Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Josh Hawley and his Democratic opponent Lucas Kunce talk during the Governor’s Ham Breakfast at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, Mo. Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

SEDALIA, Mo. — Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley pushed into the jostling breakfast crowd at the Missouri State Fair on Thursday seeking his opponent, Democrat Lucas Kunce.

He quickly found him.

What followed was an extraordinary 10-minute exchange between the two men, surrounded by a scrum of reporters and cameras. They argued about who was avoiding who and whether they would debate. Insults were hurled and challenges made.

The episode offered a preview of how the rest of the fall election season may play out, as the two candidates for U.S. Senate use confrontation and showmanship to gain an edge. The battle between the candidates has already taken a sharp negative turn in the first week of the general election race.

The public back-and-forth played out at the Governor’s Ham Breakfast, a mainstay of the fair and the traditional kickoff of the fall election season. As Hawley and Kunce argued, curious onlookers took in the scene while munching down their meals of ham, eggs and coffee.

“Why are you so weird, man, why are you so creepy?” Kunce asked Hawley.

“Debate today, debate today – let’s do it,” Hawley said at another point.

Hawley and Kunce have both spent the opening days of the general election campaign trying to define the other as harmful to Missouri. Hawley and Kunce are both aggressively attacking each other, with Hawley attempting to paint Kunce as an enemy of farmers and ranchers and Kunce highlighting Hawley’s opposition to abortion rights.

The Thursday morning argument capped a week of fighting between Hawley and Kunce over whether they would debate at the Missouri State Fair – or in Sedalia generally, where the fair is located.

The dispute began in the hours after the Aug. 6 primary election, when Kunce secured the Democratic nomination. Hawley ran unopposed in the Republican race.

Kunce quickly accepted several invitations to televised debates, including a KSDK and KSHB offer for a Thursday debate in Sedalia. The proposed debate would have been taped during the day and broadcast unedited in the evening.

Hawley, in his first rally of the general election, challenged Kunce to a Lincoln-Douglas style debate at the State Fair. Traditional Lincoln-Douglas debate is closer to a series of speeches than the rat-a-tat of modern political debate. Hawley said no moderators would be needed and that he would let Kunce speak first.

On Friday, the Missouri State Fair Commission released a statement tamping down on the prospect of a debate at the fairgrounds. The statement said the commission believed the fair should highlight the state’s agricultural industry and that it had worked hard to set the fair’s agenda.

“Therefore, we are unable to accommodate any request for political debates on the fairgrounds during the duration of the Missouri State Fair,” the statement said.

The same day the Missouri Farm Bureau, whose political arm has endorsed Hawley, invited both candidates to a debate that would be dominated by questions from the public. The debate would take place just outside the official fairgrounds, sidestepping the commission’s objections.

Hawley accepted but Kunce declined, pointing to the Missouri Farm Bureau’s support for his opponent. Kunce said the debate would have violated Federal Election Commission rules about who can host debates because of the Farm Bureau’s political activity. FEC rules generally restrict debate hosts to nonprofits that don’t endorse candidates, as well as news outlets.

On Wednesday, the Kunce campaign sent a letter to Missouri Farm Bureau Federation President Garrett Hawkins declining the invitation to debate, warning that if Lucas attended the event it would expose the Farm Bureau to having made an illegal corporate contribution to campaign committees.

“He put their (nonprofit) status in jeopardy by coordinating with them in violation of FEC rules,” Kunce said during the exchange with Hawley.

Hawley rejected the idea that a Farm Bureau debate would have run afoul of federal rules.

“They’re a nonprofit organization, No. 1,” Hawley said. “No. 2, they haven’t expended any money.”

Kunce quickly countered that Hawley was “really obsessed with this stunt.”

The exchange between the two men came after Hawley’s campaign had gathered reporters on the edge of the Ham Breakfast, saying the senator would answer questions. When Hawley arrived, he said “let’s go find Lucas Kunce” and walked into the crowd.

At times, Hawley and Kunce appeared engaged in a joint news conference as they answered questions amid the roar of the breakfast crowd, which included hundreds of attendees. They appeared to slowly circle around each other as cameras maneuvered for position. They grabbed each other’s shoulders and pointed at one another.

When asked about his recent overtures to organized labor, Hawley said he no longer supported right-to-work, which prevents unions from requiring employees to pay union dues — despite his previous support of the idea.

“I don’t think it’s fair to ask union organizers to have to organize for people who are not paying union dues,” Hawley said.

Kunce responded by attacking Hawley’s previous stances on organized labor. Hawley interrupted him by again asking for a debate.

“He was a right-to-work candidate. He doesn’t believe in labor,” he said. “He’s tried to remake himself in an election year because he knows that taking away our rights is not something that people want.”

The encounter lasted about 10 minutes, with the candidates splitting up but both continued to answer reporter questions for several more minutes.

Several hours later, Hawley appeared outside a barbecue restaurant in Sedalia and held a rally. He was interrupted after a few minutes by protesters from labor unions who shouted “TV debate” and “coward.” Hawley, in response, led his supporters in a chant of “USA;” he spoke with reporters and supporters for several minutes before departing.

Kunce spokesperson Connor Lounsbury posted on social media that “unions showed up. And Hawley skittered out the back door.”

Asked about the protesters, Hawley said he was glad they were there. “But why isn’t Kunce here?” he said.

After the exchange between Hawley and Kunce, House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat running for governor, told The Star that voters are tired of the “divisiveness” in politics.

“I think for the governor’s race, you’re gonna see conversations around policy and really where we differ, instead of maybe the flamethrowers and things that we’ve been seeing on TV lately,” she said.

She said that while the exchange between Hawley and Kunce was happening, she walked over to her Republican opponent Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, shook his hand and gave him a hug.

“A very different dynamic here,” she said about the race for governor. “The lieutenant governor and I obviously have very stark differences in public policy and what we believe is best for the state of Missouri, but I, myself, and Missourians want something different.”

Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, the Republican candidate for governor, didn’t comment directly on the Hawley-Kunce exchange. But speaking with reporters, he said he has known Quade for a long time.

“I mean, her viewpoints are probably 100% different than most of mine, but we’re old fashioned in that we can disagree and still have a relationship with each other,” Kehoe said.

No public polling on the U.S. Senate race has become available since the primary election. Saint Louis University-YouGov poll conducted in February found at least 50% of respondents approved of Hawley’s job performance while 41% had some level of disapproval.

It’s possible Hawley and Kunce will eventually face each other in a debate. Hawley told reporters last week he was open to a debate even if the two candidates didn’t debate at the fair, and Kunce has accepted multiple invitations to TV debates.

“I mean,” state Rep. Keri Ingle, a Lee’s Summit Democrat, said after the exchange, “it would probably have been more effective if they had just wrestled a hog and got it over with.”