Missouri US Senate Candidate creates own party

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - A political newbie is jumping in feet first and running for U.S. Senate in Missouri.

Jared Young is a Harvard law graduate and Chief Acquisitions Officer for an outsourcing and payroll services company in Joplin, Missouri.

Not only is he running for a key office in the U.S. government, he's running as an independent, and more than that, he believes he's collected enough signatures to create a new independent political party he's calling "The Better Party". Those have yet to be certified.

"This isn't something I have dreamed of my whole life, worked my whole career to lead up to," said Young to KMOX's Megan Lynch. "I'm really getting involved in office because I feel like most American voters are frustrated and exhausted at this point with what the two parties are producing, certainly most Missourians."

Young says that he felt the political divide needs to be healed and for him to feel like he could make a difference, he's targeting a very high seat in U.S. Government: incumbent Josh Hawley's seat in the U.S. Senate.

"On the local level, yes you can make a really big difference in local politics, but I actually feel like the problems we are facing are on the national level," said Young. "That's where I have concern, that's where I feel is this breakdown of total dysfunction because of the two-party system."

Young says he is running as an Independent because he believes that people who head to Washington as a member of the Democrat or Republican party originally go in with good intentions, but eventually feel too much pressure to conform once they get there.

"I have a more optimistic view of our leadership as individuals, but an extremely pessimistic view of the two-party system and what it does to people when they get to Washington," said Young.

Young says he believes running as an Independent for a U.S. Senate seat is more impactful than running for the U.S. House. "An individual Independent (in the house) would just get crushed. I wouldn't be in a position to influence things or change the way things work," said Young. "Where as an Independent in the Senate, every member of the Senate has an incredible amount of influence and in the last few years, we have seen the power Senators like Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema have wielded."