File photo The New York Times
Jason Kander has done what many didn’t really believe he could do: made the Senate race in Missouri, which should have been a comfortable coast for incumbent Roy Blunt, competitive.
By now, his remarkable background has become somewhat familiar around Missouri. He attended American University and after 9/11 enlisted in the Army National Guard. He earned his law degree at Georgetown, then volunteered for a 4-month tour of Afghanistan where he served as a lieutenant. In 2008 he was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives; he won re-election two years later. In 2012, at age 30, Kander won election to Missouri secretary of state becoming the youngest elected state official in the country. In February 2015 he announced that he would challenge seek the Democratic nomination for Senate and challenge incumbent Roy Blunt, patriarch of the family lobbying business.
And so here we are.
Since entering the race as an underdog, Kander is now in a virtual tie with Blunt.
Lots of hard work, meet and greets, knocking on doors and talking to folks have gotten him to this point.
Wearing out the boot leather walking around Missouri
Latest polls (Talking Point Memo’s Polltracker):
Average:
Jason Kander: 43.3
Roy Blunt: 44
Monmouth (10/9-10/11)
Kander: 44
Blunt: 46
Emerson (9/11-9/13)
Kander: 42
Blunt: 40
As Steve Kraske wrote in today’s Kansas City Star, there is a lot of good news for Kander:
A poll out this week showed him within two points of Blunt — and the wind’s at Kander’s back. He just outraised Blunt in the third quarter by $1.2 million. Donald Trump is floundering. His lead is dropping in Missouri, and that’s significant because a big lead provides electoral security for Republicans up and down the ballot.
Now, Blunt is in serious trouble, and every leading Republican knows it.
This is astonishing stuff. Kander suddenly appears to be the right guy at the right moment. He’s a candidate with an outsider’s veneer, thanks in part to his youth. He inoculated himself against the GOP gun crusade by throwing a rifle together blindfolded in that TV ad, which now ranks as the spot of the year in American politics.
It put him on the map.
And Roy Blunt is just NOT HAVING
any more questioning about his full and complete support for self-avowed sexual predator Donald J. Trump:
“Other people”.
“This is not what we ought to be talking about," said Blunt, who is in tough re-election fight. "There are big issues to be faced in the country. What President (Bill) Clinton may have been accused of, or what other people may be accused of, I don't think should be the topic.”
And now THIS from The Georgetowner, Blunt’s “hometown newspaper”:
A possible upset in the making is in Missouri. Jason Kander, the young veteran of the Afghan War, is making Georgetown resident Sen. Roy Blunt very nervous.
Watch Jason’s viral “Background Checks” ad:
Follow Jason: @jasonkander
Help Jason Kander join Claire McCaskill representing Missouri in the Senate!
CONTRIBUTE to Jason Kander
The thing that I tell you now It may not go over well And it may not be photo-op In the way that I spell it out
But you won't hear from the messenger, Don't wanna know bout something that you don't understand, You got no fear of the underdog, That's why you will not survive!
