Tishaura Jones had hoped to make history as the first Black mayor of St. Louis to serve more than one term, but it was not to be; and her supporters voiced their concerns about her successor and the direction of the city after Jones’ defeat.
According to The St. Louis American, Jones lost her reelection bid to Alderwoman Cara Spencer, with Spencer capturing 64% of the vote to Jones’ 36 percent, and although her concession speech struck tones of hope and optimism, some of her supporters were wary of Spencer’s approach.
“Hey, ya’ll, tonight didn’t go as we hoped. Our city has never had a Black mayor serve more than one term and I know many of you, like me, were looking to make history with me and a second term. Together, we’ve accomplished so much. My opponent will inherit a city that is safer than it has been in decades,” Jones said in her concession speech on April 8.
Earl Bush, a supporter of Jones, told the outlet that he feels as though the election of Spencer instead of the re-election of Jones represents a step back for St. Louis.
“Oh, it’s a downfall for the city. It’s a whole new start-over and that’s something we were trying to avoid. We just got this far. Tishaura was just finding out how things run here in the city, well, City Hall. I just hate we have to start all over again.”
Another Jones supporter, Charles Price, said that he thought Spencer is unprepared for the fights that lay ahead of her.
“I think she’s woefully unprepared to realize that Trump is going to cut everything. I don’t think she has the ability to fight to preserve what funding the city gets from the federal government,” Price told The St. Louis American.
He continued, “She’s been too friendly with a lot of right-leaning people who prioritize rural areas or the suburbs or where white people live. I would have rather had Mayor Jones fighting for the city because I know she loves the city.”
In February, Jones intimated to ProPublica that she believed that her work lowering crime and building out public safety programs went unheralded by Republican legislators in the city because she is a Black woman who is also a Democrat.
However, as STLPR reported, the four-way primary held in March likely foreshadowed Jones’ defeat as she only received about half as many votes as Spencer, and in the general election, only 26% of registered voters turned out for the vote, despite progressive groups pushing for Jones over the past month.
In late March, 100 community organizers, activists, advocates, healers, and organizational leaders wrote an op-ed in The St. Louis American detailing their belief that Jones was the candidate best equipped to reflect the specific needs of St. Louis’ Black community.
They were also critical of some of Spencer’s policies, writing, “We have been deeply disappointed by Spencer’s support for policies of criminalization, her inaction on specific policy proposals to address homelessness, and her relative emphasis on money flowing to Downtown development instead of to distressed neighborhoods…While this may represent the kinds of changes desired by those funding her campaign, these are all unacceptable to us.”
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