Tishaura Jones, the next mayor of St. Louis
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones has been elected the next mayor of St. Louis. Jones, who will be the first Black woman to serve as mayor of St. Louis, won with 30,099 votes, or 51.68 percent of the vote. Opponent Cara Spencer, an alderman representing the 20th Ward, received 27,819 votes, or 47.77 percent. In November 2020, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson announced that she would retire at the end of her term. Krewson narrowly defeated Jones in the city's 2017 Democratic mayoral primary.
Before she was elected treasurer, Jones served as Democratic Committeewoman in the city’s 8th Ward, in 2002. She later served two terms in the Missouri House of Representatives and was the first African-American and first woman to serve as assistant minority floor leader.
One of the most important and pressing issues the new mayor, along with the Board of Aldermen, will have to tackle is leading St. Louis through the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic and deciding how to spend the $517 million allocated to St. Louis through President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
Jones pledged to use the money, half of which should arrive in May, to fund more mobile and stationary mass vaccination clinics; for rental, mortgage, and utility assistance, to support small businesses; to provide more comprehensive services for the unhoused; to supplement and extend basic income; and to roll out more WiFi access in public spaces.
“I will work to ensure that we seize this once in a generation opportunity to transform an intolerable and unsustainable status quo,” her plan states. “We need to make bold investments designed to chart a new course towards justice, equity and democracy. And while I have plenty of proposals — affordable housing, public transit, school renovation, free Wi-Fi, community centers, land remediation, upgrading 911 dispatch, workforce development and more — I’m committed to listening to and incorporating your ideas, and making this the people’s stimulus." St. Louisans can submit their input using this form.
Jones also states that she plans to portion out some of the money through a participatory budgeting process and would like to transfer amounts to Saint Louis Public Schools, Bi-State Development, and the Housing Authority. She pledged to be transparent about the process, stating that she’d launch a data portal for tracking spending. She would also hire an auditing team.
Jones and Spencer, both Democrats, were the winners of the March 2 mayoral primary, which was the first time city voters cast ballots under the new approval voting system. Candidates’ names appeared on the ballot without party affiliation, and voters were asked to approve as many candidates as they liked. The two with the highest percentage of the vote moved on to the general election. St. Louis leans Democrat, and in the past, the Democrat primary winner would sail to victory in the general election. Approval voting, in theory, should remove the spoiler candidate effect and increase turnout. There are 201,409 registered voters in the City of St. Louis. Turnout for the primary was 22 percent. On Tuesday, 58,593 ballots were cast, making turnout a little more than 29 percent.
Jones will be sworn in on April 20. She will choose her own successor to serve as treasurer.
St. Louisans also voted on Tuesday to retain the 1 percent earnings tax for those who live or work in the city and elected three progressives—Bill Stephens, Tina “Sweet-T” Pihl, and Anne Schweitzer—to the Board of Aldermen.
