The Missouri Press Association hosted the Missouri Gubernatorial and U.S. Senate forums in Springfield on Sept. 20. The Senate candidates, incumbent Republican Josh Hawley and challenger Democrat Lucas Kunce, answered questions about topics considered “hot-button” issues in next month’s election.
Hawley and Kunce took questions from moderators, followed by questions from journalists, including a group of Webster Journal reporters in attendance.
WHY SHOULD A GEN-Z VOTER VOTE FOR YOU?
KUNCE: I take no money from corporate PACS [Political Action Committees], no money from federal lobbyists, no money from big pharma executives. I want to put money back into this state. I want to make it so you can have a good life here. I want you to be able to make your own decisions like you deserve to do.
HAWLEY: Do you want to be able to afford a car? Do you want to be able to afford to start a family? Do you want to be able to afford your rent or a mortgage one day? If you do, we have to do something different. We cannot continue down the road we’re on. The democrats have been in power. We’ve tried Lucas Kunce’s policy. Everything we talked about, his whole agenda; we tried it. It’s not theory, we tried it. It’s been a disaster for the youngest generation of this country. It’s been a disaster for everybody.
WOULD YOU SUPPORT FEDERAL LEGISLATION TO EITHER ESTABLISH A NATIONWIDE RIGHT TO ABORTION OR IMPOSE NATIONWIDE LIMITS ON WHEN ABORTIONS SHOULD BE PERFORMED? OR DO YOU THINK ABORTION SHOULD BE LEFT TO THE STATES?
KUNCE: I think Missourians are smart enough to make their own decisions about how they live their lives, about how they build and protect their families. As a U.S. senator, I will promise you now, I will codify Roe v. Wade because we can’t have no exceptions for rape and incest like Josh Hawley has put into place. I will protect in-vitro fertilization, something he has refused to do twice now on the record. I will protect contraception because I believe those things are important for everyday Missourians so that we can make our own decisions.
HAWLEY: I don’t support a nationwide ban. I do support reasonable federal restrictions [and] limits on abortion – like when the baby is capable of feeling pain. What I will not support is imposing on the state of Missouri and all the other states an abortion on-demand through nine months with taxpayer funding.
THE WAR BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HAMAS HAS RESULTED IN THOUSANDS OF DEATHS. CEASE-FIRE TALKS SEEM TO BE UNPRODUCTIVE. SHOULD THE UNITED STATES’ SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL BE CONTINGENT ON CERTAIN FACTORS? DO YOU BELIEVE THE U.S. SHOULD BE DOING MORE THAN IT ALREADY IS TO PROVIDE AID TO PALESTINIAN RESIDENTS?
KUNCE: I believe there is no place for antisemitism or any kind of hate on our college campuses or anywhere in this country. I think Israel had a right to defend themselves and I think what we’ve seen over the months since then, is that that defense has led to thousands and thousands of civilian lives being lost. I can tell you right now that killing all the civilians or having thousands and thousands of civilians die does not bring about peace. I think we need to get to a negotiated cease-fire that brings back the hostages.That should be one of the conditions. For everybody’s peace and security, that is going to be the best. That is going to be the best for Israel, that is going to be the best for Palestine and it’s going to be the best for all of us.
HAWLEY: No to both. No, we should not condition our aid to Israel and no, I think we should not pressure Israel into a cease-fire. Two days ago in the Senate, I was at a hearing in which I sat and listened to a witness try to tell me that all of the antisemitism and violence toward Jewish Americans on campus wasn’t really happening and wasn’t real. It is real. The attack on Israel is real, we should be standing unequivocally with our ally, Israel [and] not talking about cease-fires, not talking about how we can help Hamas. We should be saying to Israel, ‘Get the job done.’ For those folks here in this country and on our college campuses, they ought to be safe. We don’t need a cease-fire until Hamas is eliminated.
WHAT DO YOU THINK CONGRESS CAN REALISTICALLY DO TO HELP MANAGE THE FLOW OF IMMIGRANTS AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF THE UNITED STATES?
KUNCE:There are very simple solutions here that we can bring to the cause. We need to stop the flow of fentanyl [and] vote for fentanyl machines. We have fentanyl scanners, most of it comes through regular ports of entry. We need to fully fund and equip the Border Patrol – something he [Hawley] has repeatedly voted against. What we need to do here is end catch-and- release, stop the flow of fentanyl, fully fund and equip the Border Patrol. I stand beside every single one of those things and that’s what I’m going to do as a U.S. senator.
HAWLEY: The answer on immigration is to close the border, reinstate the Remain in Mexico program and the [Migrant Protection Protocols], which this administration tore up. Now, as to that bi-partisan border bill that Lucas Kunce just mentioned, it was a terrible bill. It would allow 5,000 people across the border every day – 5,000 before you could close it. It would increase the number of green cards by an astronomical number [and] it demanded taxpayer funding for illegals’ lawyers. So, you bet I voted against it.
Photos by Joe Clever
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