ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell is running for U.S. Senate in Missouri in 2024, according to a Wednesday morning announcement.
"Together, we can make real change," Bell said in his campaign launch video.
Bell will have a chance to challenge Sen. Josh Hawley, who is up for reelection in November 2024 in the U.S. Senate.
Before becoming the top prosecutor in Missouri's largest county, Bell worked as a judge, law professor, public defender and Ferguson City Council member in 2015.
The democratic hopeful mentioned he first stepped into public office to calm tensions between protestors and police officers in Ferguson following the killing of Michael Brown.
"... I did what came natural to me," Bell said in the video. "I worked to mediate between two sides who seemed literally at war with each other."
Bell became the first Black St. Louis County prosecuting attorney in 2018 with a campaign that advocated for ending mass incarceration, eliminating "debtors' prison" practices and rebuilding trust between the prosecutor's office and the community.
He’ll face off against 2020 Senate candidate Lucas Kunce in the primary. Kunce lost his primary race to Trudy Busch Valentine.
Both Kunce and Bell’s campaign announcements featured images of Hawley running away from the mob that stormed into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Bell criticized Hawley's divisive language in his campaign launch video and argued that Missourians, no matter where they live, their political party or what color their skin is, have a lot more in common than politicians want them to believe.
"... We need leaders who try to help, too," Bell said in the video. "Unlike Josh Hawley, he's in a rush to be famous, pretending to be tough while showing the world how weak he really is."
Bell is the first person of color to run for statewide office in the Democratic primary.
Kunce on Wednesday announced that the Missouri AFL-CIO has endorsed him, adding to a long list of union endorsements for the Marine veteran. Campaign spokesman Connor Lounsbury said in a statement that the endorsement “marks an important moment in the campaign as the state’s election-winning labor movement unites behind Kunce.”
He declined direct comment on Bell’s entrance into the race.
The Associated Press reported a statement from Hawley's campaign:
“We expect whoever emerges from the messy (Democratic) primary to be the darling of the woke left and raise tens of millions of dollars to try and buy this seat from Missourians,” the statement said, adding the primary will be about “ending girls sports and being soft on crime.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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