As 2021 got underway, Sen. Josh Hawley did not find himself in a good position. After the Missouri Republican helped take the lead in trying to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory, Hawley was briefly seen as a political “pariah.”

As regular readers knowthe GOP senator was denounced by former allies; prominent businesses distanced themselves from him; several independent media outlets called on Hawley to resign in disgrace; and several of his Senate colleagues filed an ethics complaint against him.

Even many Republicans balked. The Washington Post’s Michael Gerson, a former George W. Bush speechwriter, concluded“The ambitions of this knowledgeable, talented young man are now a threat to the republic.” Then-Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska addedin reference to Hawley, “Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.” Then-Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said Hawley would be “haunted“ by his actions.

A year later, the Missouri senator’s reputation had not improved. Then-Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois called Hawley “one of the worst human beings” and a self-aggrandizing “con artist.” Soon after, the editorial board of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch told readers that Hawley is “grossly unfit” for office.

The Republican incumbent, of course, is seeking a second term anyway, and he’s very likely to win in spite of his record. But the Post-Dispatch’s editorial board isn’t just eager to remind local voters about Hawley’s on-the-job performance, it’s also urging Missouri’s electorate to vote for his opponent.

Ouch.

It’s important to emphasize that the newspaper’s editorial didn’t just slam the incumbent, it also celebrated his challenger: Lucas Kunce, a Democratic attorney and retired Marine.

In theory, given Kunce’s impressive background and Hawley’s record on Capitol Hill, this should be one of the nation’s most competitive Senate races.

In practice, Missouri has become a ruby-red state, and while there haven’t been many polls in the Show Me State lately, the available data suggests the Republican incumbent is ahead by double-digits — even if Hawley is “quite possibly the worst sitting senator in America right now.”

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”