A combative race for St. Louis mayor is nearing an end.
Mayor Tishaura Jones and her challenger, Alderwoman Cara Spencer of the 8th Ward, have spent the past 35 days making the case for why they should lead Missouri’s second-largest city.
The matchup is a repeat of the 2021 race, but the landscape is much different this time around. Jones won the 2021 primary by more than 5,000 votes. But in March, Spencer more than doubled Jones’ vote total – 23,826 for the alderwoman versus 11,612 for the incumbent.
Spencer dominated the March primary in south St. Louis, an area that has generally higher turnout. She also beat Jones in wards represented by politicians who are ideologically aligned with the mayor’s progressive policies, like Alisha Sonnier in the 7th Ward and Daniela Velazquez in the 6th Ward.
Jones won three north St. Louis wards but not by the runaway margins she achieved in the April 2021 general election.
All of that set up a last month of campaigning that was often bitter and personal.
The two women frequently talked over each other during a tense joint appearance on the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air. Jones regularly accused Spencer of lying to and misleading people. The mayor showed up at a meet-and-greet for Spencer in the Baden neighborhood, a move that Spencer said represented a shocking lack of decorum and a breach of a safe space for voters to meet with her.
Jones has focused on the need to give her efforts to enact major policy changes a chance to work.
“We need to keep moving forward,” she said in March during the joint talk show appearance. “Our economy is growing, and we need to stay on that trajectory for the next four years and beyond.”
Jones has some wins that she can point to. Crime in St. Louis is down overall by 31% since 2022, and violent crimes like homicide, assault and rape were down 13% in 2024 from 2022. Demolition has started on the city jail known as the Workhouse, the closure of which had been a key part of Jones’ platform in 2021. She’s been able to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a variety of programs using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, though there have been documented problems with grants for north side businesses.
In the last weeks of the election, Jones has zeroed in on the hundreds of thousands of dollars that A Brighter Future for St. Louis, the political action committee supporting Spencer, has received from developer Bob Clark and other business interests.
“My support doesn't come from the top 1%, and it never has,” Jones told her supporters on election night in March. “I didn't get into elected office to help them. I did it for everyday people. You deserve a mayor who will stand up against those who would hurt or exploit us, not give up their beliefs for a six-figure check for a developer.”
Spencer has furiously rejected any idea that Clark’s financial support makes her beholden to his wishes.
“When folks are investing in my campaign, they're investing in a new path for St. Louis,” she told Jones during their joint appearance in March. “They are not getting anything specifically out of return for that. And I really resent that accusation.”
From Day 1 of the campaign, Spencer has pushed the narrative that the city cannot meet basic service needs like picking up trash, paving streets and answering 911 calls. The most visible manifestation of that, she said, was the January snowstorm.
“It was clear to me just a couple of days in, that the response was inadequate,” she said. “I think it was clear to most of us, and the failure to take urgent, immediate action was apparent to all of us.”
Jones would later concede that the city had messed up. But St. Louis was not the only government that struggled to deal with the storm, which brought snow, sleet and freezing rain, followed by frigid temperatures that meant chemical treatments did not work well.
The challenges
Whomever is elected into Room 200 will face a number of challenges.
For one, the winner will oversee the transition of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department back to state oversight.
While the mayor will have a seat at the table, she will be just one of five voices on the governing board. The legislation also sets mandatory spending levels for the SLMPD — 22% of the city’s general revenue fund by the end of 2025, increasing to 25% of the general fund by the beginning of 2028. Retirement costs cannot be included in calculating the percentage.
Right now, the general fund budget for the police department excluding pension costs sits at a little over 22%, which would meet that first funding threshold. But according to the city’s budget director, pensions are not the only retirement cost.
For example, the city covers medical expenses for SLMPD retirees and also pays Social Security taxes for its civilian employees. Removing those expenses from the spending calculation would bring the city below that required funding level.
Without additional sources of funding, the city will have to make cuts to other areas to comply with state law. And its revenue picture is already shaky.
A quarterly budget report released in January noted that while spending remained under budget, partially due to ongoing vacant positions, “overall revenues are trailing budget estimates.” In addition, the Missouri General Assembly is considering several pieces of legislation that would further reduce the earnings tax, a 1% tax charged on people who live and work in the city that makes up one-third of the general revenue fund.
Last summer, Jones signed an executive order creating a long-term revenue advisory council. Its members were tasked with studying how the city currently raises money, the sustainability of those sources and other potential revenue streams. The council was supposed to release a report earlier this month, but the mayor’s office will give it a few more months to continue its work.
Spencer gave Jones credit for establishing the council, saying “hearing from the public, hearing from subject experts, is an important and vital thing in considering how we can broaden and diversify our income structure for the city.”
Uncertainty about the city’s budget may force the mayoral winner, and the Board of Aldermen, to reconsider how St. Louis spends its share of the settlement from the Rams departure to Los Angeles. The amount available sits at about $277 million.
Spencer said her focus for that funding would be “downtown, housing in north St. Louis and infrastructure throughout the city of St. Louis.” Jones’ priorities are “infrastructure, people and small businesses.”
Also on the ballot
In addition to the mayor, voters in St. Louis will select their next comptroller, as well as members of the Board of Aldermen from odd wards. There are also 12 names on the ballot for three open seats on the St. Louis Board of Education. One candidate, Robert Mason, is no longer interested in the role but did not withdraw from the race in time to be removed from the ballot.
Voters throughout St. Louis and St. Charles counties will vote in municipal elections, including for school and fire protection district boards. There are also a wide variety of tax and bond issues for municipalities, schools and fire departments.
