Hi John, it’s Jason Kander. I’m the veteran and Democrat who was elected statewide as Missouri’s Secretary of State and then nearly defeated Roy Blunt, an incumbent GOP Senator, in one of the closest races of the 2016 election cycle.
With Joe Manchin’s retirement taking West Virginia’s Senate race off the board, our Senate race here in Missouri is the perfect candidate to replace it.
So in a moment, I’m going to ask you to join me in supporting Lucas Kunce’s campaign to defeat Josh Hawley. But first, please let me explain why I know Lucas has what it takes to flip this Senate seat next year:
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If you’ve followed election coverage over the last year or so, the pundits might lead you to believe something new is happening.
Despite high disapproval for President Joe Biden in red states like Kentucky and Mississippi, Democrats outperformed their party’s presidential margin in statewide races by double digits. And after Republican-dominated legislatures passed extreme abortion bans in red states like Kansas and Ohio, voters delivered huge wins for reproductive rights and democracy.
But the truth is, this isn’t all that new. While pundits and insiders increasingly divide us into columns of red and blue based on their one-dimensional view of politics, voters continue to confound their expectations in election after election.
Missouri is a great example. While our state has shifted solidly red in presidential preferences since 2012, Democrats have won a half-dozen statewide campaigns, even as recently as 2018. And when Missouri politicians have adopted extreme positions on issues such as abortion, workers’ rights or health care, they’ve often seen their out-of-touch agendas soundly rejected by voters.
Just like voters in states where we’ve seen big wins for Democrats and pro-freedom initiatives in the past year, hundreds of thousands of voters in Missouri are still splitting their tickets.
I know this more than most because I’ve lived it. I won a race for Missouri Secretary of State. And in 2016, Missouri’s last Senate race to take place during a presidential election, I fell just 2.8% short of defeating a longtime Republican incumbent for U.S. Senate. And I outperformed the Democratic presidential ticket’s margin by more than 16%.
We proved that in races where well-funded candidates can set themselves apart and make it clear to voters that they’ll fight for them in office, Democrats can win in Missouri.
That’s what we’re seeing in Missouri’s current U.S. Senate race, as my friend Lucas Kunce takes on incumbent Josh Hawley. Much like my race in 2016, 2024 pits a labor-backed veteran against a politician — except my opponent never tried to overthrow the government violently just to get his name out there.
Now up for reelection in 2024, Hawley faces Lucas, a Marine veteran and antitrust advocate who’s broken fundraising records, rallied Missouri’s election-winning labor movement behind him and built a reputation as a different kind of Democrat who speaks truth to power, regardless of party.
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Now let’s talk about why Josh Hawley is so vulnerable.
Hawley famously popped popcorn in his dorm room to gleefully watch the invasion of Iraq and then claimed a decade later to have opposed the war.
And since he’s represented Missouri in the U.S. Senate, he’s also become known as a desperately anti-union scab who is self-consciously obsessed with manhood.
From blocking defense nominations to voting against health care for veterans exposed to burn pits, Hawley has put his personal politics ahead of national security and the needs of military families. And he’s used his office to build a family business dedicated to restricting abortion access nationwide as his allies in Jefferson City enacted one of the nation’s most extreme abortion bans.
Now with five years under Hawley’s belt in the U.S. Senate, Missourians don’t like what they’ve seen.
Approval polling from Morning Consult shows that Hawley has the lowest approval of any GOP senator running for reelection in 2024, lower than Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida. And even his mentor, Missouri’s former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, has called backing Hawley the “worst mistake I ever made.”
Donald Trump recently commented on Hawley’s race too — “So interesting that the Democrats are looking hard at the Senate races in both Missouri and Texas. Josh and Ted must be very careful, stranger things have happened!!!”
Hawley is vulnerable, and everyone knows it. The proof is in his rapidly changing election-season rhetoric, Republicans in Washington fretting about their draconian abortion bans across the country, and Hawley’s billionaire allies launching a new pro-Hawley super PAC right after Lucas entered the race.
Just as we saw in elections across the country — both this year and in the last decade — pundits and presidential politics won’t be deciding the result of every race in 2024. Voters will be.
That’s why I’m confident that Lucas Kunce can defeat Josh Hawley next year.
And with so much at stake in this election — reproductive freedom, health care access, and even our democracy — this race must be a priority.
That’s why I’m asking you today, John:
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Thank you so much,
Jason Kander
