Springfield site of first Senate debate

Four candidates for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Josh Hawley squared off in a debate hosted by the Missouri Press Association on Sept. 20 at the Historic Fox Theatre in downtown Springfield. The event, part of the MPA’s annual convention held Sept. 19-21 in Springfield, was moderated by David Lieb of The Associated Press. Springfield Business Journal Executive Editor Christine Temple was one of three moderators of the event, along with Lucas Presson of the Southeast Missourian and Alvin A. Reid of the St. Louis American.

Hawley was joined on the stage by Democrat Lucas Kunce, Green Party candidate Nathan Kline and Better Party candidate Jared Young, who introduced his new political party in April. Not participating was Libertarian W.C. Young.

It was the first debate of the election season for the candidates, and Hawley’s appearance was not confirmed in advance. Word of his arrival spread through the crowd in the brief break following the gubernatorial face-off that preceded the Senate candidate debate.

The Missouri Independent reported that Kunce and Hawley will debate on Missouri Nexstar television stations, including KRBK-Springfield, on Halloween. That may be the only other time the two candidates share a stage, as no other debates are scheduled.

On the Fox Theatre stage, Hawley and Kunce focused most of their energy on each other, with Hawley’s team sending emails to reporters with what he referred to as fact-checks in real time, and with Kunce frequently accusing Hawley of lying.

One of Hawley’s gambits was to challenge Kunce – at least nine times – to reveal who he intends to vote for in the U.S. presidential election.

Hawley also took several opportunities to call his opponent “nuts,” “nutty” or “crazy,” particularly with what Hawley described as Kunce’s support of transgender surgery for minors. 

In his response to a question on abortion rights, Hawley said the Democrats’ support of reproductive health opens the door for transgender surgery for minors.

“They talk about reproductive health, but what it really does is it allows transgender surgeries for minors without parental consent,” he said. “I think it’s nuts – I think it’s absolutely crazy.”

Kunce refuted the assertion about his position and said Hawley was lying.

“He has co-sponsored a national abortion ban to override the will of Missouri voters,” he said. “It has nothing to do with sex-change surgeries. He sees mandated sex-change surgeries around every single corner because he thinks he can rile people up that way and actually win the election.”

In a response to a question about support of tariffs, Kunce opined that his Republican opponent’s policies keep the U.S. beholden to China – a situation he also described as crazy.

“When I was at the Pentagon, we had a study where we found you can’t make a single major weapon system without inputs from China,” he said. “That’s crazy – I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on, that’s crazy, but that’s the result of Josh Hawley’s policies – it’s the result of his laissez-faireness and his ignorance of national security.”

Senate candidates on the issues
A video that includes both the gubernatorial and senatorial debates can be found on the YouTube channel of the History Museum on the Square, which played host to the event. Here are some highlights of the responses of the Senate candidates.

On extending or adding tax cuts
Young: The U.S. ignores the national debt and deficit spending at its peril, he said, noting solving the issue would require cuts in spending and increased revenue. He said he is never in favor of raising taxes, but he favors raising the Social Security cap on high-income earners and means testing for Social Security to get the program in order.
Hawley: He said he favors increasing the child tax credit and eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay. He added that his opponent, Kunce, favors immediately ditching all fossil fuels, which would result in astronomical taxes, as well as a loss of jobs and a loss of industry in Missouri.
Kline: The country’s tax policy has gotten “real goofed up” since the time when it used to work, Kline said. He voiced support for Eisenhower/Nixon-type tax rates, which had a top level of 91%. “What we need to do is raise the taxes on the wealthiest Americans,” he said, and said the U.S. needs redistributed progressive taxation.
Kunce: Kunce said he supports tax cuts for everyone earning under $400,000 per year and he also supports expanding the child tax credit and disallowing taxes on tips. He said he also has a national plan for energy manufacturing in the Midwest to promote energy independence, which he described as a national security issue.

On inflation
Hawley: Hawley said the Biden administration shut down energy production, which caused inflation to surge. “If you want to fix the inflation problem, reopen American energy, and that includes right here in the state of Missouri,” he said.
Kline: Kline supports a price freeze of the sort initiated by President Richard Nixon – “no kind of communist,” he said. He said government needs to come to the aid of taxpayers and stop serving price-gouging multinational corporations.
Kunce: Kunce said inflation is coming from corporate entities price-gouging Americans and making record corporate profits. He said as senator, he would vote to ban share buybacks, which transfer wealth from everyday people to a shareholder class that doesn’t need it.
Young: Young blamed inflation on runaway government spending in the last four to six years, and he also backed targeted tariffs rather than broad ones. He also said the government must avoid increasing corporate tax rates in order to hold prices down.

On health care costs
Kline: Kline voiced support for universal single-payer health care that is funded by the government. He cited similar models in Europe and Canada.
Kunce: Kunce backed enforcement of antitrust laws and elimination of share buybacks by insurance companies. He also spoke against large hospital systems buying up small providers and shutting them down.
Young: The government must ensure that the health care industry is not shielded from the free-market economy but instead faces the same forces as all other sectors, he said.
Hawley: Hawley expressed support for capping prescription drug costs and ensuring that pharmaceutical companies charge the same prices to the U.S. as they do for other countries.

On tariffs on China
Kunce: He supports tariffs on China, which he said should be used for America to remain competitive against that country.
Young: Young supports tariffs as he said they are a way to punish countries that he said are not engaging in fair competition.
Hawley: He said he supports tariffs for China to protect American industry and to bring back good-paying jobs.
Kline: Kline said the blue and red teams – Democrats and Republicans – operate hand-in-hand on bad trade deals while acting like they are in opposition to one another. He said the country needs different leadership and self-sustaining communities.

On immigration
Kunce: Kunce trained at the southern U.S. border as a Marine. “There’s very simple solutions here that we can bring to the cause,” he said. He suggested installing fentanyl scanners to stop the flow of the drug, fully funding and equipping border patrol and ending a catch-and-release program.
Young: The U.S. needs legal immigrants, Young said. “They’re an incredibly important part of our economy and an important part of our culture,” he said. He added that political warfare stands in the way of a solution, as evidenced by the failure of a bipartisan bill negotiated this year in the Senate.
Hawley: “The answer on immigration is to close the border, reinstate the remain-in-Mexico program and the safe third-country protocols which this administration tore up,” he said. He added that Kunce was in favor of the bipartisan border bill, which would have allowed up to 5,000 people to cross the border each day while providing Social Security and Medicare and mandating taxpayer funding for their lawyers.
Kline: Immigration is driven by the climate crisis, Kline said, adding that the U.S. has always extended a welcome to immigrants. “It’s been our secret weapon and our best strength,” he said. He added that the border needs more people to process applications, not more guards.

On guardrails to artificial intelligence
Kline: His opponents believe the private market should not be regulated, he said, noting the technology must be regulated to serve and not enslave us.
Kunce: His time at the Pentagon revealed that there are no treaties or laws governing AI and weapon systems, and these are needed. Additionally, China must not win the AI race.
Young: We need to take steps to protect people against AI while not stifling innovation.
Hawley: Deep fakes in elections must be outlawed, and children need to be protected from the technology, as well.

For candidates’ responses to questions on abortion and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, click here.