Wesley Bell was sweating much less than most candidates on the November 6 midterm election ballot. Bell crushed incumbent St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert P. McCulloch in the Democratic primary on August 7, and no Republican even filed in their party’s primary. So Bell was unopposed in the general election.
Jada Overbey, a resident of Ferguson (where Bell has been a councilman, a post he must relinquish to assume his new position), voted alongside Bell on Election Day and posed with him for a selfie.
It was understandable. She was capturing history. Unless a freakish write-in campaign beats him – exponentially more stunning than his stunning primary victory over McCulloch by more than 24,000 votes – Bell will end this day as St. Louis County’s first black prosecuting attorney-elect.
Bell told The American he plans to be sworn in as soon as the new year dawns, not wanting McCulloch to occupy that post one second longer than necessary. McCulloch served as prosecutor – and made enemies of blacks and prosecutors – for 27 years.
McCulloch’s notoriety went national due to his handling of the Darren Wilson grand jury, giving Bell’s primary campaign national attention, as well as furious local organizing. The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, which does not endorse candidates, made an unprecedented effort to educate the public on McCulloch’s record of holding people with misdemeanor offenses who could not post cash bail and the meager results of the diversion program for drug offenders that he initiated after Ferguson.
As Bell told supporters after his primary victory, “Let’s keep this momentum going so that we can bring change to this county that will make people safer, help people, help families.”
Tonight, Bell will celebrate with supporters at Acapulco Restaurant and Lounge in St. Ann.
In the meantime, polls are open until 7 p.m. Anyone in line by 7 p.m. has the right to vote.
