Marine veteran Lucas Kunce, who is challenging Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, announced raising $1.54 million in the final quarter of 2023, spanning October through December.
Kunce, the runner-up in the 2022 Missouri Democratic Senate primary, has raised $5.4 million in 2023 to take on Hawley, according to numbers first shared with The Messenger. That haul represents a record for a Missouri federal candidate in an off-year.
“This is how we take back power for everyday people in Missouri,” said Kunce. “By running a grassroots-powered campaign with a big coalition of real Missourians who are sick and tired of phonies like Josh Hawley selling them out and telling them how to live their lives.”
Since launching his campaign last January, the Kunce campaign has received more than 165,000 donations with an average contribution of $33. More than 98% of donations to Kunce’s campaign were under $200. The campaign entered 2024 with $2.2 million cash on hand.
While the Kunce campaign argues that Hawley, who is seeking reelection for the first time, is vulnerable, Missouri is firmly a Republican state. A Democrat hasn’t carried Missouri on the presidential level since 1996, and Republicans swept up all of the statewide elected positions in 2022.
The state is not key to Democratic efforts to hold the Senate, and if Kunce wins, it would be considered a massive upset. With Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin not running in West Virginia, Democrats will go all out to defend Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Montana Sen. Jon Tester, two Democrats who represent Republican-led states. Democrats also have to defend seats in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
But Kunce may get a boost in his uphill bid in the form of an abortion referendum. A plethora of abortion rights groups launched an effort Thursday to put a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights on the ballot in November. They’ll need to collect around 170,000 signatures by the May 5 deadline. Abortion rights activists have tallied major wins across the country since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022, including in red states like Ohio and Kansas.