ST. LOUIS — Kansas City attorney Craig O’Dear has entered the race for U.S. Senate in an effort to beat incumbent Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill in 2018 as an independent candidate.
O’Dear, 60, kicked off his campaign at a news conference in Kansas City, where he criticized Democrats and Republicans for engaging in “division and gridlock.”
“I am running to bring change and innovation to the United States Senate,” O’Dear told the St. Louis Record. “The institution is controlled by the leadership of two political parties who are more interested in fighting and blaming each other than in conducting the business of the people.”
O’Dear said the division between Democrats and Republicans has led to government shutdowns instead of leadership toward finding common ground and implementing reasonable solutions to problems.
“The two political parties have demonstrated they cannot do this,” he said. “We need independent leadership in the senate; people who are not controlled by either of these parties, but who instead report only to the people.”
O’Dear graduated with an engineering degree from the Missouri University of Science & Technology and with a law degree from Vanderbilt University.
“I have achieved a significant level of professional success as a lawyer solving complex business problems for people and companies,” O’Dear said. “The problems I am retained to resolve are usually the most complex, high stakes problems, and they usually involve many parties with conflicting interests in an emotionally charged atmosphere.”
O’Dear has spent time fundraising for candidates in both parties, but this is his first time running for political office.
One of his priorities is to focus on a bipartisan effort on the issue of healthcare.
“We spend twice as much per capita on healthcare in this country, and we get no better outcomes than several other countries,” O’Dear said. “This is a business model issue and we need to bring together our best minds and our vast knowledge of science, technology, healthcare, and innovation, and set this country on a 10-year plan to transform our healthcare system into a more effective and efficient system.”
O’Dear said he strives for a similar approach to issues such as immigration reform, infrastructure, environmental protections and gun violence.
“A high priority would be to lead the innovation needed in the Senate that is necessary to get the Senate back to being the world’s greatest deliberative body—to get it back to what Sen. John McCain calls ‘regular order.’” O’Dear said.
The race is considered critical to help Democrats gain control of the Senate.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is the favorite to grab the Republican nomination.
Missouri, which was considered a swing state in the past, has leaned to Republican in recent years.