Kander announced his candidacy for the Missouri Secretary of State after Robin Carnahan announced she would not seek reelection.
He defeated MD Rabbi Alam in the primary election, winning the Democratic nomination.

In the general election, Kander faced the Speaker Pro Tempore of the Missouri House, State Representative Shane Schoeller.
Schoeller ran on a platform of implementing stricter voter identification rules.
By contrast, Kander opposed harsher voter identification rules, instead focusing on reforming the state's campaign finance laws.

On November 6, 2012, Kander narrowly defeated Schoeller and was elected Missouri Secretary of State.
At 32 years old, he was the youngest statewide elected official in the nation at the time, as well as the first millennial.

While in office, Kander made ethics reform one of his top priorities.
He admitted this could be "an uphill battle' given that Missouri has had some of the weakest ethics laws in the country and Republicans had supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature. "
I am realistic about the fact that it is not easy to get any legislative body to police itself.
There is no interest group in Jefferson City called Big Ethics.
I just remind legislators of both parties that this is something that the public expects of all of us," he said in 2014.
Kander announced his candidacy for the Missouri Secretary of State after Robin Carnahan announced she would not seek reelection. He defeated MD Rabbi Alam in the primary election, winning the Democratic nomination.
In the general election, Kander faced the Speaker Pro Tempore of the Missouri House, State Representative Shane Schoeller. Schoeller ran on a platform of implementing stricter voter identification rules. By contrast, Kander opposed harsher voter identification rules, instead focusing on reforming the state's campaign finance laws.
On November 6, 2012, Kander narrowly defeated Schoeller and was elected Missouri Secretary of State. At 32 years old, he was the youngest statewide elected official in the nation at the time, as well as the first millennial.
While in office, Kander made ethics reform one of his top priorities. He admitted this could be "an uphill battle' given that Missouri has had some of the weakest ethics laws in the country and Republicans had supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature. "I am realistic about the fact that it is not easy to get any legislative body to police itself. There is no interest group in Jefferson City called Big Ethics. I just remind legislators of both parties that this is something that the public expects of all of us," he said in 2014.
Jason Kander