Jared Young is focused for the next month on his third-party bid for the U.S. Senate.
But he’s dreaming bigger, hoping to offer Missourians a lasting alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties through his newly formed Better Party.
Young and former Republican U.S. Sen. John Danforth stopped in Columbia on Thursday as part of a tour around the state promoting more civility in politics and an alternative to the incessant rhetoric offered by the current parties.
In his words, Young, 38, feels like the current state and direction of politics cause people to become “discouraged,” “exhausted” and “disgusted.”
“People are so fed up with it, and we need a voice that’s just a reasonable voice,” he said. “People are longing for a dose of reasonableness.”
Being wedged on stage between Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democrat Lucas Kunce during last month’s debate in Springfield illustrated this point, Young said. Throughout the debate, Hawley and Kunce went after each other in a back-and-forth hot on rhetoric and personal accusations.
Young said he’s running because he wants to break that monotonous routine Americans have become accustomed to.
A father of six who moved to Missouri in 2015, Young was able to get on the ballot in April after securing the minimum 10,000 signatures required to form a new political party. He worked in the business sector for eight years before launching his campaign in 2023 as a self-described “moderate conservative.”
“I’m trying to represent that huge portion in the center that doesn’t have extreme views left or right. They really just want problem-solvers,” Young said.
Danforth, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. who served as a U.S. senator from Missouri for nearly two decades, said voters who are disenchanted with the two major political parties can do something about it by voting for Young.
“It’s a way to make a statement that we’ve got to get the political order back in its proper state,” Danforth said.
This fall the party has one other candidate: Blake Ashby of Ferguson in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District. Young said his Better Party will field candidates in more contests at the local level during future election cycles “because those local races, those smaller races, you can win without a ton of resources.”
“I think the key is for us notching some wins in those smaller races around the state, perhaps getting a foothold in the Statehouse where we have a handful of votes, and then we become a recognized name, and I think it easily then starts to build upon itself,” Young said.
Before his endorsement of Young, Danforth served as a mentor to Hawley and was instrumental in helping him get elected to the U.S. Senate. But in 2021, just one day after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Danforth denounced Hawley and said supporting him ”was the worst mistake I ever made in my life.”
“I take responsibility for him being in the Senate,” Danforth said Thursday. “I think my support both when he ran for (Missouri) attorney general and ran for the Senate were critical for him.”
“He knew better,” Danforth added, referring to Hawley’s embrace of claims the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Young said that what propelled him to run was a gradual build-up of frustration with the state of politics over the past 10 years or so.
“Every election I found myself crossing my fingers and hoping that things would change,” he said, “that we would take a step back toward normalcy, back toward civility, back toward the center.”
But instead, Young said, things have become more divisive and out of control.
If elected, Young said he doesn’t plan to caucus with either one of the two parties, nor does he intend to be someone members of the U.S. Senate could routinely rely on for votes.
“I truly have moderate-centrist views,” he said. “My votes will be decided if I think the policy is sound and if I think it’s going to help the people of Missouri. But I will be willing to work with anyone.”
In addition to Hawley and Kunce, Young is also running against Libertarian W. C. Young and Green Party candidate Nathan Kline.
