AP: Josh Hawley wins Republican primary for Senate

UPDATE: According to the Associated Press, Attorney General Josh Hawley has won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

In his speech and to reporters Tuesday night, Hawley issued a challenge to his opponent, Sen. Claire McCaskill, to debate him one-on-one.

“No moderator, no studios. Let’s just do it Lincoln Douglas style and take our views to the people,” he said. “Let’s let the people of Missouri decide this election. They should hear from us directly. They deserve to hear from us directly. They deserve to hear from her.”

ORIGINAL: Attorney General Josh Hawley is among 11 candidates hoping to challenge the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate this November.

Hawley has been the favorite for the GOP since announcing his candidacy 10 months ago, and is the likely Republican challenger.

In June, President Donald Trump announced his endorsement of Hawley on Twitter, and called out incumbent Claire McCaskill, saying she was a “phony.” McCaskill faces six other candidates but it is not expected to be a hotly contested race for the Democrat.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1006992524366503941″,”author_name”:”Donald J. Trump”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Senator Claire McCaskill of the GREAT State of Missouri flew around in a luxurious private jet during her RV tour of the state. RV’s are not for her. People are really upset, so phony! Josh Hawley should win big, and has my full endorsement.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1006992524366503941?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;June 13, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

ABC 17 News will have full coverage of Hawley’s election night party in Springfield on air and online.