Springfield plays host to U.S. Senate debate 

Last edited 9:04 a.m., Sept. 26, 2024 [Editor's note: A misspelled name has been corrected.]

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 Friday 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 met 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. 

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 to reveal who he intends to vote for in the U.S. presidential election. At least nine times during the debate, Hawley raised the issue, noting, for example, at the end of his comments on an abortion question, “And I still haven’t heard an answer as to whether or not he’s voting for Trump or Kamala.” 

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: Hawley 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 tax rate 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 transferring 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 supports 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 voiced 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 wars in Ukraine and Gaza 

Hawley: Hawley opposes further funding for the war in Ukraine. He said the U.S. must stand with Israel, and he called for Hamas to be eliminated. 

Kline: Kline expressed the belief that the U.S. should curb its military presence around the world and invest money domestically instead. He said he believes the U.S. should support a two-state solution in Gaza. 

Kunce: Kunce said he backs more funding for Ukraine, as this is ultimately cheaper than sending U.S. troops. In Gaza, he said he backs a negotiated ceasefire contingent upon the return of all hostages. 

Young: Young said the U.S. should support Ukraine more consistently in the face of the threat posed by Russia. In Gaza, he said the U.S. should continue to support Israel as it defends itself. 

On tariffs on China 

Kunce: Kunce 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: Hawley 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 abortion 

Kline: Kline said that he and the Green Party have always supported women’s rights to be in charge of their own body. “You can either give the right to the fetus or the woman – you can’t chop them in half,” he said. “It’s a hard choice, but the living woman is in charge of her own body.” The Green Party supports enshrining the right to abortion, he said. 

Kunce: Missouri has the most restrictive law in the country, he said. “It’s Josh Hawley’s abortion ban. He bans all abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, from day one. I think that’s wrong,” he said, adding that as a U.S. senator, he would seek to codify abortion rights nationally. 

Young: The pro-life movement does itself a disservice by being uncompromising in its positions, Young said. He said Missouri’s Amendment 3, which seeks to establish a constitutional amendment to protect reproductive freedom, opens the door to even more abortions than the state had previously. “We need to find a place where we’re preventing as many abortions as possible, but we’re still leaving room for compromise,” he said. “That’s an area where most Missourians can be comfortable.” 

Hawley: Hawley said he does not support a nationwide ban but does support federal restrictions on abortion. “What I will not support is imposing on the state of Missouri and all the other states is abortion on demand through nine months on taxpayer funding,” he said. 

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 control 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 people don’t leave their homes unless they’re on fire. “The United States has always been the most welcoming place in the world for immigrants,” he said. “It’s been our secret weapon and our best strength.” He said the border needs more people to process applications, not more guards, and noted immigrants are less violent than natural-born Americans. 

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.