Attorney John Wood Pitched As Center-Right Option in Missouri Race

• Former Sen. Jack Danforth wants former aide John Wood to run for Roy Blunt’s open seat.
• Wood is a lead GOP investigator on the House investigation into the January 6 riot.
• Danforth says voters “deserve an alternative option” to the 31 others in Missouri’s Senate race.

John Wood, the George W. Bush administration alumnus currently piecing together evidence for January 6 select committee’s investigation into the siege at the US Capitol, is Missouri’s best shot at a “principled, traditional conservative choice for the United States Senate this year,” according to former Sen. Jack Danforth. 

Danforth, who sees Wood as the center-right candidate who should replace retiring Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, worked to make that happen Monday by publicly calling on Wood to run, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. 

“Respected leaders across the state of Missouri have made it clear that Missouri voters deserve an alternative option to the leading contenders for the Republican and Democratic nominations for US Senate,” Danforth said in a news release seen by paper attempting to kick-start the campaign. “We are encouraging John to answer that call, as he has done countless times over the course of his career in government.”

Wood did not respond to Insider’s request for comment about wading into the midterm elections. 

Wood is currently serving as a senior investigative counsel to January 6 committee co-chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming. Wood’s Legistorm resume shows he’s also worked for then-Sen. Danforth in the early 1990s, clerked for US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Judge Michael Luttig, and Bush era Attorney General John Ashcroft over the years.

Luttig testified on June 16 about Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and warned lawmakers that the twice-impeached former president is brazenly scheming to rig the 2024 elections as well. 

Nearly three dozen candidates are running for Missouri’s open seat, a field that will be winnowed down by the August 2 primary election.

GOP contenders include scandal-plagued former Gov. Eric Greitens — who stirred the pot Monday by releasing an ad in which he and other armed men bust into an empty house while hunting “Republicans in name only” — Republican Reps. Vicky Hartzler and Billy Long, and state attorney general Eric Schmitt. First-time candidate Trudy Busch Valentine, heiress to the Busch brewing empire, is one of 10 Democrats trying to turn the Senate delegation purple.

The winner would serve alongside 2024 presidential hopeful Josh Hawley. 

The pro-Wood recruiting effort still has a ways to go, including formally registering with the Federal Election Commission and collecting the requisite number of signatures to get on the November ballot as a third-party candidate, the Post-Dispatch wrote. 

But the Danforth-led group sounds undeterred. 

“Over the coming days, we will work to draft John Wood into this race to provide Missourians that choice they deserve,” the group said in its press release.