Hollywood Celebrities, Liberal Elites Laud Missouri Democrat Lucas Kunce Hours After He Announces Senate Bid

Hollywood celebrities and liberal elites wasted no time, but began praising Missouri Democrat Lucas Kunce as soon as he announced his 2024 United States Senate bid on Friday morning.

Kunce, a failed Senate candidate in 2022, has his eyes set on one of the top Republican stars, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who is up for reelection in 2024. The Democrat announced his bid for Hawley’s seat with the release of a video Friday in which he takes aim at the sitting senator, calling him “a fraud and a coward.” The campaign refers to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot in the clip, and its release coincided with the riot’s second anniversary.

Celebrities and liberal elites quickly shared the video, with many voicing their opposition to Hawley or support for Kunce, drawing retweets and likes from the Democrat.

“Hawley’s days in the Senate are numbered,” tweeted 55-year-old left-wing actor Mark Ruffalo.

Comedian Chelsea Handler, 47, retweeted the video within minutes of Ruffalo. 

“Here we go. A candidate to take on insurrectionist Josh Hawley,” she wrote. 

Singer and Actress Mandy Moore also chimed in, tweeting she cannot “wait to contribute to this campaign and get Hawley OUT of the senate.” 

Joe Scarborough, a host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, joined the chorus, calling the clip “a really strong political introduction in ad form.” 

Kunce failed to secure his party’s nomination this past August after a contentious Democrat primary. Anheuser-Busch heiress Trudy Busch-Valentine bested Kunce for the nomination before she was blown out in a landslide loss to Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) in the general election in November. 

Federal Election Commission records show that Kunce’s 2022 campaign raised $792.603.62 from donors in the deep-blue coastal states of New York and California, as well as Washington, DC, and its bordering states, Maryland and Virginia. This includes $411,600.30 in contributions from  California, $194,926.91 from New York, $85,037.75 from D.C., $51,548.55 from Maryland, and $49,490.11 from Virginia. 

 “What I learned is that in our broken political system, where money is the only thing that matters most of the time, if you don’t have it, you’re going to have to work extra, extra hard,” Kunce told Politico Friday when asked what he looks to differently this time around. 

National Republican Senatorial Committee Communications Director Mike Berg called Kunce “unhinged” and asserted he “will grift millions from coastal elites, then lose. Just like when he ran last election.”