Marine veteran from Independence launches bid for Blunt’s seat on populist platform
A Marine Corps veteran who lives in Independence has joined the expanding list of candidates seeking to succeed retiring Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt.
Lucas Kunce, 38, Tuesday launched his campaign for the Democratic nomination.
Kunce, who spent 13 years in the Marine Corps and left with the rank of major in 2020, said he had been exploring a run for several weeks. Blunt’s surprise announcement Monday served as the catalyst for him to officially enter the race this week.
“I’ve been exploring the race for two months now and what I’ve really seen is a hunger for non-traditional candidates,” Kunce said.
He joins a Democratic primary that already includes former state Sen. Scott Sifton and Kansas City activist Timothy Shepard.
The Democratic field could continue to grow after both Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and state Sen. Brian Williams, a University City Democrat, announced Monday that they also are considering runs for the seat.
The Republican primary promises to be even more crowded with Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner and former Gov. Eric Greitens among the many candidates whose names have been floated. Missouri’s filing deadline is not until March 2022.
Kunce will be running on an economically populist platform.
Kunce grew up in Jefferson City, where his father worked for the Missouri Department of Conservation. The oldest of four children, Kunce was 8 when his family went bankrupt due to medical bills after his youngest sister was born with a heart condition.
“My parents weren’t minimum wage workers and we were still one disaster away from going bankrupt,” said Kunce, who supports raising the minimum wage and enacting universal health care coverage.
“I remember the way people down at church, in our community just raised money for us when we didn’t have any. I remember more lasagna and casserole rolling through than I could eat,” Kunce recalled.
He said the memories of how the community rallied around his family led him to join the Marines in 2007 after graduating from Yale University, where he attended on a federal Pell Grant, and the University of Missouri School of Law.
Kunce was part of the surge force in Iraq. He later served in Afghanistan and at the Pentagon on the team that handles international negotiations.
Kunce said he became disillusioned by watching the federal government spend money to build up cities overseas while towns in Missouri fell into disrepair. He called his platform a “Marshall Plan for the Midwest,” in reference to the U.S. aid to rebuild Europe after World War II.
“This is a populist state. And this is a populist message,” he said.
Last year, Kunce became national security director for the American Economic Liberties Project, a think tank founded last year with a stated mission to “fight against concentrated corporate power,” according to its website.
“It was because I really felt like that was where the fight was on the corporate monopoly front,” said Kunce, who blamed economic hardships in Missouri on Wall Street greed.
AELP’s director of research, Matt Stoller, a former aide to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has frequently promoted Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s proposals to rein in the tech industry and was one of the loudest voices in Washington praising Hawley’s collaboration with Sanders last year on pushing for direct checks as part of a COVID-19 relief package.
“As far as our nonprofit goes, we are nonpartisan so we will work with anyone who comes to us on an issue,” Kunce said regarding the group’s relationship with Hawley. “We work with senators on both sides of the aisle… and Josh Hawley is one of the ones who has come to us.”
Kunce said if he were elected to the Senate he would be open to partnering with Hawley, commenting that he views the Missouri Republican as one more potential vote for his agenda and the goal is to get to 51. (Kunce confirmed he supports abolishing the Senate rule that sets a 60-vote threshold for most legislation.)
Kunce’s openness to working with Hawley puts him at odds with other Missouri Democrats who see Hawley as tainted after leading the effort to object to President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
Sifton’s campaign launch video opened with the image of Hawley’s raised fist and footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, saying Hawley had “betrayed our democracy.”
Lucas, a potential candidate, has blasted Hawley for leading “a movement that was looking to disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans,” particularly those that reside in “cities that have large Black and brown populations.”
Kunce will be endorsed Wednesday by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, an organization that is closely aligned with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and has 10,000 members in Missouri.
“As a Marine and a crusader against corporate monopolies, Lucas Kunce is the kind of Democrat that can win in Missouri — and fight for Missouri families against Big Ag, Big Pharma, and other corporations controlling our farmland and economy,” said Stephanie Taylor, one of the progressive group’s co-founders.
This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 1:02 PM.
