6 hours Ago
WEBB CITY, Mo. — A U.S.
Senate candidate hoping to pave the way for a third party in Missouri returned to his hometown Thursday for a campaign stop. He was joined by a powerful political ally, former U.S.
Sen. John Danforth, who helped build the Republican Party in Missouri. Jared Young is running against incumbent U.
S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
, and Democratic candidate Lucas Kunce. Young established the Better Party, an independent party, by submitting 25,000 signatures to the Missouri secretary of state earlier this year. Young said he founded the Better Party on the belief that independents in Missouri outnumber those on the extremes and that they want something different.
“What we’re aiming to do is activate that center, that huge chunk of the electorate, which, based on our polling, is 40% to 50% of Missouri voters,” Young said. “They feel like they’ve been left behind by the parties. As soon as we can activate them, and the parties start suffering electoral consequences from only focusing on the extremes, then the parties will start to change.
” Young is an attorney who graduated from Harvard Law School and also earned a bachelor’s degree in Middle East studies and Arabic from Brigham Young University. Sitting across from Young at the Mining Days Event Center was Danforth, who said crossing the state with Young brought him back to his campaign days. Danforth is an Episcopal priest who served as the attorney general of Missouri from 1969 to 1976, as a U.
S. senator from 1976 to 1995 and as the U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations from 2004 to 2005. Before Danforth entered politics, Missouri had been a blue state. During his time as attorney general, Danforth's staff included future Missouri governor and U.
S. Sen. Kit Bond; future governor, U.
S. Sen. and U.
S. Attorney General John Ashcroft; and future U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Danforth noted in his endorsement of Young that he is not a Democrat nor a member of Young’s Better Party. He said he is still a Republican from the days of President Ronald Reagan, former U.
S. Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.
, and U.S. Rep.
Gene Taylor, R-Mo. The latter, a 7th District congressman, was one of his closest political allies. “At that time, our party was a conservative party, and it was a responsible party,” Danforth said.
“It was a major player in national events. I was very comfortable in that party. We stood for principles, and our principles were very clear.
” He said those principles included rule of law, fiscal responsibility, peace through strength and the peaceful transfer of power. He called Jan. 6, 2021, one of the darkest days in U.
S. history. “All of those principles have been scrapped by the current iteration of our party,” Danforth continued.
“All of those principles are embraced by Jared Young. He would be very comfortable in the Republican Party that I was a part of for all those years. He would be very uncomfortable in the Republican Party today.
” Danforth said the advent of Trump’s candidacy was a turning point in the Republican Party, noting that he has never supported the former president and current presidential candidate in any of this three bids for office. Hawley’s Senate career represents another failing of the party, Danforth said. During the campaign stop, Young said Hawley would not be in office today if it wasn’t for Danforth, who helped him become Missouri attorney general and then make the move into the U.
S. Senate. Danforth remembers first meeting Hawley when the future senator was at Yale Law School.
Danforth still thinks Hawley is a talented person with great intellectual depth. He said he fondly remembers them sharing books together. After Hawley was elected, and before he took office, Danforth wrote him a letter saying he had an opportunity to make a contribution in the U.
S. Senate. It was an opportunity to be what former U.
S. Sen. Pat Moynihan was in Danforth’s day — an intellectual who enriches the U.
S. Senate. “But he went there, and he laid an egg,” Danforth said.
“He wanted to play to the so-called base, he wanted to get on Fox News. He wanted to be a media personality, not an institutionalist. He painted himself into a corner, and that’s where I think he is in the Senate, the pariah.
He’s accomplished nothing legislatively, nothing. I don’t see that he ever will, because he’s detested by so many people, that’s my theory.” In a statement to the Globe, citing previous interviews he has given, Hawley countered Danforth’s view of his Senate career, and said he has accomplished much by working across the aisle, including with some of the most liberal senators.
Hawley cited his push for more COVID-19-era stimulus checks with U.S. Sen.
Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and partnering with U.S.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on regulating artificial intelligence.
He also noted that he voted with Democrats to maintain a Biden administration National Labor Relations Board rule, something he said the rest of his party saw as amounting to overly burdensome red tape for employers. “I’m forthrightly trying to push my own party toward being more pro-labor, more pro-worker in general,” Hawley said in an interview with Punchbowl News on Oct. 4.
“And part of my strategy is finding willing partners across the aisle. ..
. You learn things in the process that I think makes me better at my job.” Kunce did not respond to a Globe request for comment.
Danforth asserts reasonable people can disagree on policy, just as he disagrees with Hawley on support for NATO and Ukraine. But he claims Hawley’s objection to the 2020 presidential results constituted an attack on the U.S.
Constitution, and on Jan. 7, 2021, Danforth gave an interview in which he said supporting Hawley was the worst mistake he made in his life. For his part, Danforth said it’s important to support Young not as some kind of surrogate against Hawley but as encouragement for voters to make a statement.
“That statement is very important, and a lot of people feel it in their gut, but they don’t know what to do about it,” Danforth said. “Voting for Jared is something to do about it. The statement is politics has gone off the rails, and both parties are responsible for it.
We’ve got to put the system back together.” Young said it’s meaningful to have Danforth’s endorsement because he represents the type of leadership missing in the U.S.
Senate right now, and that Danforth represents a conservative with conservative principles, but someone who is civil and measured and respectful. Young said that’s a summation of his campaign for Senate. Young said his goal isn't to topple the two-party system but to bring the two parties back to a place of reasonableness and civility, and that can only be accomplished by independent outsiders coming in.
William Delehanty, professor of international and political affairs at Missouri Southern State University, said some may argue that third parties are spoilers, and that it splits off votes going to one of the two main parties. He maintains third parties serve as information signals to the two major parties. If an issue emerges that the two parties haven’t dealt with, or dealt with it only marginally, the third party taking on this issue signals that two parties are going to have to address it.
“Voting for third parties from some points of view is wasted because maybe it doesn’t directly impact the outcome,” Delehanty said. “But it surely is genuine in the sense that a person can make their interests known and because third parties serve this information function. It indirectly helps to organize and direct broader political parties who have a much more significant impact on policy.
” Young said he decided to run for the U.S. Senate because an independent could potentially make an impact in a divided branch.
Like U.S. Sen.
Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., he could serve as an influential swing vote to act as a free agent in the best interest of Missouri.
Young said that abortion and immigration are two issues where the current positions of the Republican and Democratic parties are not working. Immigration is a passion point for Young, an issue where there is broad consensus among voters but where progress isn’t made because of partisan gamesmanship. In Young’s view, most Americans recognize two truths about immigration: There is a need for a secure border and also a need for legal immigrants, for our economy and culture.
His goal is to craft policy that acknowledges both of those truths. He said he supports measures to strengthen border security, tighten asylum laws and invest more in technology and infrastructure to prevent illegal entry. He also supports measures to make it easier for ambitious and hardworking people to come to the United States legally and a path to citizenship for adults who were brought to this country illegally as children.
Young said he is a "pro-lifer, believing every abortion is a tragedy," but he also said he thinks the anti-abortion cause has does itself a disservice by taking an uncompromising approach. Young said he is opposed to Amendment 3, which he thinks goes too far, but he also believes current Missouri law is too strict. Amendment 3, which will be on the November ballot, would legalize abortion in a state that was the first to outlaw it after Roe v.
Wade fell. For him, there is a need for compromise on the issue. Young’s ideal place to settle is at 15-week ban with appropriate exceptions for the life of the mother and rape and incest.
Further, the states should be the decision-makers, not the federal government. “If we can’t sit down and disagree productively with each other, and talk to each other, we will not solve the problems,” Young said. “We’re only going to end up with bigger and bigger problems.
” One of Young’s goals with the Better Party is to surpass 2% of the vote, which will keep the party established in Missouri. He said polling is currently telling Young they are well above that mark. For Young, now resting at home with his family for the weekend before resuming the campaign trail, that 2% is a consolation prize.
His goal is to win the election, or a strong enough showing that it’s a wake-up call to both parties. He believes November’s vote will show how many people are dissatisfied with the status quo. Two other third-party candidates are on the ballot for U.
S. Senate in Missouri this year — Nathan Kline with the Green Party and W.C.
Young with the Libertarian Party..
