Sick of the Democratic and Republican parties? This MO Senate candidate wants a new one

Jared Young has to collect 10,000 signatures if he wants to get on the ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri.

That’s the same number of signatures that it takes to get a slate of candidates for a political party onto the ballot.

So Young, a former businessman running for Senate, decided to combine the two. On Wednesday, he announced the creation of a new political party: The Better Party.

“I felt like, if I was going to use all these resources, I might as well do it in a way that would not just benefit me, but would benefit other people looking to do the same thing that I’m trying to do,” Young said. “Which is provide a viable alternative to our broken two party system.”

There are other political parties than just the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Libertarian Party, which leans right, frequently gets candidates onto the ballot, as does the Green Party, which leans left.

No Labels, a new national centrist group seeking to provide an alternative candidate to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election, was officially recognized as a political party by the Kansas Secretary of State in January.

But Young, who is hoping to defeat Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said he has no national aspirations for his party. He isn’t proposing a specific platform or trying to create party infrastructure like the Forward Party, a centrist group founded in 2021 by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

Instead, Young sees the Better Party as a vehicle to help get moderate, independent candidates onto the ballot in Missouri. If his party is able to get at least 2% of the vote in a statewide election, it would guarantee a spot on the ballot over the next two years, which would save independent candidates from having to collect signatures.

“There are tons of obstacles for independents to run a successful race,” Young said. “And one of the first obstacles is they have to take their limited resources and spend a huge chunk of them just getting on the ballot. And so I’m looking to eliminate that first big obstacle for independents. So they can focus from the beginning, on just getting their message out to voters.”

The name “Better Party” comes from Young’s own Senate campaign. He argues that the majority of Missourians are frustrated with the two political parties and that “we can be better” than the current state of politics by electing someone who isn’t beholden to either.

Polling, commissioned by former Sen. Jack Danforth in 2022 may back up Young’s argument. The survey, by the Serve America Movement, found that 83% of Missourians believed that politics had become too toxic and 28% said they’d support an independent, center-right candidate, compared to 31% for a generic Democrat or Republican.

But while voters often say that they are willing to support independent candidates, they’re rarely elected. And while Hawley may be a nationally polarizing figure, he remains popular in Missouri. A March poll by St. Louis University and YouGov found that 50% of Missourians either approved or strongly approved of Hawley.

“One of the reasons people struggle to vote for an independent is because they feel like there’s not a viable path to victory,” Young said. “They feel like they might be throwing away their vote. But this gives people another reason to vote for me, or vote for another independent this year. It will establish an easier path for more independents to be on the ballot in the future in Missouri.”

Young expects to gather the 10,000 signatures to get on the ballot by early Summer and said there may be one or two other candidates under the Better Party label.

As of right now, the highest office on the ticket would be Young, for U.S. Senate but if No Labels, which is trying to find a candidate to run against Biden and Trump, were to approach him about using Better Party to get on the ballot in Missouri, he’d be open to a conversation.

“The goal is to have quality independent candidates for Missouri voters to be able to choose from, not just any Dick or Jane that walks up and says they want to be a part of it,” Young said.