WASHINGTON — John Wood, the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, Wednesday officially entered the U.S. Senate race in Missouri, adding an independent candidate to an already crowded field of congressional hopefuls.
As of last Friday, Wood, 52, was still living and working in Washington, D.C., serving as a senior investigative counsel for the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In the time since then, he has found an apartment in Kansas City, enrolled his two children in school for this fall and registered to vote in Jackson County. He will soon begin collecting the 10,000 signatures he needs from Missouri voters by Aug. 1.
“This is a unique time, and we’re extremely divided,” Wood said. “And I think that not only is the country divided, but the division and the polarization is more evident in this Missouri Senate race than anywhere else.”
Wood is a Republican. If he wins, he will caucus with Republicans. He considers himself right-of-center, the type of Republican who was common in the party prior to the rise of former President Donald Trump. He called Ronald Reagan one of his political heroes. He believes the U.S. Supreme Court was right in its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and would have voted for the bipartisan gun deal that passed Congress last week.
But he thinks the Republican candidates in the race are too extreme and he doesn’t want the state to elect a Democrat that would vote for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and support President Joe Biden’s agenda.
It was the video by former Gov. Eric Greitens, in which the Republican front-runner carried a shotgun and called for hunting down his political opponents, that tipped Wood over the edge.
Wood believes the Republican Party is going to nominate Greitens, but he will continue to run even if the party nominates the other major candidates — Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, U.S. Rep. Billy Long, state Sen. Dave Schatz or St. Louis attorney Mark McCloskey.
“I’m in it to win,” Wood said.
That may prove difficult. Traditionally, non-affiliated candidates have struggled in elections. They lack the party infrastructure of the two major political parties and struggle to build a large enough coalition to win. Wood points to polling commissioned by former U.S. Sen. John Danforth that found a generic independent candidate would get 28% of the vote compared to 31% for both a generic Republican and a generic Democrat.
Wood served as staffer for Danforth from 1992 to 1993. He also worked as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from 1997 to 1998. He went on to serve in a variety of roles in President George W. Bush’s administration, culminating in his tenure as U.S. attorney in the Western District of Missouri from 2007 to 2009.
When talking about the type of Republican he would be in the U.S. Senate, he said he would follow in Danforth’s mold.
In an interview last week, Danforth said he was excited about the prospect of Wood joining the race.
“He’s bright, he’s experienced, he’s got a very good character,” Danforth said. “And he’s got all the qualities to be to stand out U.S. Senator.”
Danforth is running a super PAC, called Missouri Stands United, that will support Wood. It began running an ad on June 27 that shows Danforth talking to the camera, saying the country is too divided.
In a divided country, Wood may struggle to find a base. He said he expected that he wouldn’t get a majority of voters in Missouri, but might be able to get a plurality.
“I think that certainly there are going to be a lot of Republicans who find Eric Greitens, if he’s the nominee, to be unacceptable, and will support me,” Wood said. “I expect to do really well with moderates. And I think I’m going to get Democrats as well, either the more moderate, or even conservative Democrats, or just people who don’t like the extremes.”
