RYAN KRULL
Senate candidate Lucas Kunce is celebrating a big haul from donors who want to oust Josh Hawley.
Senate candidate Lucas Kunce announced today he raised $1.1 million in the first three months of the year, a haul his campaign says is a record for a candidate challenging an incumbent senator in Missouri.
According to a statement put out by the Kunce campaign, the money raised is approximately four times the amount raised by Josh Hawley in the last quarter of 2022, the most recent quarter for which Hawley fundraising data is available.
Kunce's campaign said that 97 percent of its donors in the last three months gave less than $200 and the average was $34.
"We're not only proud of raising a record amount of money, we're proud of how we did it," Kunce's campaign manager Caleb Cavarretta said in the statement.
Kunce is taking his second crack at a seat representing Missouri in the U.S. Senate after losing in the 2022 Democratic primary to beer heiress Trudy Busch Valentine. Valentine subsequently lost the open seat in the general to then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
Since launching in January, Kunce has made the focal point of his campaign Hawley's behavior on January 6, as well as Hawley's attempts to contest the results of Biden's electoral victory over Donald Trump. Kunce's announcement video, featuring an actor playing Hawley running and then tripping over his own feet, has been viewed 8 million times.
In recent weeks Kunce has gotten endorsements from several labor unions, former Missouri Lieutenant Governor Joe Maxwell and one of St. Louis' favorite sons, Andy Cohen.
A recent poll found that 43 percent of Missourians view Hawley unfavorably, compared to 42 percent who said they view him favorably. There is no word yet what effect, if any, Hawley's recent tack of ambushing local newsmen to demand answers about their old tweets has had on those favorability numbers.
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