JasonKander

In 2021, Jason orchestrated Operation Bella, a covert mission to rescue his Afghan translator’s family and 383 other allies from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

In defiance of the U.S. government after the withdrawal of all U.S. personnel, Jason led an ad hoc team of veterans and civilians to build a fictional wedding, deceive Taliban checkpoints, and secure a chartered airliner to ferry hundreds of Afghans to safety.

In describing an award-winning 60 Minutes report on Operation Bella, CBS News called the caper “one of the most daring and unconventional rescue missions in recent history.”

Jason’s translator’s family now lives near Jason’s own in Kansas City.

The rescue’s success propelled Jason to found American Rescue Project, a non-profit which facilitated the escape of thousands of additional Afghan allies and intervened in international crises in Ukraine and other countries, offering support where governments fail.

Jason’s ability to engineer Operation Bella can be traced back to his earliest professional chapter. After the September 11th attacks, he joined the U.S. Army and, upon completing his training as a military intelligence officer, volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan. His mission required him to personally collect intelligence on Taliban and Al Qaeda infiltrators—work that meant navigating dangerous relationships with questionable characters, often traveling in street clothes and accompanied only by his translator.

In official evaluation reports, his superiors called him a “superb intelligence officer” and an “outstanding leader” whose efforts “directly resulted in arresting enemies and saving lives.” The Director of U.S. intelligence in Afghanistan urged the Army to “track this officer’s career closely; he is one of the best.”

Upon returning from overseas, Jason was assigned to Officer Candidate School as a Leadership Instructor, training hundreds of new lieutenants for combat. He was promoted to Captain and recognized nationally as one of ten finalists for the Reserve Officer Association’s Junior Officer of the Year Award.

After his military service, Jason practiced trial law representing plaintiffs in Kansas City before entering politics in 2008 as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives. In 2012, at just 31 years old, he became Missouri’s Secretary of State, making history as the first millennial elected to an American statewide office.

In 2016, he outperformed his party’s statewide ticket by nearly 17% while narrowly losing a race for U.S. Senate. Undeterred, he founded Let America Vote, a national movement to combat voter suppression, which later merged with End Citizens United—forming the country’s largest pro-democracy advocacy organization.

President Barack Obama, in his final Oval Office interview, named Jason as a reason to feel hopeful about America’s future and personally encouraged him to consider a 2020 presidential campaign.

Jason spent months traveling the country—including numerous trips to early primary states—and laying the groundwork for a national candidacy.

In October 2018, a few months before he had previously planned to officially announce a presidential campaign, Jason withdrew from public life to address a decade-long struggle with post-traumatic stress. He entered treatment at the VA’s PTSD clinic in Kansas City and later reemerged as a national advocate for mental health, especially for veterans, emphasizing the power of post-traumatic growth.

From 2019 to 2024, he served as President of National Expansion at Veterans Community Project (VCP). Under his leadership, the heralded Kansas City social service agency evolved into a national force against veteran suicide and homelessness, with campuses serving veterans in several American cities. He continues to serve VCP as an Executive Advisor.

Jason’s journey from therapy patient to mental health and veterans advocate was profiled in the award-winning 2022 documentary Here is Better.

In 2025, Jason co-founded Twin Pines Entertainment, a premium film and television studio. Headquartered in Kansas City with offices in Los Angeles, the company is on a mission to close the gap between America’s Heartland communities and the storytelling they deserve. Twin Pines creates scripted and unscripted film and television to deliver incredible stories about unlikely heroes that resonate with the underserved audience of 200 million people that live between the coasts.

Jason co-founded Twin Pines with longtime entertainment industry executives Sean and Clint Kisker, and with a foundational investment from Boardwalk Capital.

Jason is a former CNN Commentator who has appeared on or been profiled by nearly every major American news outlet. Since 2017, he has co-hosted the popular and award-winning podcast Majority 54, which aims to help Americans bridge the political divide.

He is the author of two New York Times Bestsellers—Outside the Wire: Ten Lessons I’ve Learned in Everyday Courage and Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD—as well as Courage Is, a children’s book he co-authored with his son.

Jason is a graduate of American University and Georgetown Law. He received an honorary doctorate from Georgetown University and has completed fellowships at the University of Chicago and The Aspen Institute.

He is the 54th recipient of the Truman Foundation’s prestigious “Good Neighbor Award.” Previous awardees include multiple U.S. presidents, as well as leaders like Buzz Aldrin, Walter Cronkite, and Jonas Salk.

Jason’s activism and humanitarian work has garnered awards from the NAACP, Common Cause, and The Immigrants List, and Fortune Magazine named him to their “40 under 40” list in 2020.

Jason is married to his high school sweetheart, Diana, a successful entrepreneur, bestselling author, and internationally sought-after keynote speaker. Because Diana came to the United States as a young Soviet refugee, their children, True and Bella, are simultaneously first-generation Americans and sixth-generation Kansas Citians.

In the spring and summer, Jason helps coach True’s baseball team. He also plays centerfield for the Kansas City Hustlers, a competitive amateur baseball (not softball) team in the National Men’s Adult Baseball League.