Lucas Kunce is one of four Missouri Democrats hoping to challenge Republican Josh Hawley in this year’s U.S. Senate race.
The Independence-based attorney has received numerous labor union endorsements, and he has a bit of name recognition from having run for U.S. Senate two years ago. He lost in the 2022 Democratic primary to Trudy Busch Valentine, who in turn lost to Republican Eric Schmitt.
Kunce has never held elected office and told Missourinet why he’s aiming high for U.S. Senate instead of first seeking a lower-level office.
“Well, you know, why would anybody want to climb up that ladder and get corrupted along the way? (That) would be my reply to that question,” he said. “The only people I want to ever owe are the people who I grew up with, and I think that unless we get people who have records of service outside of politics, we’re going to keep being in situations where folks just literally let their campaign donors strip our communities for parts.”
Kunce touted his 13-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps as qualifying him to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate.
“I deployed to Iraq, where I led a police training team, 12 Marines and a Navy corpsman, leading missions up and down the roads of Fallujah…and (other Iraqi cities), trying to bring everybody home safe, which, thankfully, I did,” he said. “And then I deployed to Afghanistan twice. I worked at the Pentagon. I did arms control negotiations and procurement and stuff.”
While it’s presumed he’ll be supporting Kamala Harris for president, he told Missourinet that he’ll approach the job the same way, regardless of who’s in the White House next year.
“I’m going to work with anyone who will help me bring money back to this state, because our state has been neglected for too long, and anyone who’s going to help me fundamentally change power in this country,” Kunce said. “Anyone who’s not interested in those things, I guess I’m going to have to work against on those issues, right?”
Those issues include abortion. Kunce opposes Missouri’s current law that bans nearly all abortions in the state, and he accused incumbent Republican Josh Hawley of pushing legislation that would ban abortion nationwide.
Other Democrats running for U.S. Senate include state Sen. Karla May, December Harmon, and Mita Biswas. Libertarian W.C. Young is also running for U.S. Senate.
Beginning at 7:30 p.m. on August 6th, Missourinet will have reports about election night results at the top and bottom of the hour on Missourinet.com.
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