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Jared Young (Missouri)
Jared Young (Better Party) ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Missouri. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Young completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Jared Young earned a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in 2010 and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 2014. [1]
Elections
2024
See also: United States Senate election in Missouri, 2024
General election
General election for U.S. Senate Missouri
The following candidates ran in the general election for U.S. Senate Missouri on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Josh Hawley (R) | 55.6 | 1,651,907 |
 | Lucas Kunce (D) | 41.8 | 1,243,728 | |
| W. C. Young (L) | 1.2 | 35,671 | ||
 | Jared Young (Better Party)  | 0.7 | 21,111 | |
 | Nathan Kline (G) | 0.7 | 20,123 | |
 | Gina Bufe (Independent) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 19 | |
| Total votes: 2,972,559 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Zack Exley (Independent)
- Doris Canaday (Socialist Equality Party)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Missouri
Lucas Kunce defeated Karla May, December Harmon, and Mita Biswas in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Missouri on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Lucas Kunce | 67.6 | 255,775 |
 | Karla May | 23.2 | 87,908 | |
 | December Harmon | 7.1 | 26,804 | |
 | Mita Biswas | 2.0 | 7,647 | |
| Total votes: 378,134 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Wesley Bell (D)
- Samuel Rutherford (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. Senate Missouri
Incumbent Josh Hawley advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. Senate Missouri on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Josh Hawley | 100.0 | 607,602 |
| Total votes: 607,602 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Libertarian primary election
Libertarian primary for U.S. Senate Missouri
W. C. Young advanced from the Libertarian primary for U.S. Senate Missouri on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | W. C. Young | 100.0 | 2,437 | |
| Total votes: 2,437 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jared Young completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Young's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Extreme, uncompromising voices on both sides of the political spectrum have hijacked our leadership and our policymaking, leaving most Americans—the moderate majority—feeling unrepresented, dissatisfied, and pessimistic about the direction of the nation.
- The inability of the two major parties to work together constructively has led to political gridlock, leaving urgent issues unaddressed, wasting precious taxpayer money, and leaving people frustrated with lack of productive progress by our political leaders.
- Change by well-intentioned politicians from inside the two major parties has mostly failed. As an independent, Jared will be able to focus on leading efforts to find moderate solutions to key issues such as immigration, economic progress, public safety, and election reform.
Election Reform: Partisan fearmongering has caused most people to lose faith in our electoral system. We must adopt policies that ensure the integrity of our elections while also allowing every eligible voter to easily cast a ballot. We must also reign in the partisan gerrymandering that worsens our country’s polarization.
Public Safety: We must stop villainizing our brave police forces and instead provide them with the resources and training they need to do their jobs better. To address growing threats from abroad, we must shore up our military strength and refocus the military on its core values, while at the same time holding the Defense Department and their defense contractors accountable for wasteful spending.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Young’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
National Unity Missouri is an incredibly diverse state. We come from different backgrounds and have a wide variety of opinions. When our system is working correctly, our diversity is one of our greatest strengths. We’re able to have spirited debates about issues, test a variety of approaches and solutions, and stick with the ones that work. Most of our current elected politicians and party bosses have abandoned this strength. Instead of seeking to unify us and remind us of our common interests and goals, they seek to tear us apart by purposefully employing extremist rhetoric. They use hatred and anger as tools to scare us into voting party lines thereby achieving their desired political aims. This results in a lack of movement in Congress on key issues that Americans need solved. We need leaders who reject these “us against them” tactics and instead seek to unite us to work together to tackle our country’s complex problems. That is why more American voters now identify as independents than as members of either major party. The path to real substantive change is electing capable, qualified, independent candidates. Independent politicians inherently have more voting power and bring people together to have a large enough coalition to drive solutions for the people they represent. Defending our Constitutional System Abortion I have listened to and understand the feelings of many good people who think my position is too strict or perhaps not strict enough. I believe it is counterproductive when we demonize those who stand on the other side of the abortion debate; i.e., we cannot and should not paint pro-abortion advocates as murderers, nor should we paint anti-abortion advocates as control-hungry woman-haters. While I believe a 15-week ban is the best compromise solution, I also believe policy-making on this emotional and divisive issue should be done at the state level by duly-elected state legislators who listen carefully to women and healthcare providers, or decided by the voters themselves through the initiative process. Abortion policies should match the values of a given state’s voters, not be forced on them by the federal government or the courts. Gun Rights We should also be willing to critically examine other aspects of our society that may be contributing to a culture of violence, such as violent video games, music, TV shows, and movies. Immigration
The current state of the border, where millions of people are coming into the country without us knowing who they are or why they’re here, is unacceptable. We must secure our border. We should be humane, but we should also be wise. I support measures that will strengthen our border security and stem the tide of migrants, including tightening our asylum laws, increasing the number of immigration judges so we can process asylum cases more quickly, and investing more in technology and infrastructure to prevent illegal entry. At the same time, legal immigrants are vital to both our culture and our national economy. With hundreds of thousands of baby boomers retiring and our national birth rate steadily declining, we will not be able to consistently grow our economy without legal immigrants. I support measures that will make it easier for smart, ambitious, and hard-working people from all over the world to come to the United States legally. I support a path to citizenship for adults who were brought to this country illegally as children. It’s not their fault they were brought here illegally. If they have grown up here and have become productive members of society, they deserve a path to citizenship. My heart breaks when I hear politicians demonizing immigrants. Most of us are descendants of immigrants. The majority of them are people like you and me who are simply trying to find a path to a better life, just like our ancestors. National Debt, Taxes, and Government Spending Our national debt has exploded over the past two decades. The Federal government now spends more than $400 billion a year just on interest payments. Social Security is quickly approaching insolvency. But we still have time to act before disaster strikes. If we elect leaders with real political courage—people who put the country’s future over their own political careers—we can implement a plan to stabilize America’s finances, save Social Security, and begin reducing our crippling national debt. Election Integrity/Voting Rights However, those integrity measures should be combined with other policies to ensure all eligible voters who want to vote are able to do so without undue hardship. I support early voting and mail-in ballots, as long as those policies are carefully crafted to prevent abuse and fraud. I also support measures that proactively help citizens acquire IDs and ensure that people don’t have to wait in long lines to cast their ballots. Public Safety At the same time, we should do more to make sure police officers are properly trained to avoid violence when possible, and we must hold police accountable when they misuse their power and abuse the law. Transgender Issues I am also opposed to biological males participating in women’s sports. I believe it is unfair to female athletes and threatens to undermine the outstanding progress we’ve made in women’s sports over the past several decades. Free Market/Government Regulation When the government gets involved in regulating the economy, it almost always results in unintended consequences. Government intervention should be carefully limited to address specific issues. With that in mind, I oppose across-the-board tariffs and government price controls. I also believe our current regulatory regime is hopelessly complex and should be restructured to ensure that it’s effective and efficient. Free Speech Welfare The ultimate goal of public assistance should be to help individuals achieve self-reliance. Government is often not the best vehicle to deliver the needed assistance. There are many non-profit organizations that provide services that effectively meet local needs. We as citizens, in partnership with our government, should find more ways to support those efforts. The Environment I also believe climate change is a real and important phenomenon that should be accounted for as we plan for the future. However, I reject the narrative that we face imminent catastrophe if we don’t take extreme action on the climate. We should work toward a sustainable future where we end our reliance on fossil fuels. Government subsidies can have a role to play in helping us achieve that transition, but we need to carefully weigh the costs and benefits of proposed “climate” policies and reject apocalyptic groupthink. National Security I believe it is in our country’s best interest to continue to play a strong role in supporting and defending the world order that has served us so well since the end of World War II. Russia, China, Iran, and other totalitarian regimes around the world are interested in upending that order. We need to firmly stand up to these regimes and repel their expansionist actions. With that in mind, I support continued aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. This will require increased investment in our military so we can be prepared to meet these growing threats. I recognize and respect concerns over both the power and inefficiency of the “military industrial complex.” We certainly need to better manage military spending and the business practices of our defense contractors. I also acknowledge that most of us are worn out by our decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and wary of new commitments. But I believe the costs of retreating into isolationism will be far greater than the costs of investing in our military right now. The surest path to a peaceful world is a strong United States and strong U.S. allies. Democratic Reforms |
” |
| —Jared Young’s campaign website (2024)[3] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 18, 2023
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Jared Young’s campaign website, “Issues,” accessed October 21, 2024
