Lucas Kunce

Kunce lost the Democratic primary by a margin of 5% to Anheuser-Busch heiress Trudy Busch Valentine on August 2nd, 2022. He later endorsed Busch Valentine and campaigned on her behalf.

In a statement following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kunce called Vladimir Putin a "tyrant" and condemened the invasion, as well as the previous Russian invasions of Georgia and Crimea. He has said that the US should militarily "fulfill [their] NATO obligations — that’s it" and combat the invasion by sanctioning Russian oligarchs and helping Western Europe to stop purchasing Russian gas by creating and selling them alternative renewable energy technologies.

Kunce announced his run for the open U.S. Senate seat on March 9, 2021, the day after incumbent Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) announced he would not be seeking re-election in 2022. His candidacy received endorsements from the League of Conservation Voters, Progressive Change Campaign Committee and VoteVets. As of December 31, 2021, Kunce had raised $2.48 million, the most of all the candidates for the U.S. Senate seat in Missouri. He says that he does not accept corporate campaign donations. Throughout his campaign, he has emphasized his outsider status, advertising both his lack of political experience and poorer upbringing.

Kunce left active duty in 2020 with the rank of major, joining the American Economic Liberties Project as director of national security in August. He continues to serve in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.

Kunce graduated from Jefferson City High School in 2000 as the valedictorian of his class. He went on to attend Yale University on a Pell Grant, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in classical civilization. He played for the school track team and ultimate frisbee, and joined the cheerleader team in 2003 as the first male member in the current incarnation of the team. Kunce graduated from Yale in 2004, and obtained a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Missouri School of Law. He was admitted to the Missouri Bar on September 12, 2007. In 2016, he received a Master of Laws degree from Columbia Law School.

In 2007, Kunce joined the United States Marine Corps and became a lawyer in the Judge Advocate division. He served a tour in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan. After returning to the United States, he served as the International Negotiations Officer on the Joint Staff of the Pentagon, where he represented the U.S. in arms negotiations with Russia and NATO. He joined the Council on Foreign Relations in June 2017. In 2019, he wrote opinion articles for The American Conservative and The New York Times.

After joining the US Marine Corps in 2007, Kunce served two tours in Afghanistan. In an interview with The American Prospect, he voiced the opinion that the US "should have left in 2002 or 2003 instead of trying to build [Afghanistan] up for 20 years." He has said the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was "inevitable from the very beginning," and blamed defense contractors, corrupt Afghan commanders, and US politicians who "used the war to get into office" for prolonging the conflict. He has suggested that he supports the opening diplomatic relations with the Taliban.

In 2006, while attending law school at the University of Missouri, Kunce ran for the Missouri State House of Representatives seat for District 113. He was defeated by the Republican incumbent Mark Bruns, with Kunce earning 44% of the vote.

Kunce supports abortion rights, a shift from his 2006 campaign that he attributes to his time in pro-life Afghanistan and Iraq. He condemned the signing of the Right to Life of the Unborn Child Act, which banned abortion at all stages in Missouri. In June 2022, he voiced his support for federally codifying abortion rights after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Later, he suggested that the Democrat-majority Senate should abolish the filibuster to do so, saying it was a "right now issue" and condemning Democrats who used it as a campaign point. He supports making abortion free under a universal health care system.

In Kunce's 2006 Missouri House campaign, he received $650 in donations from local union chapters. In 2019, he wrote an opinion article for The New York Times voicing his opposition to Google and Microsoft workers who protested the sale of their products to the military, saying that if tech companies "work with the military, then technologies from applications of A.I. to augmented reality would save innocent lives and reduce suffering," and voicing the opinion that workers would be better off protesting the war in Afghanistan directly. In 2021, he visited a drive in favor of Amazon worker organization in Bessemer, Alabama.

Kunce has condemned nation-building campaigns by the US military in foreign countries, such as in Afghanistan, and has advocated reducing military funding in favor of domestic development. He has said he didn't support the basis of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and that the US should only militarily intervene in other countries in cases of "self-defense," citing the initial stages of the invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks as an example. He has called on the US to "recruit and welcome" immigrants from all countries. He is opposed to US-based businesses offshoring manufacturing, and foreign ownership of US agricultural land.

In an opinion article for The American Prospect, Kunce said he recognized China as a serious "economic challenge" and wrote they were "hacking [the US's] dedication to self-interest," citing a 1996 deal between US-based Loral Space & Communications and the Chinese state-owned Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation that quickened the development of Chinese missile equipment in violation of the Arms Export Control Act as an early example of the issue. As other examples, he cited and condemned the 2001 Chinese accession into the World Trade Organization and the 2012 acquisition of AMC Theatres by Chinese-based Wanda Group. He has said that the US is too reliant on Chinese manufacturing, and maintained the opinion that large American companies are too subservient to Chinese interests. He has condemned American universities for accepting Chinese students funded by the People's Liberation Army, saying students use their time in the US to study emerging tech and then take their research back to the PLA, but has also suggested that the US more intentionally to recruit Chinese students and workers in the US into long-term work in US-based industries and help them to become citizens.

Lucas Tyree Kunce (/kuːns/; born October 6, 1982) is an American attorney and politician who is the director of national security at the American Economic Liberties Project. On March 9, 2021, he announced his campaign for the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Missouri, the day after Roy Blunt announced his retirement. On January 6, 2023, he announced his campaign to run for the U.S. Senate again in the 2024 U.S. Senate Election in Missouri against Josh Hawley.

Kunce has proposed artificially raising the cost of offshoring to China by requiring US-based businesses to reimburse the government for any public subsidies they received before offshoring, creating a targeted tax to penalize US-based businesses who offshore, and/or increasing fines for businesses who break market laws to match the amount the business gained from breaking said laws. He has also proposed forcing joint ventures for Chinese-based companies who wish to set up in the US, and federally backing loans for US-based businesses wishing to get into industries "captured" by China. The industries would include manufacturing of printed circuit boards, semiconductors, telecommunication devices and products on the solar value chain. He has expressed his support for invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and Defense Production Act of 1950 to do this in some circumstances. He has said that the US's military advantage on China has been "slipping away," and blamed the US's "monopoly crisis" for stifling development, citing buyout of US-based military telecommunications manufacturer Lucent and rise of Chinese state-funded telecommunications company Huawei as an example. He has condemned the consolidation and offshoring of US military-industrial manufacturing as a threat to national security, saying it can lead to kickbacks or market failure.