It appears that incumbent Lewis Reed will retain his seat as Board of Aldermen president, garnering 36 percent of the vote in the March 5 primary election, according to unofficial election results. And his challengers State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed and Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green were right at his heels with 32 percent and 31 percent respectively.
With St. Louis city voting majority Democratic, winning the primary almost guarantees Reed’s victory in the April municipal election.
Reed, who has served as board president for 12 years, ran as a moderate against two more progressive candidates. Nasheed trailed Reed by about 1,400 votes, and Green was 144 votes behind Nasheed.
“We should have a leader that cares about everyone no matter their zip code,” Nasheed said in her speech after accepting her loss. “Unfortunately we didn’t make it. However, at the end of the day, they are still going to have to deal with Jamilah Nasheed.”
Nasheed said that the city is facing some important issues, including privatizing the airport, merging the city and the county and reducing the Board of Aldermen. “They are going to have to deal with us,” she said as the crowd of about 50 people cheered wildly.
Nasheed and Reed went head to head during debates leading up to the election. Nasheed said Reed uses his role as board president as “an aldermanic seat on steroids” and to serve his own interests. Reed fired back that Nasheed has voted with Republicans in the state Legislature “more often than not.” He pointed to a bill that reduced unemployment benefits (Senate Bill 673 in 2014) and one that increased small loan bank fees (Senate Bill 345 in 2015).
Green defines herself as a Democratic Socialist, and like Nasheed said, “The status quo in this city is not working.”
State Rep. Bruce Franks Jr., who supported Nasheed, said the results show that the people wanted a change from the status quo.
“If you take the combined votes against Lewis versus what he won, it’s 60-plus percent,” Franks said. “We got to do a better job as common-thinking folks to come together and find a candidate and agree to disagree but push forward on the overall consensus that we got to change.”
