Republican incumbent Josh Hawley faces Democrat Lucas Kunce for US Senate seat in Missouri

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri voters will decide Tuesday whether to give Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley a second term or elect Democrat Lucas Kunce, a lawyer who served in the Marines.

Hawley is heavily favored to win in the state, where no Democrats hold statewide office and Republicans control both the state House and Senate.

But Kunce is putting up a fight, outraising Hawley and securing support from Missouri-born celebrities John Goodman, Jon Hamm and Andy Cohen.

Kunce served 13 years in the Marines, with tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. After active duty, he worked as the national security director at the antitrust nonprofit American Economic Liberties Project. He also unsuccessfully sought the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination in 2022.

He drew attention after a reporter was hit with a small piece of flyaway metal and injured slightly during one of his campaign events last month at a private shooting range. The reporter told law enforcement that he hardly noticed the injury at first and continued to cover the event after being bandaged by Kunce.

Hawley has said Kunce and other shooters were too close to metal targets, at only 10 yards, to fire AR-15-style rifles safely. Kunce has said that a National Rifle Association training counselor set up the shooting range and that he’s “glad the reporter was OK and able to keep reporting.”

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Kunce’s campaign has focused on criticism of Hawley as a leader of the Jan. 6, 2021, push to block the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.

A photo of Hawley with his fist raised to the hordes outside the Capitol that day initially drew bipartisan backlash.

Top Missouri Republican donors and companies at first promised never to give to Hawley again. Former staffers of two-term Sen. Claire McCaskill, whom Hawley ousted, created the Just Oust Seditious Hacks PAC, which sought to organize against Hawley. His onetime GOP mentor, former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, of Missouri, has said endorsing Hawley was “the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life.”

Kunce announced his intention to run for Hawley’s seat on the anniversary of the insurrection in 2023. He aired an ad highlighting the photo of Hawley’s raised fist, as well as video footage of Hawley running through the Capitol later that day.

But it’s unclear if the message will resonate with Republican voters in Missouri, where Trump won by huge margins in 2016 and 2020.

For his part, Hawley has stood by and celebrated his actions. His campaign sells mugs with the photo of his raised fist.

Hawley and Kunce clashed repeatedly throughout the campaign, beginning with a tense confrontation at the Missouri State Fair in August. The two stood inches apart and debated about whether to have a debate, with Kunce calling Hawley “weird” and “cartoony” and Hawley at one point cursing.

Hawley later made a surprise appearance at a September debate held by the Missouri Press Association, joining Kunce.

The two split over issues such as abortion, with Hawley opposing a constitutional amendment on Tuesday’s ballot that would enshrine abortion rights in the state. Kunce supports the amendment.

Democrats are hoping the abortion amendment will energize voters and help them claw their way back to political relevance in Missouri.

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Missouri voters first elected Hawley to the Senate in 2018, ousting McCaskill, one of the last Democrats to hold statewide office in Missouri. He previously served as Missouri attorney general.

In the U.S. Senate, Hawley is known for his efforts to ban TikTok, legislation to compensate Americans exposed to radiation, and for grilling Biden U.S. Supreme Court appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson.