Several weeks ago, John Wood was a senior investigator for the House Select January 6th Committee. Now, he is an independent candidate vying for the open U.S. Senate seat in Missouri. Wood self-identifies as a “life-long” Republican: He clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, served in several top administrative roles and as U.S. Attorney under George W. Bush, and was general counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Yet, he’s running as an independent because he sees the GOP primary as “a race to the bottom to see who can be the most divisive and the most extreme.”

In Wood’s view, the primary frontrunner is “a danger to our democracy.” Among other public controversies, that candidate’s recent campaign ad shows him wielding a shotgun and breaking into a home alongside an armed tactical team, offering a stern warning: “Join the MAGA crew. Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.” In this environment, can Wood really bring together a winning “coalition of common-sense voters” in order to “send somebody in the mainstream to the U.S. Senate”?

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