Jason Hart launches U.S. Senate race without constraints of a campaign manager
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Who is Jason Hart and what motivated him to run for U.S. Senate?
Democrats are lining up to take a shot at Republican U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, who they see as vulnerable despite this being a reliably red state. Welcome to the Kansas Reflector Podcast. I'm Editor Sherman Smith, and my guest today is one of the at least eight candidates who have shown an interest in being the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. Jason Hart, thanks for being here.
Thank you, Sherman. It is my distinct honor and pleasure to be here. Did I say that right? Yeah, very very good.
Um well let let's just start off by telling us um who are you? What do you want people to know?
Well, my name is Jason Hart. Uh I am a Kansas born, Kansas raised uh kid from western Kansas. I was born in Russell, uh, but I effectively grew up in Dodge City, Kansas, where I had the best summer job ever as a gunfighter at Booth Hill Museum. Oh man. It was the best job. Um it was also great to grow up out there. I learned the value of not being a farmer. uh having gotten to go work on one of my uh my family. Got. We had friends that worked out on a farm and one summer when I was either 10 or 11, they sent me out there to work. And that was a real good motivation to go to law school. And so um I had grown up, uh our family had been a foster family growing up and that was deeply impactful for me. Uh led me into a career
Of public service, uh, and social justice, particularly for advocating for kids of child abuse and and uh families and discord and trying to solve those problems. So after I graduated law school, I went to KU and then KU law school. Um, and I was a scholarship kid, but I also worked all through all those, much to the anger and chagrin of the academic dean at the law school. Uh But after law school, um I went back out to practice out in Dodge City, Kansas, uh, for a little bit, then got a job in Shawnee County, uh, where I was at the DA's office, prosecuting child abuse, domestic violence. That led to the Attorney General's office, and then that led to the U.S. Attorney's Office where I've been for would have been sixteen years as of Saturday, but I quit just a little bit before that for reasons I'm sure we'll discuss.
But my whole my whole adult life has been in public service to Kansans and this is now an opportunity for me to continue that.
Had have you ever considered running for office before?
I considered it long ago and far away when I was out in Ford County. I had started to run or at least explore running for county attorney. And what I figured out then was, and I was only three years out of law school, and the police uh department had been really motivated to have me run. Um, they were not really happy with the current county attorney in part because the the case filings had gone. way down. It'd been something like eight hundred a year to like four hundred a year. And I thought about running and I started exploring it. Uh But I very quickly realized that, well, I don't know how to do that job. And so I could either be in charge and not know what I'm doing, or I could go learn from somebody.
And so that's where I went to the Shawnee County DA's office. I got that job instead of the other one. And what was great is I uh the person that did win that election, the county commissioners then promptly cut the salary down by $20,000. So I sort of died.
Okay. So you're you're diving into the deep end here. You're running for Congress, um, not just Congress, but US Senate. So why now and why this particular race?
Well, this particular race makes sense because for the last sixteen years, I've been in the Article II branch of the federal system. So I've been working with what the Article I, the Congress, has made. Um applying it as the Article two executive branch and then seeing how the Article three uh judiciary interprets it or And
just to interrupt for a second, I think a lot of people aren't gonna understand what these articles mean. I'm not sure I understand what these articles are Oh, sorry. No, that's
fair. This is uh sorry, this is a little bit of lawyer and talking, but this is how what our what our Constitution refers to as the three branches of government.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who is Jason Hart and what motivated him to run for U.S. Senate?
0:00–4:16
2
Why did Hart quit his U.S. Attorney position and how does the Hatch Act affect his campaign?
4:16–9:48
3
How does Hart’s background as a child‑sex‑crime prosecutor shape his policy priorities?
9:48–14:50
4
What does Hart see as the biggest failures of the current Republican administration on foreign policy and tariffs?
14:50–20:10
5
Why does Hart believe public education and the Department of Education are critical for Kansas?
20:10–25:04
6
How does Hart reconcile his pro‑choice stance with his experience protecting children?
25:04–29:35
7
What are Hart’s views on immigration enforcement, ICE, and the impact on Kansas communities?
29:35–34:40
8
What is Hart’s 30‑second stump speech and why does he think he’s the right choice for Kansas voters?
34:40–39:41
Speakers
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