[1]Lucas Kunce for U.S. Senate

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:

[ [link removed] ]On the left, a photo of Josh Hawley pumping his fist at
insurrectionists outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021. On the right, a
screengrab from the video of Josh Hawley fleeing the Capitol from protests
on January 6th.

[ [link removed] ]CHIP IN TO DEFEAT JOSH HAWLEY »

Further along in this email, I’m going to ask you to [ [link removed] ]become a founding
member of my grassroots campaign. But first, will you please give me just
a few moments of your time to re-introduce myself?

[ [link removed] ]Lucas standing with leaders from the Missouri Bootheel on Martin Luther
King Day weekend, January 2021.

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.

[ [link removed] ]Lucas as a child, sitting with his family on the porch of his childhood
home.

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.

[ [link removed] ]On the left: Lucas at his high school graduation. On the right: Lucas
running during his time at Yale.

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.

[ [link removed] ]Photos of Lucas during his service in the Marines

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.

[ [link removed] ]Photos of the burn pit Lucas lived next to in Iraq.

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.

[ [link removed] ]Screengrab from an op-ed Lucas put in Fox News.

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:

[ [link removed] ]The empty lot where Lucas' childhood home once stood.

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. [ [link removed] ]So
John,
will you become a founding member of our people-powered movement by
chipping in $5 today?

If you've stored your info with ActBlue Express, we'll process your
contribution instantly:

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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.

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.

And 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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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.