Andoe's Society Page: Lucas Kunce Is Officially Off the Market

Lucas Kunce, the affable and fresh-faced candidate working to unseat the fist-raising insurrectionist-boosting-turned-insurrectionist-fleeing Senator Josh Hawley, introduced his new bride, Marilyn (Martinez) Kunce over brunch at Benton Park Cafe on Saturday. His senior advisor, Connor Lounsbury, arranged the meeting, and told me he would be joining us. “You’re flying in just for brunch?” I asked during our call. “Of course! This is her first media interview ever and I’m not going to throw them to the wolves on their own!” he said.

Being the first to arrive, I was offered coffee but asked for a mimosa. The warm and delightful host said they had just gotten their liquor license and were not yet prepared for brunch cocktails.

"But we do have a bottle of Champagne, and we have orange juice, so let me see what we can do," she said in a hopeful tone of possibility, but returned to report that the bartender vetoed the idea because other customers may try to follow suit.

Lucas and Marilyn sat beside me on a padded bench while we waited for the table to open up. The body language of the fit and attractive couple was that of a classic courtship, with his arm around her and a lot of smiles, laughter and eye contact.

Connor was feverishly working on his phone, but once we were seated, I had to break the cocktail news to him. Brunch without a mimosa or bloody mary is almost unheard of in gay culture, as demonstrated by the bewildered cringe that washed across his face.

“I have an idea. Let’s suggest they disguise our mimosas in coffee cups,” I said. An enthusiastic Connor made the pitch, but the cafe declined to partake in our shenanigans. Anyway, the new couple had a day of door knocking in Old North St. Louis before heading back home to cheer on the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, so my sober efficiency was certainly preferable for their schedule.

Lucas was in D.C. for a meeting when he met Marilyn at a coffee shop this past September. The svelte 29-year-old couldn’t get her Apple Pay to work. She was rifling through her bag looking for cash when Lucas introduced himself and offered to pay. They met for a romantic walk along the National Mall that very evening, but as the two held hands Saturday morning, Marilyn told me it wasn’t until the second date that she learned he was a public figure.

“I was talking about how cruel people can be online, and how they will say things they’d never say in person, and he said, ‘I know something about that.’ He then Googled his name, and I tried not to show much of a reaction, but the instant I got home I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’” she recalled with a laugh.

Marilyn spent her early years on a farm in rural Mexico but says climate change made the land unsuitable for farming, so her family moved to town. Intellectually curious at a very young age, she was bored in preschool and asked to sit in on the first grade class. The teacher humored her, but realized she was already on a first-grade level and recommended the four-year-old skip two grades. In addition to her schooling, she worked long hours at the family’s food truck, and began earning money as a singer at age seven. (Karaoke is a favorite activity, which she's roped Lucas into.) After graduating at 16, she attended Juárez University of the State of Durango, where she graduated at the top of her class.

Marilyn came to the U.S. on an exchange program in 2017, not knowing English. Today, she works for the National Resource Defense Council as an international finance and research analyst, a job she can do remotely from their home in suburban Kansas City, but which also involves traveling abroad.

You might say the life of a political couple is one of hard knocks. When going door to door in Independence, for instance, one man pointed a gun at them.

“You’re coming out hard today!” Lucas laughed at the time, and after talking for a few minutes, the man said he would vote for Lucas’ candidate. (That day he was going door-to-door for state Representative Robbie Sauls, D-Independence.) Another time, Marilyn didn't notice a deep puddle because it was covered in leaves.

"I now wear boots when door knocking," she said while extending her legs.

Life with Lucas has been a crash course in all things Missouri. He has taken Marilyn to all corners of the state, up into the Arch and the St. Louis Wheel — despite her fear of heights.

“We were driving along Route 179 along the Missouri River,” Lucas began, “and she was amazed at how well we could see the stars.”

“I asked him to pull over several times, and he pointed out the Milky Way,” Mariyn added.

Lucas hails from Jefferson City, and Marilyn finds many similarities with her own hometown, including that many have to leave in order to find work. While Lucas has been pursuing that problem politically, Marilyn has been pursuing it with environmental policy. Another similarity they point to is the community feel. While the couple was married in Independence on January 13th, they will have the big ceremony in Mexico later this month. One reason it will be so big is that everyone who has touched Marilyn’s life in some way wants to come, which Lucas says reminds him of the culture of Jefferson City.

As we were wrapping up the interview, I learned there was more news to discuss.

Recently, Marilyn went to the ER with stomach pains. “The doctor simply said, ‘You’re pregnant.’” she recalled. Their baby boy is due to arrive at the end of July.

It was a brunch chock-full of delightful conversation and Rihanna-esque revelations. And I suspect this smart, nimble power couple will continue to surprise us.

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