ST. LOUIS, Missouri — St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell launched his 2024 primary campaign for the U.S. Senate Wednesday morning with hopes to win the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Josh Hawley.
Bell's announcement video featured a heavy dose of imagery from the Ferguson riots in 2014, where he says he worked to help bitterly divided factions work together.
Four years after the civil uprising, Bell won a longshot bid in 2018 to become the top prosecutor in the largest local government in the state when he unseated longtime incumbent Bob McCulloch.
Why would he leave a high-impact job to take a big risk to work in a city mired in political dysfunction?
"I saw the dysfunction in Ferguson as well," Bell said. "And when I was in a place of chaos, I helped calm tensions and de-escalate tensions. And Mr. Hawley, when he was faced with chaos, he worked to inflame the tensions. And I think we need more of that in Washington."
Bell's announcement sent a jolt through the Missouri Democratic party and surprised some groups that had already endorsed Lucas Kunce.
Kunce lost his primary bid against Trudy Busch Valentine in 2022, but jumped into the 2024 race early on, racking up endorsements and campaign donations at a quick clip.
On the morning of Bell's announcement, Ferguson Mayor Ella Jones ditched Kunce and backed Bell instead.
"Mayor Ella is recanting her endorsement from Lucas," spokeswoman Tracy Jeffries said.
"Lucas is a huge fan of Mayor Ella Jones," Kunce campaign spokesman Connor Lounsbury said. "He has great respect for the deep relationship she and Wesley have had for many years and wishes her nothing but the best."
Mayor Jones "had a talk with Lucas in regards to opportunities so two Democrats do not fight among each other," Jeffries said. "Josh Hawley being a high-profile official who is running again, this is going to be all eyes on the state of Missouri."
Democrats have not fared very well in statewide elections in recent years. Donald Trump won the state by 18 points in 2016 and 15 points in 2020. Claire McCaskill was the last Democrat to win a Senate race in 2012.
Missouri voters have never before elected a Black person in a statewide race. If he pulls off the upset, Bell would become the first.
"We had that conversation about that significance," Jones' spokeswoman said, suggesting other Democrats who have endorsed Kunce may also reconsider where they've placed their early support.
In a show of force, the Kunce campaign heralded the backing of the Missouri AFL-CIO on Wednesday morning, moments after Bell launched his bid.
"From day one, this campaign has been a fight to take this U.S. Senate seat back for working people," Kunce said. "When the working people of Missouri unite, they win. So together, we're going to defeat Josh Hawley in 2024, empower working people, and rebuild our state."
The AFL-CIO board met in a virtual video conference on Tuesday morning to hold an unusually early vote on the endorsement decision.
"Normally we don’t do early endorsements," Missouri AFL-CIO President Jake Hummel said. "Normally, we wait until filing is closed and then make a decision."
In this case, building trades, who have grown frustrated with Hawley's votes against infrastructure investments, were starting to rally around Kunce's populist economic message about reshoring manufacturing jobs. Some AFL-CIO members felt strongly that an early endorsement could boost Kunce's chances to clear the field and raise more money.
Hummel said Bell's announcement caught their members off guard.
"We didn’t know," he said. "I talked to Wesley late yesterday evening and he told me he was going to announce. Unfortunately, our board had already endorsed Lucas. We would’ve at least put that information out there and maybe people would’ve waited."
Hummel said the decision to reconsider their endorsement of Kunce was a "possibility," but "that would certainly be up to the board to decide."
What did the trade unions see in Kunce that rallied them to his cause?
"He has a pretty impressive story," Hummel said. "Where he grew up in Missouri, how he wants to bring back American jobs. That resonates with all of our union folks that have some of their trades and respective crafts that have been decimated by years of offshoring. They’d like to see things turn around."
"Endorsements don't win elections. Voters do," Bell said. "And the message, and working together. And that's what voters want to see, and that's what we're going to do."