The Missouri Green Party and its Kansas City Chapter intend to use our recently won statewide ballot access to run candidates wherever we can in order to give Missourians a fresh alternative to the corrupt capitalist parties. We were excited at the opportunity to participate in the November 2017 special election for District 23 state representative and share our perspective with the voters there. Our party and our candidate threw ourselves into campaigning.

Unfortunately, after the campaign was underway, some information came to our attention that made us lose confidence that Daniel Trott could represent our 10 Key Values as our candidate. We discussed this matter with Daniel and agreed that it would be best to end his campaign. Our chapter has also withdrawn our endorsement of his candidacy. Regrettably, it was too late to remove Daniel’s name from the ballot. We hope that our public statement will sufficiently alert Green voters that the Kansas City Chapter of the Missouri Green Party is urging people not to vote for Daniel Trott in the special election.

This is not to say that the Green Party is supporting another candidate in this race. Unfortunately, neither of two other candidates represent Green values. Martin and Washington are both members of a capitalist party.

Even though we are deeply disappointed about this situation, we are committed to transform society to one built on Green values, to be the radical alternative that is necessary to confront issues that the capitalist parties ignore. To do so, our party and our candidates must authentically reflect those values in our personal lives and internal processes. Political power without integrity is too common in our country’s politics and has resulted in the many disasters and tragedies humanity and the earth are experiencing. We refuse to compromise our principles for a shot at winning an election because that would compromise the very reason we are involved in politics. So, we’re going to take all that we’ve learned during this campaign and bring a harder and stronger challenge to the corporate duopoly in 2018. Greens in Kansas City will continue to show up in solidarity with communities that are in struggle. And it means we will continue to recognize and develop leadership within the working class and front line communities so that candidates arise from those communities. We hope that you will join us!