Democratic, Independent candidates vie for Josh Hawley’s Senate seat in 2024

Josh Hawley’s is up for reelection in the U.S. Senate, and a handful of challengers are vying to unseat him in the 2024 election.

Among them are Marine veteran and antitrust advocate Lucas Kunce, Joplin businessman Jared Young, Columbia-based activist December Harmon and state Sen. Karla May. May did not respond to a request for comment.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell had been in the race, but he has since decided to run for the U.S. House seat representing Missouri’s First Congressional District, which is currently occupied by Rep. Cori Bush.

“As I've campaigned around the state, I’ve heard one refrain from Democrats above all else: yes, we need you in Washington, but St. Louis needs you in the House of Representatives,” Bell said in a release.

Hawley was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018, defeating Democrat Claire McCaskill, and this election is the first challenge he’s faced as an incumbent. No other Republican candidates have entered the race to challenge Hawley’s bid for his party’s nomination.

“The radical left is motivated to beat Josh because he has stood with working families to take on the big and powerful,” said Kyle Plotkin, campaign manager for Hawley, in an emailed statement. The News-Leader's attempts to interview Hawley directly were unsuccessful.

During his time in office, the country has navigated a global pandemic and the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when protestors stormed the U.S. Capitol.

On that day, Hawley was seen greeting the crowd with a fist pump, but later caught on video fleeing as the mob surged into the building.

Those images, juxtaposed alongside the release of his book, “Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs,” have been fodder for late-night comedians as well as opponents looking to unseat him in 2024.

“For $29.99, you can get the secrets of masculinity from the coward of Jan. 6. How about that?” said Kunce, who is seeking the Democratic nomination in the August 2024 primary.

Lucas Kunce, Marine veteran and antitrust activist, seeks to serve Missourians, revitalize state

Kunce is a Missouri native, born and raised in Jefferson City, who feels that there hasn’t been enough focus on bringing home investments to benefit everyday Missourians.

“This state deserves federal investment. We need to bring our tax dollars back,” Kunce said. “Roy Blunt, for example, brought back $350 million a year to this state. That's critical investment that we see the fruits of all around the state. Josh Hawley brings back $0 a year. What is the job of a U.S. Senator if it's not to bring money back to this state and to invest in our communities?”

Kunce has seen his own hometown, the state’s capitol, decay and fall into disrepair, a loss he finds heartbreaking and one he hopes to prevent others in the state from experiencing.

“As someone who has seen his community fall apart, a beautiful piece of Americana, to just have waste laid to it, I'm tired of that,” Kunce said. “I'm going to bring the money back. It's going to be my top focus.”

Kunce said his childhood in Jefferson City was characterized by the love and support he received from his community when his sister required several open heart surgeries.

“Like many things for paycheck-to-paycheck families, a health disaster is one of those things that you just can't really survive,” Kunce said.

After filing bankruptcy, Kunce said his family was at their lowest point. However, the community rallied around them, gathering donations at his church, bringing countless tuna casseroles and helping look after Kunce and his siblings while their parents were at the hospital with his sister.

“That's just a beautiful way that every day Missourians take care of each other,” Kunce said. “I've spent my life trying to pay that back and do something similar for everybody.”

Kunce has since dedicated his life to serving others, spending 13 years in the Marine Corps with tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he led a police training team. He also worked in the Pentagon doing arms control negotiations with Russia.

“The heartbreaking thing for me was I signed up to serve my community, and every time I went home, it was worse off,” Kunce said.

Kunce sees this as a sign that Missouri politicians are not focused enough on supporting local communities, but are instead serving the interests of lobbyists and special interests known for making large campaign contributions. This is why Kunce won’t accept campaign donations from certain entities.

“I'm not taking money from corporate PACs, no federal lobbyists, no big fossil fuel executives, no Big Pharma executives,” Kunce said. “We have a pretty stringent list because we want to make sure that my guiding light is only ever everyday Missourians, like the ones I grew up with.”

Even with these strict limits on campaign donations, Kunce outraised Hawley during the third quarter of 2023, from July through October. He raised $1.5 million, compared to $856,000 reported by the Hawley campaign during the same period.

“From lowering drugs prices to standing up to the Chinese Communist Party to holding Big Tech accountable, Josh has made the right enemies,” Plotkin, Hawley's campaign manager, wrote in an emailed statement. “That’s why powerful special interests are going to flood the state with tens of millions of dollars to buy Missouri’s Senate seat.”

However, Hawley’s campaign remains ahead in its fundraising total, with $4.7 million cash on hand at the end of the third quarter, compared to $1.7 million for Kunce.

Still, Kunce has more funds for his campaign at this point in the race than Democrat Jason Kander did in his 2016 run, when he narrowly lost to Republican Roy Blunt. Additionally, Kunce has received donations from every county in Missouri since launching his campaign. The average donation in this quarter was $31, with 99% of donations under $200.

“We have support from all around the state,” Kunce said. “It just reminds me of growing up, when people see something they can believe in, they want to take care of each other and they do that. People chip in, and we help each other out.”

He’s also collected a large number of endorsements, including from The Missouri AFL-CIO, The Missouri State Council of Fire Fighters, MO State Council of Machinists, The League of Conservation Voters, Social Security Works, the SEIU Missouri State Council, Freedom, Inc., and several other labor unions. He is also endorsed by current and former elected officials across the state.

“The interesting things about the firefighters is that I spoke at their conference the other day, and you know, the other speakers were Ann Wagner, Eric Schmitt, Mike Kehoe,” Kunce said. “It’s a bunch of Republicans, but they see what Josh Hawley has done to the state, and they see my record of service and the way that I'm going to take care of our communities. I find that compelling, and that's why we're gonna win this race.”

Hawley has also touted his support of labor unions, even showing up to the UAW picket line a few months ago. However, some labor leaders have pointed out Hawley’s past voting record, which indicates he voted against legislation boosting domestic manufacturing. He also has a failing grade on the AFL-CIO’s legislative scorecard, which ranks lawmakers on their labor-related voting record.

Kunce also pointed out Hawley’s vote against the PACT Act last year, which aimed to ensure veterans exposed to burn pits would have access to health care to treat conditions that could arise due to exposure.

“Every Veterans Day, these politicians come out, they drape themselves in the American flag, they throw out the ‘Support our troops,’ et cetera, but they still just play politics with us nonstop,” Kunce said. “I lived right next to a burn pit in Iraq. It was a terrible thing and a lot of people are suffering from it.”

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Jared Young, Joplin-based businessman, hopes to lead state out of political dysfunction

Running as an independent candidate, Jared Young is tired of the dysfunction he sees happening in national political leadership. Young, who has a law degree from Harvard and an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University, thinks his skills would be best used in service to the state in the U.S. Senate.

“I felt like I could either keep crossing my fingers every election and wishing things would get better, or I could stand up and put my skills and experience to use and offer the kind of option that I think we need,” Young said.

Young is no stranger to international culture, having lived in Europe and the Middle East and earning a degree in Middle Eastern studies and Arabic. He thinks many current lawmakers lack these lived international experiences, making him uniquely suited to serve.

“I think it just gives me an important perspective on the role that we play in the world and the role we need to continue to play in the world,” Young said. “I think some of our leadership, especially Sen. Hawley, who I’m running against, has lost that perspective or never had that perspective.”

He is the chief acquisitions officer for G&A Partners, a human resources outsourcing and payroll services company based in Joplin. While he didn’t grow up in Missouri, he, his wife and their six children have made it their home, living in Webb City for the past eight years.

“I've lived in Missouri at this point longer than I've lived anywhere else in the country, so it's very much home for me,” Young said.

Young feels that his experience as a businessman would bring valuable skills and insight to the U.S. Senate. He thinks that the interests of small businesses are often overlooked, while the needs of Fortune 500 corporations are put before smaller, local businesses.

“I think Congress is severely lacking in people with business experience, people who have actually balanced a budget before and who understand how the laws they're making actually impact the frontline business owners,” Young said. “I have just seen over and over again, the unintended consequences of the laws that Congress makes, even when they're well-intentioned and trying to help.”

While Young recognizes that running as an independent candidate is an “uphill battle,” he remains encouraged by the support he has seen from Missourians as he has campaigned across the state.

“Polling that we've done shows how great of an appetite there is for an independent in Missouri,” Young said. “Over two thirds of Missourians have indicated they are open to the idea of voting for a third-party candidate in the Senate race.”

Young, who announced his candidacy near the end of August, recognizes the obstacles he may face gathering enough funds to inform Missourians of his candidacy and platform. Federal campaign finance reports show that he had nearly $60,000 cash on hand at the end of the third quarter, just two months after entering the race.

“The big challenge is just gathering enough resources to get in front of voters to make sure they're aware they have a viable third option,” Young said.

Young has characterized his campaign with the slogan, “We can be better,” which he has taken to heart in the way that he plans to conduct his campaign. While he won’t hesitate to point out how he differs from his opponents, he is resolved not to resort to personal attacks on other candidates.

“Our tagline is ‘We can be better,’ not just our politicians can be better,” Young said. “We can all be better, better at reaching out to people who disagree with us, better at having just civil friendly discussions and disagreeing better.”

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December Harmon, Columbia activist, hopes to be a better choice for frustrated voters

Following the 2022 U.S. Senate race, December Harmon found herself frustrated with the outcome of the election. She felt that she didn’t have good choices, and that the candidates running were always the same kind of people.

Inspired after a conversation with friends, Harmon decided that the only way she was going to see a change in the choices she was offered was if she did something about it. She entered the race as a Democratic candidate, competing against Kunce and state Sen. Karla May for the Democratic nomination.

“I want representation. I want someone like me, and I figured it was gonna have to be me then,” Harmon said.

She has staked her campaign on her concern for the future and the direction that our country is headed. Since entering the campaign, that concern has only grown, along with her frustration with the political machine.

“I started to realize how cynical things were from the inside because I had people advising me saying, ‘What are you doing? You're like actually running and you're supposed to be trying to figure out how to cut deals and get a payout to leave the race and things like that,’” Harmon said.

Harmon characterizes herself as brutally honest, a trait that she hopes to use to bring more truth into politics. She recognizes that every political party has its own problems, including the Democratic party, and she would like to be part of the effort to correct those issues.

“I don't have to pretend that the party is doing great, and that the Republicans are all evil, and independents are just lost. I don't have to pretend with those tropes,” Harmon said. “I can just go to Democratic events and say, ‘I think the Democrat Party has problems.’”

Prior to entering the U.S. Senate race, Harmon became known in the Columbia community for standing up to the Citizens Police Review Board, and confronting them about racial discrimination against Black residents. She gained a seat on the board, and began questioning members about the disproportionate rates of traffic stops and deaths for Black members of the community.

“I ended up getting a lot of hate at first, because I wasn't following the script,” Harmon said. “Then it shifted. Somewhere along the way, people started asking more questions, and I started to become more confident.”

Her efforts also helped defeat the implementation of Fusus surveillance technology in the city. She continues to advocate for social equality for a multitude of disenfranchised groups in the community.

As a member of the LGTBQ+ community, Harmon has lost friends who have moved away from the state following legislation that curtailed their rights. But she says she loves Missouri and feels compelled to stay and fight for what she believes in.

“I could just get up and move, but that means I gotta leave people behind, people who are very scared right now,” Harmon said. “I don't want to abandon the state. I want to go fight for my state.”

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Challengers seek to unseat Josh Hawley in 2024 Senate race