ST. LOUIS — With 90 days to go until election day, the candidates for Missouri’s Senate seat were off to the races.
Democrat Lucas Kunce is hoping to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R) on the November ticket.
Tuesday night, moments after the race was called, Hawley challenged Kunce to a debate at the Missouri State Fair next week, but what each candidate hopes that will look like is very different.
Hawley said in a statement on X, “Congrats to Lucas Kunce. Now let's debate.”
5 On Your Side sent a letter to both candidates offering to air and moderate the debate at the Missouri State Fair. Kunce confirmed and Hawley did not officially respond by the deadline of 7 p.m. Wednesday but posted another video on X.
“I said, Let's go there. Let's get up on a trailer. No fancy studios, no moderators, just you and me, man, mono and mono. Lincoln-Douglas style, we'll do it in front of the crowd. We'll do it in front of the people. Anybody come? I see a lot of press here. Y'all are welcome to come. You can film whatever you want, whatever, do whatever you want, and we'll just be accountable to the people. We'll go back and forth, and we'll debate, you know what? He won't do it,” Hawley said.
Kunce said he wants to debate Hawley but thinks Hawley doesn't want to answer questions.
“I mean, the dude wants us to go prattle. He can do that anytime he wants. Like, we need to answer hard questions for the people of Missouri. As a U.S. senator, I'm willing to answer hard questions from the people of Missouri. I think he should be too like, right? This is it. Are you real? Are you the coward that everybody saw on Jan. 6? I guess we'll find out next week,” Kunce said.
Hawley went on to say in front of his supporters this would be a chance for Kunce to defend his record in front of Missourians.
“I just say to him, if you really believe the stuff you've said, come defend it. Come tell the farmers why you want to take away their ability to farm, their farms. Come tell the truckers why you don't want them to work. Come. Tell the American people and the people of this state why you want that border open,” Hawley said.
Kunce jabbed right back saying Hawley has some things to answer for.
“He just doesn't want to answer to the fact that he wasted $250,000 of Missourians money, that he won't protect invitro fertilization and contraception and many other things, right? But let's have that real debate. Let's do it, and we'll tell all what our plan is going forward and what we want to do,” Kunce said.