Nathan Kline

Nathan Kline (Green Party) ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Missouri. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Kline completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Nathan Kline was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He pursued his undergraduate education at the Kansas City Art Institute, the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and Penn Valley Community College. Kline's career experience includes working as an executive assistant to the director of City Planning and Development for the City of Kansas City, Missouri.^[1] He has also worked as a hospitality industry manager in hotels, catering, restaurants, and bars.^[2]

Elections

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
	Submit photo	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

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,972,559
= candidate completed 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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates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

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 378,134
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates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

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 607,602
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Christopher Murphy (R)

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
✔	Submit photo	W. C. Young	100.0	2,437

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,437
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Kline in this election.

2020

General election

General election for Missouri State Senate District 7

Greg Razer defeated Nathan Kline, Tiffany Poke, and Jorge Fuller in the general election for Missouri State Senate District 7 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Greg Razer (D)	82.1	70,586
		Nathan Kline (G)	17.9	15,383
	Submit photo	Tiffany Poke (Independent) (Write-in)	0.0	9
	Submit photo	Jorge Fuller (Independent) (Write-in)	0.0	9

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 85,987
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Missouri State Senate District 7

Greg Razer defeated Michael Brown in the Democratic primary for Missouri State Senate District 7 on August 4, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Greg Razer	69.0	21,042
	Submit photo	Michael Brown	31.0	9,456

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 30,498 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Green primary election

Green primary for Missouri State Senate District 7

Nathan Kline advanced from the Green primary for Missouri State Senate District 7 on August 4, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Nathan Kline	100.0	46

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 46 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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2018

General election

General election for Jackson County Executive

Incumbent Frank White Jr. defeated Nathan Kline in the general election for Jackson County Executive on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Frank White Jr. (D)	72.6	94,521
		Nathan Kline (G)	26.7	34,811
		Other/Write-in votes	0.7	886

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 130,218 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Jackson County Executive

Incumbent Frank White Jr. defeated Matthew Merryman and Jeremy Raines in the Democratic primary for Jackson County Executive on August 7, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Frank White Jr.	68.4	55,586
	Submit photo	Matthew Merryman	21.1	17,133
	Submit photo	Jeremy Raines	10.5	8,513

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 81,232
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Green primary election

Green primary for Jackson County Executive

Nathan Kline defeated Richard Charles Tolbert in the Green primary for Jackson County Executive on August 7, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Nathan Kline	62.8	199
	Submit photo	Richard Charles Tolbert	37.2	118

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 317
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

Nathan Kline completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kline's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am running as the Green Party candidate to be the next Senator from Missouri. I am a lifelong resident of Kansas City, MO and a long-time homeowner in the Plaza-Westport neighborhood. A graduate of Kansas City Art Institute, I am a dedicated public servant and creative problem solver who has a strong and varied background in both the public and private sector, management and administration. With twenty-five years of hospitality management experience, I brought my skill set to the public sector in 2013 to work for the City Planning and Development Department of the City of Kansas City, MO where I am currently honored to help serve my city and its citizens. I have been a supporter of the Green Party since the 1996 Ralph Nader campaign for president after finally coming to the realization that the two corporate parties are irredeemably corrupt. Having run as a Green Party candidate previously for Jackson County, MO Executive in 2018 and for MO Senate District 7 in 2020, I currently serve as Outreach Officer for the Green Party of Kansas City, MO. As an avid student of history, political science, economics, philosophy and the arts, I continually seek to bridge the gap between theory and practice to achieve a sustainable, just and peaceful society. I believe that the Green Party, is the only political party in the US that is not wholly captured by corporations & billionaires that has the ballot status necessary to achieve these goals.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Democracy: Americans across the political spectrum know that our democracy has long been sold out to the highest bidders. Neither of the two corporate parties, who built the pay-to-play political system together in this country, are going to reform it. At this point, we are the only country in the world that allows for the full, legalized bribery of our elected officials. Only a mass political movement that offers candidates that refuse to take corporate money, and inspires Americans to vote only for those corporate-free candidates, can resurrect American democracy from the grave that the Democrats and Republicans have buried it in. There is only one such political movement in this country today and that is the Green Party.
Sustainability: We must stop burning fossil fuels. Renewable energy is gaining a market foothold, but they will never replace the energy produced by fossil fuels. As renewable energy has grown, so has the burning of fossil fuels due to our insatiable growth-based economy. We must transition to a degrowth economy in which we use much less energy so as to live in balance with the natural world. It is a myth that Democrats are better than Republicans on this most important issue. Both Biden and Obama issued more new drilling permits per year than Trump. We must replace both of these fossil fuel funded parties with good ancestors who will put the welfare of future generations ahead of the short-term profits of billionaire sociopaths.
Foreign Policy: Democrats & Republicans have one answer to every foreign policy challenge. Whatever makes their weapons manufacturing donors the most money. They divide any conflict into good guys & evil doers (it’s never that simple), give LOTS of high tech weapons to the “good guys” who wreak havoc until we get sick of it. We then act like it never happened. Usually the “evil doers” take control of their destroyed country, after we’ve wasted billions of dollars, leaving us not enough to invest in our real priorities. We have 800+ foreign military bases. No other country has five. Empires rot from the inside as they spend their energy on unnecessary war while the homeland withers. The Green Party is the only party of peace & negotiation.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Wealth: 30 years ago, the middle class had twice the wealth of the top 1%. Now the top 1% has more than the middle.

Health Care: We pay twice the cost per person than any county for health care but often have worse outcomes.
Education: Many countries guarantee higher education. We import 140,000 professionals per year from abroad due to failing to invest in education.
Housing: We have largely stopped providing affordable housing. Speculators are allowed to set housing prices & availability, pricing out working families.

Democrats & Republicans maintain the failed status quo as their wealthy donors profit from it. The Green Party will redistribute wealth & make health care, higher education & housing human rights for all.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Of the many role models, both historical and current that I could choose to emulate at this time, I choose Abraham Lincoln as that model. Lincoln and his allies confronted a great moral challenge to our nation. The moral challenge was slavery. This moral abomination had been allowed to fester under the misrule of an ossified two party system. Lincoln and his allies found a way to innovate and bring to prominence a new political party to confront and overturn (at least formally) slavery, and in the process revolutionized the political status quo forever. The Democratic Party and the Whig Party had failed to do what needed to be done to end slavery and Lincoln saw that they probably never would. He saw that a new political party was necessary to upend this immoral status quo. He know that it would not be an easy task for an upstart party to accomplish this goal, but he knew that it was the only way forward. He was right.

We now find ourselves in a very similar conundrum. Neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican party have done, or are prepared to do, what must be done to confront the great moral challenge of our day, That moral challenge is the Climate Crisis. Climate scientists have been warning us for at least 40 years that our growth based, fossil fuel powered human economy was unsustainable and that if we did not profoundly change our way of life to come back into balance with the natural world, that there would be no more future for our descendants in the very near future.

Due to the Democrats and Republicans taking billions of dollars in campaign donations (read: bribes) from the fossil fuel industry neither has done anything significant to transition from fossil fuels despite the existential threat this inaction poses to all future generations. Just as Lincoln and his allies found that only a new political party could break out of immoral inaction in his day, we in the Green Party have the courage to do what is necessary in ours.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The first world historical event that I have a firm memory of happening at the time of its occurrence was the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. I would have been 6 years old at the time. I remember distinctly setting in our family living room with my father watching the evening news when the newscaster announced the fall of Saigon and the effective end of the war. I remember my father's reaction to be one of sober relief that this terrible episode in US history had finally come to a close.

My father had served as a medical corpsman in theater earlier in the war. He was a conscientious objector that daily witnessed the horrors of the war in the mutilated bodies of US soldiers. He had, like thousands of Vietnam War veterans once returned stateside, joined the antiwar movement. He was thoughtful and careful in the lessons that he taught me and my siblings about war, but always honest and forthright. I learned that war is always a mistake and that pouring more firepower on a bad situation very rarely or never makes it better.

It is a lesson that that our country has been slow to realize despite unfortunately having many later opportunities to learn it. At a time when our country has over 800 foreign military bases, as no other country has 5; it is way passed time that we try a different way to resolve conflicts other than to bomb them unrelentingly.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

As the son of working class parents I went to work just as soon as I was legally allowed to. At age 16 I went door to door in my neighborhood looking for work and was hired as a busboy at a local full service Mexican themed restaurant and bar. I worked there after school and on weekends full time for about a year and a half. In that time I ended up doing every job in building that was not a management position. I bused tables, hosted, waited tables, washed dishes, and cooked in the kitchen. Like all hospitality industry jobs it was physically demanding and required precise choreography and cooperation between staff members to provide high quality food, beverage, and service in a timely manner. I learned a lot from my coworkers and managers, both through positive and negative examples of what works and what does not.

What is your favorite book? Why?

I'm currently re-reading Henry David Thoreau's Waldon which is truly an amazing example of someone being way ahead of his time. Prior to the US civil war he sees the crisis that expansionist human civilization presents to both the natural world and to human fulfilment, long before almost anyone else does. The book is both a joy to read and a shockingly up to date warning of the dangers of casually overrunning and destroying everything that makes life worth living.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Bob Dylan's. A Hard Rain’s A‐gonna Fall. Wow, what a prescient warning of where we are heading that ends a defiantly hopeful rallying cry in the face of despair.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

The greatest challenge that humanity has ever faced, is human induced climate change. Six years ago the United Nations announced that humanity had 12 years to radically reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases or face civilizational collapse and potentially human extinction within just a few generations. Most climate scientists are not that optimistic, with a growing number worrying publicly that we may have already reached the point of no return.

To respond to this crisis almost every nation of the world agreed to reduce their carbon emissions to meet agreed upon goals in the Paris Climate Accord of 2015. This is a non-binding agreement with no enforcement mechanism, that no country is currently meeting their commitments to. The US in fact has rapidly continued to increase it's emissions every year except during the Covid-19 induced recession.

US emission reductions caused by the pandemic shutdowns were around 5%. These reductions were considerably below our 2020 Paris climate accord goal of 7.5% in reductions per year. The Accord then commits the US to the same 7.5% reductions each year for the rest of the 2020s. Thousands of PhD's in dozens of fields studying the climate agree that that these reductions are necessary for human civilization to have a chance to survive. Our challenge therefore is that we must voluntarily far exceed the reduction in economic activity that we saw during the pandemic worldwide for each year or face eminent catastrophe.

Our current growth-based capitalist economy is completely inappropriate to address these challenges and indeed has ignored the warnings of scientists for over 40 years. It is time for bold, visionary leadership that can imagine our path toward a peaceful, just, and sustainable future. Only the eco-socialist program of the Green Party is up to task. We can no longer ignore this reality. This is the most important decade in human history. Everything that we hold dear is a stake.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for senators to have previous experience in government or politics?

I think that it is beneficial for Senators to have a wide variety of experiences, only one of which is previous governmental or political experience. Currently, over 50% of US Senators are lawyers, while lawyers make up less than .05% of Americans. This is an example of a poor mix of experiential background that hampers the Senate from representing all Americans. The knowledge of experienced politicians can help better manage government, as they often have good functional understanding of the processes and organizational structures of the governmental bodies that they write the rules for. On the other hand that same experience can lock these leaders into being overly focused on how to optimize the current structures and processes, while not being able to see the necessity and opportunities to at crucial times overhaul and restructure these systems. The vision of new, less jaded leaders, who are focused on new visions of what government could do and how it could do it, is essential to push the boundaries of the possible. It is the tension (but cooperation) between these types of leaders that produces the best possible legislative bodies. We need both the old guard constantly challenging new ideas for functionality and the new idealistic faction pushing the organization to evolve to meet new challenges and grow so as to reflect the evolving desires and dreams of the citizens.

What kind of relationships would you build with other senators?

I'm sure that the other Senators would not be happy to have me around.

As a Green Party Senator, I would be a wildcard that would change the dynamic of any committee I served on very positively. Currently the two groups of corporate party representatives fight like dogs in public, but engage in almost identical immoral behavior behind the scenes. They both spend most of their time meeting with lobbyists, calling donors, and turning in bills written by their donors' legislation factories. They have colluded to make all of this immoral behavior legal and they do not call each other out on these and other behaviors that misserve the communities they should be serving. Their actual constituents are their wealthy campaign contributors.

Having a Green Party Senator in the room will make the process more uncomfortable for these politicians, as the dirty method of making legislation will be highlighted in an ongoing way, and a better, democratic alternative continually offered. At first the power of embarrassment should make the whole process work better for the public. Eventually, as the public gets behind the Clean Green Party option and more Green Party legislators are elected, these immoral behaviors will be made illegal again, taking money out of politics so that it works for communities and voters.

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

Kline’s campaign website stated the following:

“

In office, Nathan will be a champion for transforming our government into a conduit of the People’s will and a vehicle to better the lives of working Missourians, as opposed to a concierge service for the rich and well connected. This Green Party approach to governance includes:

Raising taxes on the obscenely wealthy and corporations to fully fund state services.

Reversing years of growing economic inequality by establishing a real living wage.

Stopping the endless wars overseas that have drained the treasury to bring those investments back home.

Investing in public education and employment in green infrastructure and efficiency, instead of prisons.

Providing public health care for all so that each of us is prepared for the next toothache or the next pandemic.

Together we can put an end to the profit-driven corporate takeover of health care, education, energy, and the rest of our economy that has failed us so dramatically. Help send Nathan to the US Senate so that our government finally acts to remedy the failures of the private sector.^[3]

”

—Nathan Kline’s campaign website (2024)^[4]

2020

Nathan Kline completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kline's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a lifelong resident of Kansas City, Missouri and a homeowner in the Plaza-Westport neighborhood for the last 26 years. A graduate of Kansas City Art Institute, I am a relentless worker and creative problem solver with a strong management and administration background in both the public and private sector. With 25 years of hospitality management experience, I brought my skill set to the public sector in 2013 to work for the City Planning and Development Department of the City of Kansas City, MO where I am currently dedicated to public service.

I have been a supporter of the Green Party since the 1996 Ralph Nader campaign for president after finally coming to the realization that the two corporate parties are irredeemably corrupt. My campaign for Jackson County, Missouri Executive in 2018 garnered over 34,000 votes as a Green Party candidate. I currently serving as the Outreach Officer for the Green Party of Kansas City, Missouri. As an avid student of history, political science, economics, philosophy and the arts, I continually seek to bridge the gap between theory and practice to achieve a sustainable, just and peaceful society. For me, the Green Party, as the only political party in the US that is not wholly captured by corporations and billionaires, is the only vehicle that can achieve these goals.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Addressing the existential crisis of global climate change. If we don't rapidly bring all human activity into balance with the natural environment, human civilization will collapse this century. All other priorities become irrelevant if we fail here.
Corruption. The complete capture of the corporate parties by rich campaign donors and corporations has been completed years ago. The current status quo of environmental degradation, profound income inequality, forever war, and broken regulatory oversight can only be tackled by a trailblazing party that is not for sale. The Green Party therefore is the only option for change.
Income/Power Imbalances. When the richest three Americans have more wealth than the bottom 50% of Americans it is way past due for a coordinated wealth redistribution program to transfer these hoarded resources to those most in need in the form of healthcare, education, basic income support, and other necessities of life.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

At this point the Democratic and Republican parties only represent large campaign contributors, not communities and voters. They are well paid to maintain the corporate status quo that is working so well for the rich (but not for us). Neither seriously addresses the multiple growing crises of climate change, entrenched racism, economic inequality, and lack of access to decent health care, education, and housing. The complete corporate takeover of the Democratic and Republican parties and thus our government has led to the private sector being able to hoard resources, driving working people into desperation unseen for generations. This has eliminated them as vehicles for the systematic changes that we must have today.

This situation has led to a revolutionary historical moment. The established status quo will not hold, so we find ourselves now at a crossroads. We will either build a vehicle for a political revolution that brings our government back into the hands of working Americans or our communities will deteriorate into civil conflict in which we all will lose. The Green Party has been building the revolutionary political vehicle that can steer us through these difficult times to a peaceful, just, and sustainable future. Only the Green Party refuses all corporate campaign donations and is made up of working people volunteering their time in an egalitarian movement to bring democracy to OUR country and rescue it from the Plutocracy that it has succumbed to.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Of the many role models, both historical and current that I could choose to emulate at this time, I choose Abraham Lincoln as that model. Lincoln and his allies confronted a great moral challenge to our nation. The moral challenge was slavery. This moral abomination had been allowed to fester under the misrule of an ossified two party system. Lincoln and his allies found a way to innovate and bring to prominence a new political party to confront and overturn (at least formally) slavery, and in the process revolutionized the political status quo forever. The Democratic Party and the Whig Party had failed to do what needed to be done to end slavery and Lincoln saw that they probably never would. He saw that a new political party was necessary to upend this immoral status quo. He know that it would not be an easy task for an upstart party to accomplish this goal, but he knew that it was the only way forward. He was right.

We now find ourselves in a very similar conundrum. Neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican party have done, or are prepared to do, what must be done to confront the great moral challenge of our day, That moral challenge is the Climate Crisis. Climate scientists have been warning us for at least 40 years that our growth based, fossil fuel powered human economy was unsustainable and that if we did not profoundly change our way of life to come back into balance with the natural world, that there would be no more future for our descendants in the very near future.

Due to the Democrats and Republicans taking billions of dollars in campaign donations (read: bribes) from the fossil fuel industry neither has done anything significant to transition from fossil fuels despite the existential threat this inaction poses to all future generations. Just as Lincoln and his allies found that only a new political party could break out of immoral inaction in his day, we in the Green Party have the courage to do what is necessary in ours.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Elected officials most need to be able to be able to bridge the gap between where we are now and where we want to go. This is a relatively rare characteristic. Most elected officials are either focused on maximizing the efficiency and functionality of the current organizational resources and goals or they are idealistic champions of a world that could be. One is stuck in the current status quo and although they are often able to make the best of it, they usually are unable to transcend the limitations inherent in any set of circumstances. The other recognizes these limitations, and although often can imagine better, has difficulty bringing these dreams to reality because they are generally uninterested in how large organizations function and are organized.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Most currently elected Missouri Senators, spend most of their time hustling money from wealthy campaign donors and meeting with their lobbyists. They are in continuous campaign mode and are not focused on doing the People's business. Instead they need to be focused on their constituents and serve as a conduit for their concerns and aspirations. They simultaneously need to be leaders and teachers that encourage citizen engagement with the processes of government as much more than a spectator sport. They need to create excitement around ideas to make government more responsive to the needs of citizens and communities and be able to articulate those potentials into legislation that creates even more anticipation for positive change.

What legacy would you like to leave?

The legacy that all of must now endeavor to leave now, is to leave any legacy at all. The global climate crisis threatens all life on earth. Human civilization is at a crossroads. We will either undergo voluntarily the most profound transformation of human society and economy ever undertaken within the next ten years, bringing ourselves into sustainable balance with the natural world, or everything that we cherish will be lost. The climate scientists have been warning us for decades and we have been ignoring them. This has brought us to the edge of oblivion with a lot of momentum going in the wrong direction.

Hopefully, future generations will look back on our time and celebrate the profound transformations that we were able make that led to the building of a just, peaceful, and sustainable human society. At this point, it can be hard to identify the headwaters of the channels that could carry us to those calmer waters, but they are within and around us. We all must find these channels and strengthen them. The Green Party is one of those channels.

We live in a society that currently encourages short-sighted vanity and a fashionable cynicism that teaches us that there is nothing that we can do about the state of the world. I believe that as we come to grips with the scale of the crisis that we face that we will transcend this narcissistic navel gazing and focus on our responsibilities to future generations and all of all fellow earthlings that are at our mercy. I believe that we all do the right thing.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The first world historical event that I have a firm memory of happening at the time of it's occurrence was the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. I would have been 6 years old at the time. I remember distinctly setting in our family living room with my father watching the evening news when the newscaster announced the fall of Saigon and the effective end of the war. I remember my father's reaction to be one of sober relief that this terrible episode in US history had finally come to a close.

My father had served as a medical corpsman in theater earlier in the war. He was a conscientious objector that daily witnessed the horrors of the war in the mutilated bodies of US soldiers. He had, like thousands of Vietnam War veterans once returned stateside, joined the antiwar movement. He was thoughtful and careful in the lessons that he taught me and my siblings about war, but always honest and forthright. I learned that war is always a mistake and that pouring more firepower on a bad situation very rarely or never makes it better.

It is a lesson that that our country has been slow to realize despite unfortunately having many later opportunities to learn it. At a time when our country has over 800 foreign military bases, as no other country has 5; it is way passed time that we try a different way to resolve conflicts other than to bomb them unrelentingly.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

As the son of working class parents I went to work just as soon as I was legally allowed to. At age 16 I went door to door in my neighborhood looking for work and was hired as a busboy at a local full service Mexican themed restaurant and bar. I worked there after school and on weekends full time for about a year and a half. In that time I ended up doing every job in building that was not a management position. I bused tables, hosted, waited tables, washed dishes, and cooked in the kitchen. Like all hospitality industry jobs it was physically demanding and required precise choreography and cooperation between staff members to provide high quality food, beverage, and service in a timely manner. I learned a lot from my coworkers and managers, both through positive and negative examples of what works and what does not.

My experiences at my first job continue to be valuable to me up to this time. Even as I moved into hospitality management and public service as my professional life progressed, I never forgot that the backbone of every organization is the front line workers that do the hard work and heavy lifting that make it function. I learned that good leadership was not top down or dictatorial. Instead, good leadership consisted of building a cooperative team environment that focused on listening, training, and empowering workers to take ownership of their workplace, both figuratively and in the best cases literally.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

Chorus:
And its a hard, and its a hard, its a hard, and its a hard
And its a hard rains a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children

Chorus

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son
And what did you hear, my darling young one
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin
Heard ten thousand whisperin & nobody listenin
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley

Chorus

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son
Who did you meet, my darling young one
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded with hatred

Chorus

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one
I'm a-goin back out fore the rain starts a-fallin
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest

(It goes on)

Every state besides Nebraska has two legislative chambers. What do you consider the most important differences between the legislative chambers in your state?

Bifurcated legislatures go back at least to the English House of Commons and House of Lords. This system was copied by the US with the Congress and Senate and then down to the states. The original impulse was to have one body representing the "people" or commoners and one representing the rich and aristocratic portions of society. This allowed for the rich to be able to prevent democracy and the direct rule of the people from bringing about a more equal society. It was not until 1913 that the US constitution was amended to allow for the direct election of US Senators.

After centuries of trying and largely succeeding in overcoming the impediment that bifurcated legislatures posed to direct democratic rule by voters, the wealthy have found other ways of short-circuiting democracy. Primarily by legalizing bribery of elected officials with what is euphemistically called "campaign contributions".

That the Missouri legislature has two chambers is a largely irrelevant historical anomaly. This historical anomaly still does function to hamper democratic processes as we Missourians must still usher any new legislation through two as opposed to one democratic decision-making body to become law. To me, this set of circumstances does not warrant any significant effort to reform as the benefits would not justify the effort.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?

I think that it is beneficial for state legislators to have a wide variety of experiences, only one of which is previous governmental or political experience. The knowledge of experienced politicians can help better manage government, as they often have good functional understanding of the processes and organizational structures of the governmental bodies that they write the rules for. On the other hand that same experience can lock these leaders into being overly focused on how to optimize the current structures and processes, while not being able to see the necessity and opportunities to at crucial times overhaul and restructure these systems. The vision of new, less jaded leaders, who are focused on new visions of what government could do and how it could do it, is essential to push the boundaries of the possible. It is the tension (but cooperation) between these types of leaders that produces the best possible legislative bodies. We need both the old guard constantly challenging new ideas for functionality and the new idealistic faction pushing the organization to evolve to meet new challenges and grow so as to reflect the evolving desires and dreams of the citizens.

What do you perceive to be your state’s greatest challenges over the next decade?

The greatest challenge that humanity has ever faced, is human induced climate change. Two years ago the United Nations announced that humanity had 12 years to radically reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases or face civilizational collapse and perhaps human extinction within this century. Most climate scientists are not that optimistic, with a growing number worrying publicly that we may have already reached the point of no return.

To respond to this crisis almost every nation of the world agreed to reduce their carbon emissions to meet agreed upon goals in the Paris Climate Accord of 2015. This is a non-binding agreement with no enforcement mechanism, that at this point almost no country is currently meeting their commitments to. The US in fact has continued to increase it's emissions every year until the Covid-19 induced recession.

US emission reductions caused by the pandemic are forecast for this year to be between 4% and 7%. These reductions are considerably below our 2020 Paris climate accord goal of 7.5% in reductions. The Accord then commits the US to the same 7.5% reductions each year for the rest of this decade. Thousands of PhD's in dozens of fields studying the climate agree that that these reductions are necessary for human civilization to have a chance to survive. Our challenge therefore is that we must voluntarily exceed the reduction in economic activity that we have seen this year worldwide for each year for the next decade or face eminent catastrophe.

Our current growth based capitalist economy is completely inappropriate to address these challenges and indeed has ignored the warnings of scientists for 40 years. It is time for bold, visionary leadership that can imagine our path toward a peaceful, just, and sustainable future. Only the eco-socialist program of the Green Party is up to task. We can no longer ignore this reality. This is the most important decade in human history. Our children's future is a stake.

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and the state legislature?

The ideal relationship between the governor and the legislature is one of rule making and budget approving body and lead manager of that body's directives. I am not a fan of executive authority by and large. Power should reside in the most democratic branch of government, the Legislative Branch. The power of the Executive was among the most pressing concerns of our founding fathers for good reason. They endeavored to construct mechanisms to constrain the power of the Executive, as they correctly saw that power in large organizations tends to gravitate toward the Executive to the specific detriment of democracy.

Often democracy, as Winston Churchill is said to have said, "...is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time". It can be painfully slow, tedious, and seemingly unresponsive. At those times there are often calls for the Executive to take the reins and ram things through. In almost all cases, this is an impulse that should be resisted. Instead, legislators should redouble their efforts to find creative ways to innovate new solutions that navigate a path forward that respects and brings onboard the concerns and aspirations of the various communities that are impacted and/or are impacted by the government's actions. These difficult, but constructive consensus building exercises can be exhausting, but invariably produce more enduring solutions than ones rammed through with Executive authority.

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.

Emphatically, Yes. See the answer to the previous question, for why this is crucial.

What process do you favor for redistricting?

I strongly support and personally gathered signatures to pass the Clean Missouri Redistricting Plan that was overwhelmingly passed by the citizens of Missouri. It is despicable that the legislature in Jefferson City has crafted a ballot question engineered to overturn this important innovation. I trust that the citizens of Missouri will see through their ruse and again decide that redistricting should not be in the hands of partisan hacks.

Up to this time the Democrats and Republicans have colluded to draw districts that are overwhelmingly dominated by one party or the other and they don't seriously run against each other in most of them. The press focuses on the few competitive races, which gives the impression that we live in a democracy, which we certainly do not.

Having a non-partisan commission that is charged with drawing maximally competitive districts will encourage political campaigns and candidates that must appeal to a wide swath of Missourians as opposed to the fringes of party purists that the current lopsided districts encourage. This will bring to the fore a cooperative, problem solving legislature as opposed to the ineffective, finger pointing one we suffer with today.

If you are not a current legislator, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?

I am interested in serving on any of the standing, select, or joint committees. I'm sure that the majority will not be happy to have me on any of them.

As a Green Party candidate for the State Senate, I would be a wildcard that would change the dynamic of any committee very positively. Currently the two groups of corporate party representatives fight like dogs in public, but engage in almost identical immoral behavior behind the scenes. They both spend most of their time meeting with lobbyists, calling donors, and turning in bills written by their donors' legislation factories. They have colluded to make all of this immoral behavior legal and they do not call each other out on these and other behaviors that misserve the communities they should be serving. Their actual constituents are their wealthy campaign contributors.

Having a Green Party Senator in the room will make the process more uncomfortable for these politicians, as the dirty method of making legislation will be highlighted in an ongoing way, and a better, democratic alternative continually offered. At first the power of embarrassment should make the whole process work better for the public. Eventually, as the public gets behind the Clean Green Party option and more Green Party legislators are elected, these immoral behaviors will be made illegal again, taking money out of politics so that it works for communities and voters.

If you are a current legislator, what appealed to you about your current committees?

N/A

If you are not currently a member of your party’s leadership in the legislature, would you be interested in joining the leadership? If so, in what role?

As I am currently the only Green Party candidate for the Missouri Senate, I would be the leader of the Green Party Senate contingent. This unique position would lead to a very different dynamic being created in the Senate as detailed in my answer to the question above, "If you are not a current legislator, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?".

Is there a particular legislator, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

Caroline Lucas is a Green Party legislator in the British House of Commons. Her influence on the English legislature has been very constructive. She has maintained a resolutely optimistic and positive demeanor all the while vigorously pushing for progressive solutions, often changing the debate around a wide range of important substantive proposals that she spearheads. She is a great representative for the Green Party, but never strays from her dedication to her constituents who continue to reelect her by higher and higher margins each elections cycle.

Of current democratic legislators worldwide, I find her as the model that I most have sympathy with.

Are you interested in running for a different political office (for example, the U.S. Congress or governor) in the future?

I am focused on running for and serving my community in the Missouri Senate. I am not currently entertaining other potential political office.

Both sitting legislators and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?

The Kansas City neighborhood that I have live in for the last 29 years has recently suffered badly from classic gentrification that has negatively impacted many of my now former neighbors. The wonderful 110 year old homes that they lived in and the urban forest that they were nestled in have all been completely destroyed and are being replaced by pressed particle board mcmansions. My neighbors that constituted a vibrant working class community have all been displaced, most of them have been forced into less desirable and/or more expensive housing situations all with very little warning, and no say-so in their and their community's fate.

I, as one of the last few small owner-occupants of the neighborhood, have endured the violent erasure of the community that I was a member of, and the construction of another community on it's grave, all around me, over the last couple of years. This pales in comparison to the disruption in the lives of my neighbors who have been completely uprooted due to the sin of not being rich in property. The supremacy of property rights over all other personal rights in our capitalist society casually inflicts such injuries and worse to working people on a daily basis.

In a city screaming for decent affordable housing for working families, the market has determined that dozens of such homes be destroyed so that they can be replaced with luxury housing far outside their budgets. This scenario is played out endlessly, leading to our current housing crisis. Both corporate parties locked into their golden handcuffs (that they willingly allow their campaign contributors to put on their wrists) can somehow never find a solution to this deteriorating situation. The same dynamic can be found in every other sector of our economy and largely explains why we have so much misery in the richest country that has ever existed.

This is all legal, but it is immoral.

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 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.

Nathan Kline campaign contribution history
Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	U.S. Senate Missouri	Lost general	$0	N/A**
Grand total			$0	N/A**
Sources: OpenSecrets, Federal Elections Commission *This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

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Footnotes

↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 21, 2020
↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 7, 2024
↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
↑ Nathan Kline’s campaign website, “Nathan Kline - U.S. Senate,” accessed October 21, 2024

[show]

Missouri's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Josh Hawley (R)

Eric Schmitt (R)

Representatives

District 1

Wesley Bell (D)

District 2

Ann Wagner (R)

District 3

Bob Onder (R)

District 4

Mark Alford (R)

District 5

Emanuel Cleaver (D)

District 6

Sam Graves (R)

District 7

Eric Burlison (R)

District 8

Jason Smith (R)

Republican Party (8)

Democratic Party (2)

[bio-1] Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 21, 2020

[2] Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 7, 2024

[quotedisclaimer-3] Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.

[4] Nathan Kline’s campaign website, “Nathan Kline - U.S. Senate,” accessed October 21, 2024

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

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Nathan Kline

Biography

Elections

2024

General election

General election for U.S. Senate Missouri

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Missouri

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. Senate Missouri

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Libertarian primary election

Libertarian primary for U.S. Senate Missouri

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2020

General election

General election for Missouri State Senate District 7

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Missouri State Senate District 7

Green primary election

Green primary for Missouri State Senate District 7

2018

General election

General election for Jackson County Executive

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Jackson County Executive

Green primary election

Green primary for Jackson County Executive

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2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

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2020

Campaign finance summary

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