ST. LOUIS—Independent polling over the past few months has suggested Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley has as much as a double-digit lead over his Democratic opponent, Lucas Kunce, but as the race heads toward the final three week sprint to election day, both campaigns are acting as though it’s shaping up to be a much closer contest.

In fundraising appeals, Hawley’s campaign is using Kunce’s internal polling, which suggests it could be a four point race, just outside a typical margin of error. 

“I'm not going to take anything for granted,” Hawley told reporters this week in Fenton, citing Kunce’s polling. 

“You can see the emails he's sending out where he says it's going to be one of the closest races in the country. That's because it is,” Kunce told Spectrum News Wednesday in Herculaneum.

The national parties have focused their attention elsewhere, particularly in Senate races that could impact voter turnout in presidential battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. Then there are races like in Montana, where a Democratic incumbent–Jon Tester– is trying to hold on in a deep-red state, or Texas, where Republican incumbent Ted Cruz is seen as vulnerable. 

In Missouri, the major party candidates are bringing in their own high-profile endorsees to gin up interest. Last week, Kansas City Chiefs Kicker Harrison Butker joined Hawley for a series of events, including a stop in Cottleville. 

Butker made headlines for a commencement speech last spring that said women should focus on their role as homemakers.

In a joint FOX News interview in southeast Missouri last Thursday night, Butker said he wasn’t “putting down” women who get an education and have a career.

“It’s more talking about how beautiful it is for women to maybe just step aside and prioritize their family and spend time with their children,” he told FOX host Laura Ingraham.

The Kunce campaign seized on the comment on social media and it’s now part of his stump speech. 

On Tuesday, during a stop at the St. Louis County GOP headquarters, Hawley defended Butker.

“This is one of the things I love about Harrison and I’d say the same is…for the men out there hey, it’s good to be a father and we need men to work and we need them to provide for the kids they have. For women who want to have children, that’s fantastic and being a mother should be honored,” he said while saying wages for men and women need to be higher. 

Kunce has run a campaign that appears to have made a conscious decision in recent months to appeal to ticket-splitters in an attempt to win in a state with no statewide elected Democrats. He’s actively supporting the ballot measure to restore abortion rights, but his ads have highlighted his Marine service under former President Donald Trump, have praised former U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, a Republican, for bringing federal tax dollars to the state, and he’s declined to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris atop the Democratic ticket.

But he’s about to welcome Andy Cohen, the Clayton native and TV personality, for a series of events in the St. Louis area Friday. He previously joined actor Jon Hamm in a Zoom fundraiser for the campaign. If Cohen is to liberals what Butker is to conservatives, will that turn off swing voters, and potentially something for Hawley to add to his stump in the remaining days of the campaign?

“This isn’t about left right, this isn’t about conservative or liberal. Andy Cohen is a Missouri guy. He was born and raised here. Harrison Butker can’t say that. He knows what it’s like living in this state. We want to give people exciting opportunities to meet other Missourians and that’s what we’re doing,” Kunce said.