Hawley, Kunce face off for U.S. Senate seat

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Republicans look to continue their statewide political dominance in Missouri with this year’s U.S. Senate election.

Sen. Josh Hawley will represent the Republican Party in hopes of securing another six-year term. Democratic candidate Lucas Kunce will try to to swing the seat back to the Democratic Party, which last held the office in 2018.

W.C. Young represents the Libertarian Party in the election, Nathan Kline earned the Green Party’s nomination and Jared Young is running under the Better Party’s banner.

Hawley, a Lexington native, won his Senate seat in 2018 against former Sen. Claire McCaskill. He served as Missouri attorney general from 2017-18, leaving the office halfway through his term to begin work in Washington D.C.

Kunce is a Jefferson City native who served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Kunce ran for the Democratic nomination for Senate in 2022, losing to Trudy Busch Valentine.

Hawley framed his campaign as a means of "resisting" or reversing the policies of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. 

“We've got to close the border,” Hawley said. “We've got to reopen American energy production. We've got to get our jobs back from China. We've got to protect our farms. I just think the country has been brought to the brink of ruin, to be honest with you, in the last four years.

"And the question in this election is, are we going to go in a different direction?”

Kunce said his bid is an effort to “fundamentally change who has power in this country.” Kunce often mentions his family’s old house on Dunklin Street and the now empty lots and closed stores that neighborhood now has. Kunce said he hopes bringing more federal money to Missouri will help reverse some of that decline.

“It's just so not the Missouri I grew up in, and it's a result of folks like Josh Hawley refusing to invest in our state,” Kunce said. “Roy Blunt brought $300 million a year back to our state. He's [Hawley] a zero man and we got to do better than that here.”

The two men shared similar stances on some details of major policy. Both said they support price caps on insulin and are against illegal immigration.

The two split on the issue of Amendment 3, the Missouri ballot measure that would protect reproductive health care such as abortion in the state constitution. Kunce called the issue a critical one for him, hoping to protect other procedures like in vitro fertilization and the "morning after" pill, an emergency contraceptive.

“I think Missourians should be able to build and plan and protect their families however they see fit,” Kunce said. “And so for me, women's reproductive rights, that's freedom for all of us. That's how we build our families. It's how we're able to make it.”

Hawley said he was glad the people of Missouri would get the chance to decide on the issue, but said he opposed the ballot measure. He said, if approved, the measure could open up the possibility for abortions into the last trimester of a pregnancy, and could lead to the overturning of Missouri’s law banning sex change surgeries for minors, a claim that has been disputed by legal experts. 

Hawley added that he does not support an outright federal ban on abortion.

“I think that this is an issue that should be left to voters,” Hawley said. “I do support reasonable limits. Partial birth abortion, I think there should be a limit on that federally, when the baby is pain-capable. These are things that overwhelmingly are supported by the public.”

The two also view the U.S. border with Mexico as a source of crime in Missouri. Kunce pointed to the large number of opioid overdoses in the state, particularly those involving fentanyl, as a reason to clamp down harder on those trying to smuggle drugs into the country. He called the situation at the border “a real trainwreck” and said he would support spending on fentanyl scanners and equipping Border Patrol agents.

Hawley said the president should close the border with Mexico, and said Congress should consider a Trump-era policy that required migrants to stay in Mexico while their asylum claims are considered.

“If [senators] have to come out and say ‘We are going to shut down the border, if you want to claim asylum in the United States, fine, you can do that. But you've got to remain in Mexico while your asylum claims are adjudicated,’” Hawley said.

Hawley told ABC 17 News that he thought he was “not willing to give another dime to Ukraine” for its war with Russia. Hawley has been a vocal critic of the continued funding of the war, saying previously that the U.S. should focus more on protecting itself from China.

“I think our own leaders are not being honest with us about the state of [the Ukraine-Russia] conflict,” Hawley said. “Until we can rebuild our own border, until we can compensate the victims of nuclear radiation in the state of Missouri, I'm not going to vote for hundreds of billions of dollars for Ukraine.”

Kunce criticized Hawley’s stance on Ukraine aid, saying that millions of dollars in Congressional aid packages goes toward factories in the U.S. that make the military equipment. Kunce viewed continued support for Ukraine as a better alternative to sending U.S. troops into the region.

“What I want to make sure 100% is that we never, ever, ever have to do is have boots on the ground in warfare in Europe again, because that will be so much more expensive than what we're doing right now,” Kunce said. “And so I think that sending equipment over to Ukraine is a prophylactic measure that is infinitely cheaper than us ending up in a war over there.”

Cook Political Report lists Missouri’s Senate election as “Solid Republican.” The seat is one of 34 Senate seats up for election in the chamber that right now sports 51 Democrats or senators caucusing with them and 49 Republicans. Cook Political lists four Senate elections as “toss-up,” which would swing which party controls the chamber.

Watch ABC 17 News’ interview with Lucas Kunce here and watch the interview with Sen. Josh Hawley here.