Two years ago, this Editorial Board strongly recommended that Missouri Democrats nominate centrist attorney and former U.S. Marine Lance Kunce to run against Republican Eric Schmitt for an open U.S. Senate seat. Instead, Democrats picked Trudy Busch Valentine, a brewery heiress whose standard-issue Democratic political persona might have stood a chance in California but never did here.
As a result, Missouri now has one of the most radically right-wing Senate delegations in America. With senior Republican Sen. Josh Hawley up for re-election this year, Democrats have a chance to make the smart choice this time and nominate Kunce to challenge him. We again endorse Kunce in the Aug. 6 Democratic Senate primary.
It’s exceedingly difficult for any Democrat to win statewide in Missouri these days, but if there’s any path at all, it’s with a candidate like Kunce.
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A 41-year-old Independence resident, Kunce’s personal story demolishes the stereotype of the latte-sipping, out-of-touch liberal Democrat: Raised in a struggling working-class family, he earned his way up to become a Yale grad with a Mizzou law degree and extensive military and foreign relations experience.
Kunce’s political positions are in line with the mainstream of his party. He is pro-choice to the reasonable degree that existed under Roe v. Wade. He favors red-flag laws and universal background checks to keep guns from those who shouldn’t have them. He supports universal health care.
But with his modest upbringing and centrist political bearings, he is also able to communicate to more conservative rural voters, potentially bridging political polarization to make the case that Democratic policies on issues like health care and taxes are far more helpful to them than the GOP’s plutocratic agenda.
“We’ve got to fundamentally change who has power in this country,” Kunce told us, referring to corporate PACs. Despite his refusal to take corporate donations, he has consistently outraised Hawley in the crucial money battle, while racking up endorsements from both pro-labor and pro-veterans organizations.
When all of that is taken into account, it’s clear that Kunce’s three Democratic primary rivals — state Sen. Karla May, community activist December Harmon and Mita Biswas — wouldn’t stand nearly the chance Kunce does of defeating Hawley in November.
With the presidency now likely to fall to Republican ex-President Donald Trump, it becomes even more urgent for Democrats to hold their Senate majority. And Hawley (who is running unopposed for the GOP nomination next month) adds to the reasons Missourians should help hold that line.
From his political and personal culpability for the events of Jan. 6, 2021, to his insincere populist showboating on the Senate floor, to his outrageous recent defense of Christian nationalism, Hawley has been a frequently embarrassing senator for Missouri — and not an especially effective one.
With recent polls showing Hawley with a single-digit lead over Kunce in a state Trump won by 16 points in 2020, Democrats may in fact have the opportunity for an upset here. They also have an opportunity to seat a senator the state could finally be proud of.
Stay tuned for other endorsements to be published periodically before the Aug. 6 primary election.