When the Missouri Senate primary dust settled last month we found out that the Democrats would be putting up Secretary of State Jason Kander in an attempt to oust Roy Blunt from his seat. Missouri is traditionally considered a safe seat for the GOP, but in the Year of the Trump, you just never know what’s going to happen. Local news has been reporting that the polls are tighter than expected and Blunt could have a fight on his hands, a charge which the Senator doesn’t seem terribly concerned over. (KCUR News)

FiveThirtyEight, the popular site of statistical stories, says polling showing Hillary Clinton within just two points of Donald Trump may make Missouri one of the states swinging from red to blue this year.

Incumbent Republican Sen. Roy Blunt is holding a slim lead over Secretary of State Jason Kander, a Democrat. Blunt was in Kansas City Thursday and dismissed concerns of a toss-up.

“I think I’ve got a record that Missourians can look at and feel good about,” he said. “But I think Trump’s going to carry the state and I think that’s a good thing.”

Well, if Mr. Kander is going to be taking a serious run at this thing the voters should probably get up to speed on his history. Jason is making a point of reminding everyone of his deep seated Missouri roots and his love of his home state. Right on his Wikipedi page he leads off his bio by describing himself as a fifth-generation Missourian. He features the same claim on his campaign web site. Heck, you can watch him bragging about his deep Missouri roots on video. And I suppose that might be technically true depending on how you read an Ancestry.com chart, but a close look at his history shows that it just doesn’t pass the smell test.

Where was he actually born? Let’s ask the Associated Press. Oops! Looks like Jason is actually from Kansas.

Jason Kander
AGE-BIRTH DATE-LOCATION
31. Born May 4, 1981, in Overland Park, Kan.

But nobody can be blamed for the circumstances of their birth. I’m sure the family moved over to Missouri in short order, right? Nope. Kander was raised in Kansas and attended school there. (See page 15 in that document.) Jason Kander voted in Kansas and got married in Kansas. And as for that multi-generation thing, both Jason and his parents have both lived longer in Kansas than in Missouri. If you doubt that, just consider the fact that his father ran for mayor in Shawnee, Kansas.

Why might voters care? Well, in addition to the usual annoyance many of us feel with carpetbaggers in general, Kansas and Missouri have, shall we say… a bit of history when it comes to rivalry, sometimes breaking out into outright warfare. So, Missouri… do you really want a Kansas boy holding your Senate seat? Jason Kander is a carpetbagger who has been feathering his own nest based on claims of being a born and bred Missourian. He’s not. End of story.