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Lucas Kunce on MSNBC Deadline: White House: “We deserve a Senator who’s going to stand up for our rights, who’s going to care about us, who’s going to bring money back to our state.”

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Independence, MO — Today, Lt. Col. Lucas Kunce (USMCR, 13 years of active duty) joined MSNBC’s Deadline: White House Wallace to talk about his Missouri Senate race, the community he comes from, the people he’s fighting to serve, and Josh Hawley’s latest stunt.

Key Moments

On Hawley Running Out the Back Door

“It’s just really embarrassing. He showed us all who he was. When he thought it was going to get him some power, he’s out there raising his fist, inciting a crowd—then when things got real, he’s running out the back door. I was a Marine for thirteen years. I deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and you’d have been in a lot of trouble if you ran away from the enemy like that back in the day.” 

“Here in Missouri we deserve a Senator who’s going to stand up for our rights, who’s going to care about us, who’s going to bring money back to our state—and he doesn’t do any of those things. You can really see that in communities like the one I grew up in who are suffering now.”

On Hawley’s Unwillingness to Participate in a Televised Political Debate

“So we’ve agreed to the five televised debates. He is just coming up with different little stunts. He’s like: “Well let’s have a debate on the state fairgrounds. The state fairgrounds asked us not to do that and said no you’re not welcome here. So then he wanted one of his endorsing organizations to host one which violates federal election laws so we couldn’t do that. I don’t know why the guy can’t just be normal and do the five televised debates like we offered. Again, we offered one on Fox news and they seem to be interested, and that should be a safe space for him.”

“The reason he doesn’t want to do debates is because he doesn’t want to have to answer for things like why he thinks in vitro fertilization and contraception are abortion and therefore murder, why he robbed $250,000 from taxpayers, and why he wants to get rid of no-fault divorces so people are trapped in dangerous marriages.”

Background:

Lucas has agreed to multiple televised debates with KSDK, KSHB, PBS, and Gray TV stations, and even Fox News.

On Josh Hawley Viewing Everyday Missourians like Second-Class Citizens

“What Josh Hawley’s point of view is right now is that people in my neighborhood should have second-class rights. None of us will have access to the reproductive care we need. No in vitro fertilization. No contraception. No abortion. He doesn’t want us to have the right to organize, he doesn’t want to take care of us. These things don’t affect country club republicans like him so he just doesn’t care about them and we deserve better. We deserve someone who understands what it’s like to live as an everyday Missourian.”

Background:

Hawley will be forced to share the ballot with a massively energizing ballot initiative to end a total abortion ban Hawley supports and restore reproductive freedoms that Hawley helped to end. And while voters are more motivated than ever by issues like IVFcontraception, and abortion, Hawley has built a career—and even a family business—on banning them all. In the last six years, he’s made a terrifying amount of progress in that mission.

Hawley has gained notoriety for comparing abortion to slavery, attacking no-fault divorce laws, and being exposed as a pioneer behind the legal arguments being used by his activist allies to shut down access to IVF.