Senator Josh Hawley (R-Moscow) was unable to arrange a debate with Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce and decided to take matters into his own hands on Thursday.

And he did it at the Missouri State Fair.

Kunce’s campaign has agreed to five televised debates, according to St. Louis Fox affiliate KTVI-TV, but declined to participate in a planned non-televised debate hosted by tAccording to the Missouri Farm Bureau, this group has already endorsed Hawley and donated $5,000 to his campaign.

In a letter to the office, the Kunce campaign team cited a law that prohibits groups that financially support candidates from hosting debates, the website said.

“Lucas does not want to put the Farm Bureau or your members at unnecessary risk,” wrote Kunce’s campaign manager Caleb Cavaretta.

Hawley apparently concluded that the best way to get a debate going was to track down Kunce at the State Fair in Sedalia on Thursday and demand that they begin the debate immediately.

And yes, he made sure that a camera crew followed him.

In Hawley’s video, he is seen walking through the fair like a man on a mission.

“Guys, how are you? Let’s look for Lucas Kunce. Let’s look for him,” he says to those standing around. “Come on, where was he? I didn’t see him. Did you see him? He hasn’t come out of his basement for two weeks, let’s look for him. Where is he? Where is he? Where is he? Where is he?”

About 23 seconds into the video, Hawley contacts Kunce, who asks, “How are you, man?” to which Hawley replies, “Are we going to debate today?”

When Kunce says he doesn’t know what Hawley is talking about, the senator responds, “You don’t know!? I read your bullshit letter to the Farm Bureau. Are you going to sue the Farm Bureau?”

The exchange continued…

At one point, Hawley mocked Kunce, saying, “By the way, are you going to do any campaign rallies around the state or just appear in the media?”

In response, Kunce used the “W-word,” which has been on the lips of many Democrats in recent weeks.

“Josh, why are you so weird?” Kunce replied. “Man, why are you so creepy?”

Below you can see the encounter from Hawley’s perspective.

Kunce wrote his own post indicating that Hawley was not committed to the debates he had already agreed to.

Not surprisingly, the skirmish between the Senate candidates attracted attention on social media.

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