Republican incumbent Josh Hawley faces Democrat Lucas Kunce for Missouri’s U.S. Senate seat

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri voters will decide Tuesday whether to give Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley a second term or elect Democrat Lucas Kunce, a lawyer who served in the Marines.

Hawley is heavily favored to win in the state, where no Democrats hold statewide office and Republicans control both the state House and Senate.

But Kunce rises to the occasion, surpassing Hawley and drawing support from Missouri-born celebrities John Goodman, Jon Hamm and Andy Cohen.

Kunce served in the Marines for 13 years, with tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. After active duty, he served as director of national security at the antitrust nonprofit American Economic Liberties Project. He also unsuccessfully sought the 2022 Democratic U.S. Senate nomination.

He attracted attention after a reporter was hit with a small piece of flying metal and slightly injured during one of his campaign events last month at a private shooting range. The reporter told police that he barely noticed the injury at first and continued to cover the event after being bandaged up by Kunce.

Hawley has said Kunce and other shooters were too close to metal targets, just 10 yards away, to safely fire AR-15-style rifles. Kunce has said that a training consultant from the National Rifle Association set up the shooting range and that he is “glad the reporter was OK and able to continue reporting.”

Kunce’s campaign focused on criticizing Hawley as the leader of the January 6, 2021 campaign to block the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.

A photo of Hawley raising his fist at the hordes outside the Capitol that day initially drew bipartisan reactions.

Top Republican donors and Missouri companies initially vowed never to give to Hawley again. Former staffers of Sen. Claire McCaskill, whom Hawley ousted, founded the Just Oust Seditious Hacks PAC to organize against Hawley. His former GOP mentor, former U.S. Sen. John Danforth of Missouri, has said that supporting Hawley was “the worst decision I ever made in my life.”

Kunce announced his intention to run for Hawley’s seat on the anniversary of the insurrection in 2023. He aired an ad highlighting the photo of Hawley’s raised fist, as well as video footage of Hawley running through the Capitol later that day.

But it is unclear whether the message will resonate with Republican voters in Missouri, where Trump won by wide margins in 2016 and 2020.

For his part, Hawley has watched and celebrated his actions. His campaign is selling mugs with the photo of his raised fist.

Hawley and Kunce clashed repeatedly during the campaign, starting with a tense confrontation at the Missouri State Fair in August. The two stood inches apart and discussed whether they should have a debate, with Kunce calling Hawley “weird” and “cartoony” and Hawley cursing at one point.

Hawley later made a surprise appearance at a September debate hosted by the Missouri Press Association, joining Kunce.

The two were divided on issues such as abortion, with Hawley opposing one constitutional amendment in Tuesday’s vote that would enshrine abortion rights in the state. Kunce supports the amendment.

Democrats hope the abortion amendment will energize voters and help them find their way back to political relevance in Missouri.

Missouri voters first elected Hawley to the Senate in 2018, ousting McCaskill, one of the last Democrats to hold statewide office in Missouri. He previously served as attorney general of Missouri.

In the US Senate, Hawley is known for his attempts to ban TikToklegislation to compensate Americans exposed to radiationand for grilling Ketanji Brown Jackson, Biden’s US Supreme Court appointee.