hawley “is not an establishment guy being embraced by the right. He is a man of the right being embraced by the establishment.”

Bannon and his allies see the political establishment — Democrats and Republicans alike — as the main impediment to President Donald Trump’s agenda. And they have made McConnell their chief boogeyman. The Breitbart article says Missouri’s grass-roots leaders have privately told the news site that Hawley will not “go along to get along like McConnell wants in Washington.”

But Hawley entered the Senate race at the urging of Missouri’s GOP elite, led by former Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., and Joplin megadonor David Humphreys. Danforth and others see Hawley as a rising GOP star and the party’s best chance to oust Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who has been tagged as one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the 2018 cycle.

The Missouri attorney general quickly racked up broad support from other mainstream Republican forces, including McConnell. Last week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, opened a joint fundraising account with Hawley.

Bannon’s backing could be a double-edged sword. It could allow Hawley to avoid a fratricidal primary, like the one that recently played out in Alabama as a proxy war between McConnell and Bannon. Bannon’s forces triumphed in that race with the victory of Roy Moore, a conservative crusader prone to controversial statements, who beat out incumbent Republican Sen. Luther Strange, the McConnell-endorsed candidate.

At the same time, Bannon is a lightning rod figure and could bring Hawley unwanted baggage. The former Trump strategist has fanned the flames of white nationalism, saying he wanted Breitbart to become the “platform of the alt-right.”

Hawley’s association with Bannon could make his general election contest more difficult, said Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

“If I’m McCaskill, I think this is good news,” Duffy said. “You can really paint (Hawley) as being out of the mainstream by linking him to Bannon and it sort of makes it oddly easier to link him to Trump.”

In response to questions about the Bannon endorsement, Hawley’s campaign issued a statement that made no reference to the former Trump strategist or to the Breitbart story promising he would be a thorn in McConnell’s side.

“Attorney General Hawley appreciates the support he gets from Republicans of all stripes — and Democrats and independents too,” Scott Paradise, Hawley’s spokesman, said in an email to the News-Leader. “Activists and voters across the spectrum are unified behind ousting Senator McCaskill. She’s lost her way and become engulfed in the ways of Washington Democrats.”

Paradise did not answer more specific questions, such as whether Hawley would vote to keep McConnell as the Senate GOP leader or what he thought about Bannon’s embrace of the alt-right.

Hawley has already been on the defensive when it comes to his support for Trump. Hawley has remained mum about a scathing op-ed written by Danforth — his most ardent supporter — that called Trump “the most divisive president in our history” and urged Republicans to disavow the president.

Conservatives in Missouri have blasted Hawley for refusing to condemn Danforth’s anti-Trump stance and for his absence at Trump’s recent tax-cut rally in Springfield. Hawley’s spokesman said he was unable to come because of a previous scheduled family vacation.

Democrats have seized on Hawley’s quandary, and they said Bannon’s endorsement would just highlight his awkward position.

“Until Hawley faces Missourians and answers tough questions — like whether he agrees with Danforth that the GOP should disavow Trump — he’ll struggle to earn support,” said Meira Bernstein, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Democratic Party. “Another out-of-state operative trying to tell Missourians who to support isn’t going to help Hawley’s flailing campaign.”

Contributing: USA TODAY reporter Eliza Collins

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