Hi John, my name is Lucas Tyree Kunce and I’m running to replace Josh Hawley in the U.S. Senate.

You know… This guy:

Further along in this email, I’m going to ask you to split a donation of any amount between my campaign and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. But first, will you please give me just a few moments of your time to re-introduce myself?

I grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Jeff City. Like so many Americans, my parents lived paycheck-to-paycheck -- so when my little sister was born with a heart condition, the medical bills bankrupted us. Maxed-out credit cards and no money left, we struggled to get by.

But we weren’t alone.

When my parents had to take my sister to get surgeries at a hospital over 100 miles away in St. Louis, our neighbors and friends took my siblings and me into their homes.

And when we couldn’t afford groceries, they brought more casserole and lasagna by the house than we could ever hope to eat.

That’s the Missouri I grew up in.

The support from our neighbors and friends motivated me to work hard, stay focused on school, and run on the cross-country team. After graduating from Jefferson City High School, I was able to get into Yale -- which I could afford in part due to a Pell grant and scholarships from people around town.

I got to keep running at Yale, too.

After undergrad and then law school at Mizzou, I joined the Marine Corps to honor and serve the community that had done so much for me.

Less than a year after I completed training, I deployed to Iraq on my first of three tours of duty in the War on Terror, before later being stationed at the Pentagon.

During those 13 years of active duty I learned firsthand what service and sacrifice for your country really means: Doing the right thing when you’re thousands of miles from home, believing in a mission that’s bigger than yourself, and never forgetting the community you signed up to serve.

In Iraq, I deployed to the Sunni Triangle where I led a police training team. Twelve Marines and a Navy Corpsman, running missions through Habbaniyah, Fallujah, and Ramadi. From our camp, the base’s burn pit loomed over us.

Smoke columns filled the sky and blew through our living space. We ran through it, joking about how we should be doing gas mask runs. For three months that pit bathed us in toxic fumes. We accepted it and focused on our duty.

When I got back from living next to that burn pit, I had developed a persistent tickle in my throat. Constant irritation. I never had allergies before and annoyed myself with the constant throat clearing. Eventually, I was so embarrassed by it that I went to the base clinic.

They said it was postnasal drip and that they could give me allergy medicine. There was no formal diagnosis. But over 10 years later, it’s still there.

Bothersome. Uncomfortable, but certainly manageable. And that’s about the best story you’ll hear about a vet who’s been exposed to burn pits. Many struggle with chronic respiratory issues. Migraines. Cancer.

So imagine how we all felt when politicians who had never worn the uniform, like Josh Hawley, threw us a giant middle finger and voted against aid for exposed veterans.

My final tour was on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. There, I worked with the National Security Council, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, CIA, and other agencies to stop the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and missile technology around the globe, to keep these weapons out of the hands of bad actors.

I spent every day doing what I could to make the world a safer place, with fewer arms, less chance of conflict, and more money to spend on improving lives rather than destroying them.

One of the hardest things for me between these tours was coming back home to Jeff City, to the community I had signed up to serve, and seeing what was going on in my old neighborhood.

When I came back from Iraq, the first house I’d ever lived in was bulldozed down. Now, it’s an empty lot:

When I came back from Afghanistan, the house I lived in when I joined the Marine Corps was vacant and starting to fall apart. The corner store was boarded up.

The whole time all of us were risking our lives overseas, our leaders were spending trillions of dollars trying to build up towns in these other countries -- places like Habbaniyah, Fallujah, and Herat -- when we should have been spending our money, blood, and sweat on towns like St. Joe, St. Louis, and Jefferson City.

From the Middle East to the Pentagon, my time in the Marine Corps provided me with direct insight into the control that giant corporations have over our tax dollars, our politics, and our everyday lives.

So after active duty, I joined the American Economic Liberties Project -- the nation’s leading non-profit in the fight against monopoly power in our economy and our democracy. We took on the corrupt politicians and monopolists who dominate our lives, squeeze small businesses out of our markets, and enrich corporate elites at the expense of everyday Americans -- from Big Tech and agribusiness conglomerates, to pharmaceutical cartels and defense contractors.

But now corrupt politicians like Josh Hawley don’t just attack our way of life, but the democracy I swore to defend.

Everyday people should be calling the shots in our country -- not giant corporations or the cowards and phonies they bought off in Washington. That’s why I’m running for U.S. Senate: To take power back for working families in Missouri and across America.

And make no mistake about it, Missouri is on the frontline of this fight.

While our state has been getting stripped for parts, politicians like Josh Hawley have been attacking workers with schemes like “Right-to-Work” and fighting to block wage increases for Missouri families -- all to enrich multinational corporations and mega-donors who bankroll their campaigns.

As dozens of headquarters have been taken out of state, politicians in power like Josh Hawley were happy to sit back and watch it happen.

Manufacturing, agriculture, production -- they’re shipping it all away to foreign oligarchs who don’t care about working people in our state. And while Missouri was getting gutted, these same politicians voted time and time again to spend trillions of dollars and thousands of lives on overseas wars that got their Big Oil friends rich.

They’ve spent decades sparking phony culture wars to distract and divide our families. They’ve become so obsessed with controlling our lives, they made Missouri the first state in the nation to ban abortion — without exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

Our state deserves a Senator who will stand up and fight for it, not run for the exit like Josh Hawley.

I’m running for U.S. Senate to be the warrior for working people that Missouri deserves -- to fight like hell for our state and our people.

But to defeat Josh Hawley, we need to build a record-breaking, people-powered movement. That’s why I need your help.

We’re building a truly grassroots campaign, without a cent from corporate PACs, so we can stand up to the status quo and take back power for real working people across the state. So John, will you join our people-powered movement by splitting a donation of any amount between me and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee today?

We can stop printing money for Wall Street and start funding our schools enough to get Missouri out of last place for starting teacher pay.

And we can abolish corporate PACs and demand a government that safeguards our democracy and holds corrupt politicians accountable.

We can build an economy that puts American workers and small businesses first, not giant corporations and foreign oligarchs -- an economy that invests in the next generation of energy.

We can put an end to pointless, trillion-dollar wars and invest in a Marshall Plan for the Midwest -- a historic investment in our workers and communities to rebuild our forgotten towns and cities, and to finally start making stuff in America again.

It’s time to take our power back.

Thanks for all your support,

-- Lucas Kunce

P.S. It’s pronounced "koonce."

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