A U.S. Senate candidate seeking to create a new party to bridge political divisions on Thursday enlisted the state’s senior former officeholder to help put a spotlight on his campaign.

Jared Young, a Joplin businessman who petitioned to form the Better Party, toured the state with former U.S. Sen. Jack Danforth, a Republican who was also Missouri attorney general and ambassador to the United Nations.

Young is running against Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, who has the same seat Danforth held from 1977 to 1995, Democratic nominee Lucas Kunce as well as Green Party candidate Nathan Kllne and Libertarian Party nominee W.C. Young.

Young is trying to draw disaffected Republicans, independents and moderate Democrats to his banner of the Better Party.

Polling he did in 2023 convinced him an independent candidate had a fighting chance, Young said.

“Hawley is shockingly unpopular for an incumbent Republican in a red state,” Young said.

Danforth, one of Hawley’s earliest boosters, broke with his Republican protégé after the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, calling that early support the “worst mistake of my life” and saying on a podcast that it is “what Dr. Frankenstein must have felt.”

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During a joint interview with the candidate Thursday, Danforth said Young represents a reasonable, results-oriented approach to politics.

The Republican Party once adhered to the principles of controlling the national debt and backing a strong national defense in protection of powers threatened by force, Danforth said. 

“The political system is broken, and my party, both parties, have gravitated toward the fringes,” Danforth said. “But my party, especially the MAGA version, has thrown overboard every principle that the Republican Party stood for, for decades, generations.”

The national debt is $35 trillion and during the Trump administration, Danforth said, it increased 40%.

“Under a Republican president,” Danforth said. “Nobody cares.”

Hawley, Danforth said, disqualified himself as a serious legislator on Jan. 6, 2021.

“He went on national television and he said, ‘this is going to be decided on January 6.’ He knew that that was not true, knew it, and he said it anyway,” Danforth said. “And then he went out front, convened, and he exhorted a mob, knowing that he couldn’t accomplish anything other than convene the mob and exhort the mob.”

The nation deserved an apology from Hawley after the riots, Young said.

“He just sat back and he waited to see which way the political winds were blowing, and as soon as he decided that actually this is politically advantageous to lean into this, he was all in on it and now he sells mugs with his fist raised to the mob,” Young said.

Hawley’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Young and Danforth’s criticisms.

Young is one of the best-funded independent candidate in Missouri in recent political history, using $765,000 of his own money and $164,000 raised from donors to finance his campaign. But he’s not registered in any of the polls conducted in the race.

He’s helping Young but not to the extent he did in 2022 when Danforth created a PAC with $5 million to run ads backing independent candidate John Wood. That effort fizzled when Wood withdrew from the race after now-Sen. Eric Schmitt won the Republican primary.

Young had about $465,000 on hand on July 17, while Hawley had $5.8 million and Kunce had $4.2 million. Since then, Hawley has spent $3.3 million on television advertising and Kunce has spent $5.3 million, according to tracking of FCC reports by The Independent. 

A PAC called Show Me Strong has spent another $1.6 million on television ads backing Hawley, but it is the only significant non-candidate spending in the race.

Danforth has opened a network for fundraising, Young said, and he’s working to bring “similarly big names that are disenchanted Republicans that don’t like Josh Hawley to come and join us in the state.”

He knows that it is a longshot race.

“The challenge is just making sure every voter knows who Jared Young is and what I stand for, and I’m comfortable with losing the election if everyone knows about me and they just decide, no, this is not what we want,” he said.

Young, 38, was educated at Brigham Young University, graduating in 2010, and Harvard Law, graduating in 2014. He worked for a year at a Washington, D.C. law firm.

He realized he didn’t want to practice law, Young said, and accepted a job in Joplin at Employer Advantage, a benefits administrator for businesses, where he became CEO. He led the company through an acquisition in 2022 and has been working on the campaign since mid-2023. 

The main message he’s hearing, Young said, is that people want a government that isn’t caught up in endless gridlock.

“We’re so exhausted, so frustrated, so disgusted with the direction and the tone of our national politics,” Young said. “But every election, it seems to be getting worse instead of better, and nobody’s stepping up to say, look, we need something completely different.”

Kunce is using the same playbook as Hawley in his campaign, Young said.

“Now you play anger, you insult, you focus on making them hate Hawley,” Young said. “And so what was his very first thing when he started his campaign? Josh Hawley is a fraud and a coward. Josh Hawley is a fraud and a coward. Josh Hawley’s a fraud and a coward. Now it’s more of Josh Hawley is a creepy weirdo.

“It’s not substance, and people are just so exhausted by it,” Young said.

Kunce’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Young said he would back Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford’s bipartisan bill to bolster border security, worked out in prolonged negotiations but scuttled by the opposition of former President Donald Trump. 

He said he opposes any attempt to make abortion policy at the national level. He also opposes Amendment 3, the Missouri ballot measure that would guarantee the right to an abortion in the state constitution.

“I’m a moderate pro-lifer,” Young said. “I believe that every abortion is a tragedy, but that we do ourselves a disservice as the pro-life cause when we take an uncompromising all or nothing approach.”

The annual deficit in government spending can only be closed with a combination of tax increases and cuts, Young said. 

“You can’t do a level of cuts that would make a difference, that would be palatable to the people,” Young said.

During the only debate of the campaign, held at the Missouri Press Association convention last month, Hawley called for the U.S. to cut off aid to Ukraine, which has been on the defensive in a war with Russia since February 2022. Young was on stage that day, as were Kunce and Kline. 

He disagreed with Hawley that day and said Thursday it is essential the aid continue.

“It is in our strategic interest, and it’s our moral duty to be supporting Ukraine,” Young said.

Danforth’s sense that Hawley failed in his duty and his role in promoting Hawley to power makes his opposition to the incumbent a personal matter. 

Hawley is a graduate of Yale Law School and clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts, Danforth noted. He taught constitutional law at the University of Missouri before winning office.

Hawley is smarter than the politician he plays on TV, Danforth said.

“Members of the Senate are more performers than institutionalists, and they’re performers to get themselves on TV, on MSNBC or Fox News,” Danforth said. “And the way to do that is to be the most outrageous person you can be.”

If he doesn’t win, Young could establish the Better Party for future elections by winning more than 2% of the vote. For the next two election cycles, candidates could run for any partisan office on the party’s ticket, a right that would be extended if it continues meeting the 2% threshold.

“One of the biggest hurdles for independents is they have to expend so many resources just to get on the ballot,” he said, “and they already are resource-poor candidates. It puts them way behind the ball right from the start.”