The city is less than two weeks away from an historic mayoral election and 14 members of the Board of Aldermen have publicly endorsed St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones, with four voicing support for Alderwoman Cara Spencer.
Alderwoman Heather Navarro, Ward 28, has endorsed Spencer along with Alderwoman Beth Murphy, Ward 13, and Alderman Joseph Vollmer, Ward 10.
The fourth member to endorse Spencer is Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, Ward 22, who is chairman of the Aldermanic Black Caucus. He endorsed Spencer for mayor March 18, even as the majority of caucus members have publicly endorsed St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones.
“As chairman of the Black Caucus, I’ve worked with both candidates. I find that Cara Spencer is smart, energetic, transparent and honest,” Boyd wrote in a statement sent out by Spencer’s campaign. “She has demonstrated the ability to work well with others by passing meaningful legislation at the Board of Alderman, advancing progressive ideas to fix our broken systems and challenging policies that move us backward.”
Spencer endorsed Boyd when he ran against Jones in the August 2020 primary for St. Louis treasurer. Jones won that primary with 17% more votes than Boyd (58.5% to 41.5%).
Jones and Boyd also both ran for mayor in the March 2017 municipal Democratic primary election. Jones captured 30.4% of the vote, just 888 votes behind current Mayor Lyda Krewson. Boyd received 2.67% of the vote in that race, which had seven total candidates.
There are currently 10 members of the Aldermanic Black Caucus, more formally known as the St. Louis African American Aldermanic Caucus. Six of those members have now publicly endorsed Jones. Other than Boyd, no other Black Caucus member has publicly endorsed Spencer.
Prior to the primary, Jones received an endorsement from caucus member Alderman Brandon Bosley, Ward 3.
After the primary election, the treasurer received several endorsements from Black Caucus members who had previously endorsed Aldermanic President Lewis Reed (who came in third in the mayoral primary). Those endorsements include Alderwoman Lisa Middlebrook, Ward 2; Alderwoman Marlene Davis; Ward 19; Alderman John Collins-Muhammad, Ward 21; Alderwoman Shameem Clark-Hubbard, Ward 26; and Alderwoman Pamela Boyd, Ward 27.
Black Caucus members Alderwoman Dwinderlin Evans, Ward 4, and Alderwoman Tammika Hubbard, Ward 5, endorsed Reed before the primary. Neither responded to a request for comment on their current endorsement.
Alderwoman Sharon Tyus, Ward 1, is not a member of the Black Caucus but she endorsed Jones before the March primary.
Other members of the board have also endorsed Jones.
Alderman Joseph Vaccaro, Ward 23, is a previous Reed endorser and has now publicly supported Jones.
More recently, Alderman Dan Guenther, Ward 9, and Alderwoman Megan Green, Ward 15, have endorsed Jones.
Those alderpeople who endorsed Jones before the primary include alderwomen Christine Ingrassia, Ward 6, and Annie Rice, Ward 8, along with aldermen Bret Narayan, Ward 24, and Shane Cohn, Ward 25.
Those who have not publicly endorsed a candidate and did not immediately respond to an inquiry by The St. Louis American include Reed; Alderman Tom Oldenberg, Ward 16; Alderwoman Carol Howard, Ward 14; Alderwoman Sarah Martin, Ward 11; Alderman Jack Coatar, Ward 7; Alderman Joseph Roddy, Ward 17; and Alderwoman Vicky Grass, Ward 12.
Alderman Jesse Todd, Ward 18, said he does not plan to endorse any candidate
