Free Republic

JEFFERSON CITY — John Wood, a former investigator for the Jan. 6 committee who launched an independent bid for U.S. Senate in Missouri, said Tuesday he was withdrawing from the race. Wood, who positioned himself as a conservative alternative to the Democratic and Republican nominees, said there was no path forward for his bid after controversial ex-Gov. Eric Greitens lost to Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Aug. 2 in the Republican primary.

A former senior investigative counsel who worked with Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on the January 6 committee recently moved to Kansas City, Missouri from Virginia with the intention of running as an independent in the 2022 U.S. Senate race. John Wood, a close friend of the Cheney family, officially left his position on the committee in late June and rented an apartment in Kansas City. According to The Heartlander, a Kansas City-based news site, he only registered to vote there on June 18.

Former Jan. 6 investigator and self-described "lifelong Republican" John Wood announced that he's running as an independent candidate for an open U.S. Senate seat in Missouri. “I am not looking to be a spoiler. I’m in this race to win it,” Wood told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Tuesday. “I think that there is a coalition of common-sense voters that can be put together.” Wood said he was running in part out of concern that former Gov. Eric Greitens would be the GOP nominee in the Republican-leaning state.