By TIM ROWDEN
Editor-in-Chief
St. Louis – Hartnett Reyes-Jones, LLC, the Missouri AFL-CIO, and the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council hosted a fundraising reception for U.S. Senate Candidate Lucas Kunce Feb. 6 at Maggie O’Brien’s restaurant in downtown St. Louis.
Kunce, a 13-year Marine veteran, national security expert and anti-trust advocate is running to unseat Republican incumbent Sen. Josh Hawley.
“Lucas is running against Josh Hawley to take Missouri’s U.S. Senate seat back for working people,” said John Stiffler, executive secretary-treasurer of the St. Louis Building & Construction Trades Council. “He has the backing of End Citizens United, the League of Conservation Voters, elected officials across the state, the Missouri AFL-CIO, the Missouri State Council of Fire Fighters, the Service Employees Union, Missouri Council of Machinists, the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council, the Kansas City Building and Construction Trades Council and United Food and Commercial Workers, as well as the Missouri-Kansas Laborers District Council.”
EXPERIENCED
After three deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Kunce was stationed at the Pentagon, where he served on the Joint Chiefs to deter the threat of nuclear and chemical weapons around the globe and later represented the United States in arms control negotiations with NATO and Russia.
After active duty he became the national security director for the American Economic Liberties Project where he became a nationally recognized advocate for open markets and strong supply chains with his work published in the New York Times and the American Conservative. His work on Right to Repair was even incorporated in President Biden’s historic executive order on anti-trust policy.
UNION FAMILY
Speaking at the fundraiser, Kunce introduced his wife, Marilyn, who recently helped organize her workplace under the CWA umbrella and has been nominated to work on the Organizing Committee.
“I’m really proud of that because it’s huge for our family, it’s huge for her workplace,” Kunce said. “It’s a part of our movement that we have in our country right now that honestly kind surprises me: that people have finally realized that the only way everyday Missourians and everyday Americans are going to have power again is through organizing and Organized Labor.
“It’s also kind of funny to see the lightbulb go off in Josh Hawley’s head and realize ‘There are workers out there and I’ve been screwing them for a while and I need to try to do something about it.’”
Kunce noted Hawley’s failed effort to cast himself as pro-worker, despite his voting record, by appearing on the United Auto Workers strike line last summer
“You can’t go out to the UAW picket line and not set yourself up for us to remind everybody that just a year prior, on an amendment for the CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) Act you voted against the prevailing wage protections.
“I grew up in a working class neighborhood, everybody was paycheck-to-paycheck, including my parents, and the golden ticket to secure your place in the Middle Class was a union job,” Kunce said.
“That was what people aspired to in that neighborhood. It’s what kept us together. It’s what made sure that everybody had enough money and when my family went bankrupt because of medical bills, they were able to pool their resources and pass the hat down in church and took care of us.”
To donate to Kunce’s campaign, visit https://lucaskunce.com.
- Share this story:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-