‘Mad Men’ actor Jon Hamm to fundraise for Democrat Lucas Kunce in Missouri’s Senate race

Actor Jon Hamm is endorsing Lucas Kunce in the Missouri race for U.S. Senate, and will help the Democrat fundraise in the final stretch of the primary campaign.

Hamm, a Missouri native best known for playing the suave and mysterious Don Draper on “Mad Men,” will appear in a virtual fundraiser with Kunce on Saturday night.

Kunce, a former Marine, has run a populist campaign promising to fight the decay of working-class areas in Missouri. His major rival for the Democratic nomination is Trudy Busch Valentine, a philanthropist and member of the storied Busch beer family.

Hamm, who also recently starred this summer in “Top Gun: Maverick,” was born in St. Louis and attended the University of Missouri in Columbia. In a statement from Kunce’s campaign, Hamm said most of his family is from Ste. Genevieve, a city of about 5,000 south of St. Louis.

For years, Hamm said, he watched Ste. Genevieve the community “go downhill.” Kunce is on a mission to change who has power in the country, Hamm said.

“While corrupt politicians shipped jobs overseas and voted to give handouts to Wall Street + their corporate allies, everyday people just trying to survive in the place they call home ran out of money and opportunities,” Hamm said.

Kunce has brought in $1.1 million between April and June. Busch-Valentine raised $360,562 from donors between April and June.

The primary election is Aug. 2.

The Star’s Daniel Desrochers contributed reporting