[1]Lucas Kunce for U.S. Senate

John,

As a Marine officer doing arms control negotiations, I saw how dangerous a
single empty leadership position could be. But right now, Tommy Tuberville
is blocking more than 200 military confirmations — and just took five
weeks off for Senate recess.

That’s why I put this op-ed in Fox News — because I want Tommy Tuberville,
Josh Hawley, and every other Senate Republican to see it.

[ [link removed] ]Screengrab from an op-ed Lucas put in Fox News today titled, 'One
senator must stop straining our military before it snaps.'

This email is longer than usual, but I wanted to take a moment this
morning to tell you what’s exactly going on and how it impacts service
members, military families, and our national security. Will you please let
me explain?

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For the first time in over a century, the United States Marine Corps is
without a Commandant — the highest-ranking officer in the Corps. We're in
this situation because Senator Tommy Tuberville has blocked hundreds of
military promotions, including the Commandant's.

He claims he’s doing this because government funds have been made
available to cover travel for some service members getting abortions. But
because I spent 13 years as an active duty Marine and I'm still Lieutenant
Colonel in the Reserves, I've been in a lot of conversations about what
this means and thought I'd take some time today to lay it out for you.

As a note, these are my personal observations and may or may not be the
same as the Department of Defense.

So first, for a lot of us Marines, this just sucks. Going to the
Commandant's house and meeting the Commandant during our initial six-month
officer training called The Basic School is one of the highlights of that
school.

The same can be said for Marines across the world and at every stage of
their training or careers. The Commandant is a big deal for us — someone
we look up to, aspire to, and who gives us guidance. So not having a
Commandant because some politician in D.C. wants to play games is a morale
killer.

But the problem is much bigger than us not having a Commandant. Hundreds
of other promotions are backed up with it. And that doesn't just suck —
that has a real impact on our troops and on national security.

Military life is hard. You move all the time, there's no certainty, there
are lots of deployments, you work very long hours, but you do it because
you believe in the mission and you believe in the country and taking care
of the people who live here.

And now, because promotions aren't going through, people who've given
decades of their lives to this country are being asked or forced to change
their plans or not retire. The one thing they thought they had control
over.

People are being frozen in place. They’re not getting the promotion they
worked so hard for. Their kids don't know what school they're going to go
to next year when the summer ends. Their spouses can't figure out their
employment. The list goes on and on, and the impact of that is felt
throughout the Corps.

This is wrong. Service members are being used for political leverage, the
same way that these politicians recently used us veterans for political
leverage by holding up the PACT Act — which takes care of us for burn pit
exposure we received in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's absolutely demoralizing
to see them use us like this over and over and over again.

Senator Tuberville is quite literally punishing military families for
things that other people have done that he doesn't like. It's shameful,
it's selfish, and I'll be frank, it's stupid because it also damages our
national security.

He goes out there and has the nerve to say that promotions and positions
don't matter, an acting commander can do just as good a job, and be just
as capable with or without the actual nomination going through.

Trust me though, rank and position do matter or they wouldn't exist.

I learned that myself when I was representing the US in arms control
negotiations with NATO allies and Russia from 2016 to 2019. When you've
got American officers with lower ranks going up against generals and
admirals in critical meetings and negotiations, that matters.

Our allies, our partners, other countries, and our adversaries notice.
Russia and China, they notice.

And now dozens, if not hundreds, of military officers are going to have to
explain why the US is sending significantly lower ranks than their
counterparts to critical meetings and negotiations around the globe.

When China sends a high-ranking general to meet with a third country and
we send a one-star acting commander, that undermines our country, our
position, and our national security. It's going to look like we don't
care, it's going to look like we aren't serious, and people are going to
question our country's resolve.

Weakening the position of our representatives overseas weakens our
national security. Period. And that's exactly what Senator Tuberville is
doing.

We need more folks right now in the media, in Congress, and especially in
the Republican Party, to step up and say something — and Senator
Tuberville needs to stop putting his personal politics ahead of our troops
and ahead of our national security.

These service members, veterans, and their families deserve to have
someone looking out for them in the U.S. Senate — and that’s just part of
why I’m running to defeat Josh Hawley and flip this seat. But I need your
help to do it:

[ [link removed] ]So
John,
will you add a donation of whatever you can afford to my grassroots
campaign today? I don’t take a single cent from corporate PACs, federal
lobbyists, or defense contractors — so you know I’ll always be a voice for
real, everyday people in the U.S. Senate.

If you've stored your info with ActBlue Express, we'll process your
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Thanks for hearing me out,

Lucas Kunce


 


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Paid for by Lucas Kunce for Missouri.

Use of military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform do not imply endorsement by the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.