Lucas Kunce, a Marine veteran who works for a non-profit organization campaigning for corporate monopoly reform, said Tuesday a day after Sen. Roy Blunt
Roy Dean BluntTrump leads battle with Republican leadership Hillary Clinton says she hopes GOP ‘will find its soul’ Blunt retirement shakes MORE in Senate race (R-Mo.) Has announced that he will not seek another term next year.
Kunce joins an overcrowded Democratic primary field to replace Blunt, and relies on his biography as a native Missouri and veteran to support his emerging campaign.
In an interview with The Hill, Kunce notes that he grew up in a working-class family in Jefferson City, while remembering how his parents went bankrupt after the birth of his sister.
“The normal person in Missouri grew up the way I grew up. We struggled, we were all one disaster away from bankruptcy. So for my family that was medical bills, for someone else it would be a car wreck and for another person a house fire. “I lived that battle, I grew up in that battle,” he said.
Kunce was able to use Pell Grants and scholarships to go to Yale University and the University of Missouri School of Law before joining the Marines, eventually deploying twice to Iraq and Afghanistan. He later left the military to work for the American Economic Liberties Project, a non-profit organization that seeks to reduce the power of corporate monopolies.
Kunce uses the biography to indicate what he calls a populist agenda in his campaign and tells The Hill that he was disappointed with the amount of money spent overseas while communities in Missouri and across the country are struggling.
‘I see us spending, it turns out to be trillions of dollars to build those other countries, basically for free, and me and my buddies risking our lives, to build places like Fallujah, Habbaniyah or in Afghanistan Lashkar Gah when we had to spent that money here in towns like the Independence where I now live, in St. Louis. “Louis, forgotten by globalization, and then my hometown of Jefferson City,” he said.
Kunce’s policy proposals include a ‘Marshall Plan for the Middle East’, which he said would invest in well-paying jobs in Missouri, particularly in the energy sector.
‘We were prepared and will continue to be, as it seems, to spend trillions of dollars fighting over this resource for energy when we can build the energy of the future here in the Heartland, Missouri, and create jobs . of the future where we can become an exporter of energy products. This is the type of thing I want to do. So I want to take our money and not save it in the inflation of bubbles, but rather put it into production, ”he said.
Kunce is the third Democrat to join the Senate unit in Missouri, following former state Sen. Scott Sifton and gay rights activist Tim Shepard. Kansas City, Mo., mayor, Quinton Lucas, also told The Kansas City Star he is considering taking a candidate for the entire office.
Kunce said he was starting “talks” with national groups to garner support, but had already obtained the approval of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which has ties with Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth WarrenSenate rejects Sanders’ minimum wage increase Philly’s city council calls on Biden to cancel ‘all student loan debt’ in the first 100 days. Biden signals another reversal of Trump with national security guidelines | Parler files MORE new case (D-Mass.).
“As a Marine and a crusader against corporate monopolies, Lucas Kunce is the kind of Democrat who can win in Missouri – and fight for Missouri families against Big Ag, Big Pharma and other businesses that control our agricultural land and economy,” Stephanie Taylor said. co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, is expected to announce membership of the organization on Wednesday.
Even with substantial support, winning a landslide in Missouri is a big lift for any Democrat. The Show-Me States have moved hard to the right over the past decade, and earlier President Trump
Donald Trump promises Trump ‘No more money for RINOS’, but encouraging donations to his federal judge of the PAC states that ‘QAnon shaman’ is too dangerous to be released from prison. won the state with both figures in 2016 and 2020.
Whichever Republican appears as the party’s candidate will be considered the favorite in 2022, and the GOP is confident that Blunt’s seat will remain in his hands.
‘The NRSC will work tirelessly to ensure that Senator Blunt’s successor maintains his legacy of free enterprise and small government, and we will hold this seat. “Any candidate who supports the Democrats’ socialist, big government agenda will struggle to find votes in Missouri, a state that Donald Trump won by more than 15 points four months ago,” said Senator Rick Scott (Fla.), The chairman. of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), said in a statement Monday.
Kunce, however, maintains that a Democrat has a chance of winning the entire world in Missouri, noting that voters supported populist ballots such as those that raise the minimum wage and legalize medical marijuana.
While Republicans have the advantage in the state in recent years, they will be in office or on the ticket without Trump in 2022, depriving them of a candidate who could campaign the party loyalists. The former president beat Missouri by nearly 20 points in 2016, but Blunt squeaked to victory with just 3 points.
‘What happened in 2016 was that Donald Trump was on the ticket, and even in 2016, the very seat I currently prefer, the Democrat lost just 3 points against a Republican official. “People are willing to distribute their tickets,” he said. “And if Donald Trump had not been on the ticket in 2016, this seat would be held by a Democratic incumbent at the moment, and I would not even be running.”