Democrat Lucas Kunce faces an uphill battle in trying to unseat Josh Hawley from the U.S. Senate, according to a local GOP leader.
“Every poll that I've seen in the last year has Josh Hawley listed as the most popular politician in Missouri so I think it's going to be tough for any Democrat,” said Jean Evans, executive director emeritus of the Missouri Republican Party.
Kunce, a Marine veteran, unsuccessfully campaigned for U.S. Senate last year and announced earlier this month he would challenge Hawley in 2024.
“He lost already to Trudy Valentine in the Democratic primary,” Evans told the St. Louis Record. “If he couldn't get enough votes to win the primary, it's hard to imagine he could win the general. He still has to get through his primary and there will be other challengers.”
In a video, Kunce portrayed Hawley as having grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth, unlike his own childhood in Jefferson City.
“When his banker daddy sent Joshua to a fancy prep school, miles from his hometown, my family in Jeff City was relying on our neighbors to survive bankruptcy and medical bills,” Kunce said. “When he graduated from law school, he joined one of the world's most elite corporate law firms. I joined the Marine Corps to pay back the community that took care of me.”
Kunce, an attorney as well, attended Yale University and Columbia University before becoming director of national security at the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit that advocates for corporate responsibility legislation and the enforcement of anti-trust rules.
The fact that Kunce is already waging a mud-slinging campaign is not a good sign, according to Evans.
“Talking to people on all sides of the political aisle, they're tired of the name calling and I know it happens in campaigns, but we're two years out and if he's already resorted to name calling and attacks, that tells me he recognizes that he's got to get attention in some way and that's how he's going to do it,” she said.
Hawley’s approval rating in 2021 was 52%, according to a Saint Louis UniversityYouGov poll, and in 2022, it was 46%.
As somebody who is involved in a lot of campaigns, I know that you generally don't start attacking until near the end and only if you're losing,” Evans added. “So the fact that he's already attacking indicates that he knows he's behind. Even if I didn't know anything else about the candidates, if I saw a candidate attacking this early, I would assume he knows that he doesn't have a chance.”