Missouri’s Senate race is heating up. The Republican Party has once again put its best foot forward by promoting Eric Greitens, best known for mowing down trees with a high-caliber assault weapon during his elections campaign ads and then being forced to resign after it turned out that he was a next-level scumbag. It turned out that Greitens was not simply having an extramarital affair, but he was accused by the woman he began the affair with of sexual assault, battery, kidnapping, and blackmail in his pursuit to cover that affair up. Donald Trump Jr. even cut an add where both he and Greitens shot weapons and threatened “liberals, RINOs, and the fake media.”
The Democratic Party has two front running candidates running for Senate, with the primary taking place on Aug. 2. On the one hand you have Anheuser-Busch heiress Trudy Busch Valentine, who is considered a front runner because of her financial resources. On the other hand you have former Marine Lucas Kunce, who has been catching up in the polls. Right now the main criticism facing Valentine is her refusal to appear in public and face off against opponents. She recently ignored requests to participate in a debate against Kunce. The only public poll released by SurveyUSA back in May put Kunce ahead of Valentine in the primary with a majority of people undecided still.
Regardless, one thing that Kunce and Valentine have going for them is that they are not Eric Greitens. True to form, Greitens has been dealing with a brand-new slew of allegations about how abusive and appalling a person he is—this time from his estranged wife, who left him after he was forced to resign from being governor for being a dirtbag.
Campaign Action
On Thursday, Kunce released a very effective ad that centers reproductive rights and women’s rights while also pointing out the hypocrisy of the archaic toxic masculinity promoted as a virtue by conservatives. This is the kind of messaging the Democratic Party needs to get on board for.
He opens with: “I’m Lucas Kunce and I have a message for America’s men: Step the hell up!” Throughout the advertisement, a hard “rock” guitar riff plays, reminiscent of penis-pill advertisements one sees and hears during sporting event broadcasts. It’s sort of superb. From there he talks about how reproductive rights and children’s rights are being taken away and conservative men are flexing their muscles by “standing on the sidelines, acting powerless.”
He also connects the fact that he was a Marine in Afghanistan and Iraq, being told how he was fighting for the human rights of women in other countries, only to come home to a far more tyrannous Republican-led movement at home.
The video even gives a nice visual shoutout to weak leaders like Sen. Joe Manchin, who has pretended he has no power as a sitting U.S. senator. Kunce also pounds home the middle-American masculinity fallacy implicit in the “pro-life” movement. “Real men fight for choice,” the screen reads as Kunce gives his very simple message to voters: “That’s why I’m running for Senate. In Washington I will kill the filibuster and codify Roe v. Wade.”
I’ve heard enough!
Editors note: The article was updated to reflect the May SurveyUSA polling of Missouri Senate candidates.
Privacy as a foundational value in a post-Roe landscape on Daily Kos' The Brief podcast
RELATED STORIES:
Disgraced ex-Missouri governor running for Senate faces another round of appalling allegations
Greitens’ campaign off to a great start after conservative hosts asks about ‘half-rape’ allegation
Donald Trump Jr. and alleged wife abuser Eric Greitens release video praising shooting of liberals