Jason Kander lost a big Senate race. In today's Democratic Party he's still a rising star

Jason Kander lost a Missouri Senate race last fall, but still, wherever he goes, Democrats ask if he will run for president some day. Photo / Washington Post photo by Toni L. Sandys

Jason Kander doesn't feel like a loser.

He doesn't feel much like a millennial either, whatever that means.

But having lost his bid to represent Missouri in the US Senate at 35 last year, he is, technically, both of those things. And so, one of the oldest, losingest millennials in American politics spoke at the annual gathering of the High School Democrats of America about, what else, the future of their party. "We are, believe it or not, in the same generation," Kander, now 36, told the group of about 100 17-year-olds. "It's our generation that will have to fix all this stuff."

He might seem like an odd person to deliver this message, considering that voters decided against sending him to Washington to be the fixer of things. But Kander still has a lot to offer - and Democrats aren't in a position to turn away young talent.

The Army veteran and former Missouri secretary of state rose to national prominence thanks to a quirky campaign ad in which he assembled a rifle blindfolded; he went on to outperform Hillary Clinton by 16 percentage points in his state, winning over about 200,000 voters who also pulled the lever for Donald Trump. But in the end, he came up just short against the Republican incumbent, Senator Roy Blunt.

Kander wasted no time turning a loss into a win. He started a nonprofit aimed at fighting voter suppression, giving him a campaign-like infrastructure to raise money for Democratic candidates and speak at events throughout the country. His Let America Vote group has raised nearly US$2 million and has more than 50,000 people nationwide signed up to volunteer. Kander also has a contract to talk politics on CNN and has developed a knack for jousting with far-right-wing bloviators on Twitter. So when Kander speaks in front of groups such as this, they don't ask what gives him the right to lecture anyone about the path forward.

In 1996, the author Michael Lewis spent 10 months following presidential candidates he knew would never win, for a book he titled Trail Fever. " It was the losers, he contended, who took real risks, who shaped debates - and from whom the focus-grouped weenies who actually won stole their best ideas. Democrats are desperate for someone to get excited about, and some of their most thrilling figures are losers. With their party out of power in the White House and Congress, some are looking to Congressman Keith Ellison and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the also-rans in the race for DNC chair, as leaders of the future, and Tom Perriello, who lost the Virginia gubernatorial primary.

"The party is yearning to figure out its next-generation leaders," said Brian Fallon, who was Hillary Clinton's campaign spokesman. "There's a void and people are hungry to figure out who could potentially fill it."

In 2016, Kander was widely considered the best Democratic recruit running for Senate. He had the look: young and fit, a guy comfortable in a skinny tie or fatigues. He had the life story: Married to his high school sweetheart, he had joined the military after 9/11, served in Afghanistan and eventually became the first millennial to hold statewide office in the US. And perhaps most impressive for a politician, he kind of seemed like a normal guy. "That's a compliment reserved only for politicians," Kander said. "You never hear someone say: 'You know what I love about my accountant? He's just a normal guy.' That's how low the bar is for people in politics."

But to a lot of folks in the Democratic Party, there's nothing normal about his charisma. "There is a reflectiveness, a coolness, a reasonable approach to talking about politics that he shares with President Obama," said Tommy Vietor, a former spokesman for the Obama White House. And bear in mind: "Obama did lose his first race for federal office, too," said Dan Pfeiffer, another Obama veteran.

The night Kander lost, he urged young supporters not to give up on politics. "You've got to pick yourself up. That's what I'm going to do."

He now speaks to Democratic groups about what it took to almost win in a red state as a progressive ("Voters are okay with you believing something they don't believe, as long as they think you genuinely believe it, and you believe it because you care about them"), and tries to remind a despondent party that maybe there are still some reasons for optimism. Or, if you will, hope.