Hawley defeats Kunce in U.S. Senate race

By Kyle Schmidt

Incumbent Josh Hawley was able to hold off a challenge by former Marine Corps member Lucas Kunce on Tuesday, winning a second term representing Missouri in the U.S. Senate.

Early in the race, Kunce attacked Hawley’s strong identification with Donald Trump and specifically the U.S. Capitol riots of Jan. 6. This, along with his working-class roots, status as a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and his Yale law background, gave him considerable momentum going into Tuesday’s election, but Hawley wound up ahead with about 53% of the vote statewide.

In a statement Tuesday night, Hawley told supporters that Missourians “voted to save the United States of America.” They sent a message, he said, “that we believe in this country, that God is not done with America yet. And we are here to fight for America’s future.”

Missourians first elected Hawley in 2018 over Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. A graduate of Stanford and Yale universities, Hawley served as Missouri’s attorney general before heading to the Senate.

In a previous interview, Hawley, a Republican, said closing the border, getting jobs back in the country, protecting law enforcement officers and getting the crime rate down are areas he plans to focus on in a new term.

Kunce put up a fight, outraising Hawley and securing support from Missouri-born celebrities John Goodman, Jon Hamm and Andy Cohen. He was ahead handily in St. Louis, Kansas City and Boone County, home to the University of Missouri-Columbia, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Hawley’s dominance in the rest of the state.

Kunce thanked his supporters in his concession speech for their energy.

“I just say don’t let it die. Keep it rolling. Let’s take it forward, let’s let the next person pick it up,” Kunce said. Let’s all come together, and let’s finally take some of that power back for ourselves.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.