JEFFERSON CITY — Democrat Lucas Kunce, a Marine veteran who last year lost a bid for U.S. Senate, announced Friday he would try to unseat U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley in 2024, a contest likely to draw national attention due to Hawley’s outspoken support for overturning the 2020 election results.
A video released Friday by Kunce includes the widely circulated photo of Hawley with his fist raised in support of pro-Trump demonstrators at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and footage of Hawley fleeing the Senate chamber after rioters stormed the building.
“This coward’s always running from something,†Kunce says in the video. “When things get tough, Missourians deserve a U.S. senator who will stand up for them, not run away.â€
People are also reading…
Kyle Plotkin, a spokesman for the Hawley campaign, dismissed the Kunce announcement. “We welcome this desperate woke activist to yet another political race,†Plotkin said. “He just barely finished losing his last one. Maybe he’s running in the wrong state.â€
Kunce, one of 11 Democrats who ran for Senate last year after Republican incumbent Roy Blunt announced his retirement, appeared headed for the nomination before the late entry of Anheuser-Busch brewing heir Trudy Busch Valentine. Kunce lost to Valentine by 5 percentage points in the Aug. 2 primary; Valentine, who spent more than $10 million of her own money in her Senate bid, was soundly defeated by Republican Eric Schmitt in the general election.
Kunce did show significant fundraising skills last year, outraising every candidate, even Republicans. He fashioned himself as a populist and his campaign announcement for 2024 cited his military history — he served 13 years in the Marines — and his family’s financial hardships when he grew up in Jefferson City.
“I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but I did have the support of my community, which made me who I am today,†Kunce says in his video.
He then refers to Hawley’s “banker daddy†sending him to a “fancy prep school miles from his hometown†— Rockhurst High School, a private, Jesuit school in Kansas City.
Kunce said while he joined the Marines, Hawley joined an elite corporate law firm.
The Democrat’s working-class background, if he wins the party’s primary next August, would deprive Republicans of an attack used against Valentine: that she’s a “limousine liberal†and an “heiress.â€
Kunce, 40, said the grassroots apparatus he built in 2022 puts him in a stronger position this time, with a message more likely to resonate with Missourians.
“I’m from Jefferson City. I’m from what some people would call outstate,†Kunce told the Post-Dispatch on Friday, in response to a question about how he would persuade voters in bellwether counties Democrats have had trouble winning. “And I can tell you right now: growing up there, and people who live in places like that, like, we don’t like cowards and frauds and fakers. We just don’t like it. We don’t like people who have stripped our communities for parts.
“I’m gonna show that that’s what Josh Hawley is, over and over again. He hasn’t had to withstand that scrutiny before,†Kunce said. “By the time I’m done with him, like the whole world, everybody in Missouri is gonna know this guy’s a faker and a coward, that he doesn’t do anything for the state, and — and that I will.â€
The National Republican Senatorial Committee was quick to pan Kunce’s bid.
“Unhinged liberal Lucas Kunce will grift millions from coastal elites, then lose. Just like when he ran last election,†said Mike Berg, spokesman for the NRSC, in a statement.
Hawley, 43, is in his first term as senator. He was elected Missouri attorney general in 2016 before successfully running for Senate in 2018.
The week before the attack on the U.S. Capitol two years ago, Hawley became the first Republican senator to announce he would object to the certification of the 2020 presidential election. After the release of the photo showing him with his fist raised, a one-time mentor, former U.S. Sen. John Danforth of Missouri, called supporting Hawley “the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life.â€
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Updated at 4 p.m.