A former Army Captain who served in Afghanistan, Jason Kander was elected to the Missouri state legislature in 2008 and as Missouri Secretary of State in 2012, making him the first American millennial elected to statewide office. In 2016, while Donald Trump was winning Missouri by 19 points, Jason nearly unseated a Republican U.S. Senator.
In 2017, he founded Let America Vote, a national campaign against voter suppression. He served as a teaching fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, worked as a CNN Commentator, and appeared on every major television network.
In 2018, while traveling to 46 states for political events, Jason publicly acknowledged that he was considering a 2020 presidential campaign. Months later, he surprised many by choosing instead to run for mayor of Kansas City. Three months into that campaign – which seemed destined for victory – Jason shocked the political world by ending his candidacy and stepping back from public life to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress he’d been struggling with since coming home from Afghanistan.
He spent eight months out of the public eye while addressing his mental health.
Today, Jason is the President of National Expansion at Veterans Community Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting veteran suicide and veteran homelessness. He is also the host of Majority 54, one of the nation’s most popular political podcasts. He sits on the boards of Giffords and Let America Vote/End Citizens United, and he is the founder of Afghan Rescue Project.
A graduate of American University and Georgetown Law School, Jason has written two New York Times bestselling books, Outside the Wire: Ten Lessons I’ve Learned in Everyday Courage, and Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD, as well as a children’s book, Courage Is, which he co-authored with his son.
Jason lives in Kansas City with his wife Diana, their son True, and their daughter Bella. In his spare time, he coaches True’s Little League team and plays centerfield for the Kansas City Hustlers of the National Men’s Adult Baseball League.
