ST. LOUIS — If crowd sizes at campaign kickoff events were reliable estimates of the measure of support a candidate would see at the ballot box, then incumbent Mayor Tishaura Jones may see a formidable challenger in Alderwoman Cara Spencer.
The 8th Ward Alderwoman who ran against Jones and narrowly lost in 2021 drew a crowd of supporters on Tuesday night that was at least three times larger than the mayor's own campaign relaunch event two-and-a-half weeks ago.
After courting voters for about an hour, Spencer took center stage at the old Post Building downtown and began to roll out her resume in public service as if it were a job interview.
"Believe it or not, I speak fluent Microsoft Excel," she said before rattling off a list of small accomplishments in local neighborhoods.
"It turns out lifting a liquor moratorium is not that hard," she said. "Neither is reopening a public pool, reining in payday lending, and fighting off a well-funded effort to privatize our city's airport."
Then she touted more recent efforts to pass more complicated legislation through the Board of Aldermen to implement eminent domain over the Railway Exchange building and to ban minors from openly carrying firearms inside city limits.
"And you know what? Now we see a lot less of them," she said. "Not just downtown, but throughout our neighborhoods."
Spencer, who often paces the floor of the city's legislative chambers to huddle with other members of the board during floor debate, took a thinly veiled swipe at the incumbent mayor and suggested her relationship skills would yield better results if she were promoted to the second floor at City Hall.
"I was curious, I thought, 'What would happen if I didn't ignore my colleagues,'" Spencer said. "I didn't ignore them. I leaned in, heard their concerns, addressed them, and worked together for a solution."
When she first presented her idea to ban open carry of firearms in city limits, several other members voiced concerns that the policy would violate Missouri state law and subject the city to costly litigation.
"You know what? After several months of meetings, conversations, and quite frankly changes to the bill, that bill passed the Board of Aldermen unanimously and was even signed by the current mayor," Spencer said to applause.
The crowd included a blend of disgruntled city workers who feel underpaid and overworked, including firefighters and garbage truck drivers.
"The pay is so low, you can't pick up, you can't get people. People are not coming back out," one refuse division worker said.
"She's supporting us and we support her," he said.
"She stood strong with them," St. Louis Firefighters Association Local 73 President Dan Clark said. "She stood strong with us from the beginning on workers rights. And that's for all city employees."
"Right now, currently, we're 100 firefighters short," Clark said. He's convinced Spencer would improve the department's recruiting and rate of retention.
"We need to be figuring out ways to get employees in here and then retaining them," Clark said. "And we're obviously not doing that right now."
Several other vocal advocates of criminal justice reform, especially those who wanted to see safer conditions inside the city jail, were also in the room listening to Spencer's speech. That's a progressive group that backed Mayor Tishaura Jones in 2021 and had a falling out with her since she took office.
During an appearance on The Record, Spencer split with Mayor Jones and indicated she would replace the current jail commissioner.
"I have some very strong concerns about her performance," Spencer said. "And given what I know right now, I am not comfortable continuing under her leadership."
"There are some real serious concerns about what's going on there," Spencer said. "There's a lack of transparency that I am very, very concerned about. And you know, given the information I have right now I'm not I don't have a level of comfort of continuing that leadership."
Spencer pointed to the U.S. Census Bureau's population estimates to paint a picture of a shrinking city in decline, and pointed to piles of unspent federal pandemic relief funds that could accelerate the city's comeback.
"We're back online in a lot of ways [after the pandemic), but look, we still haven't spent the majority of our COVID funds," Spencer said. "We haven't built the infrastructure back that the COVID money was really assigned to do. And so from that perspective, we have a lot of work to do. And it's been very, very slow. And people feel that."
"Despite hundreds of thousands of ARPA dollars, our streets are still littered with potholes," Spencer said. "The garbage still isn't getting picked up."
Spencer's supporters clapped and cheered when she asked them, "Can we turn this city around?"
At her State of the City Address, Jones recently described the city as one undergoing a "renaissance," and said she often hears from frustrated voters about an apparent lack of progress in spending the federal funds.
"The question I'm asked the most is, 'What are you doing with that ARPA money and why haven't I seen any of it?' I understand. It's your right to know," Jones said.
The mayor's campaign did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Which voters are most likely to respond to Spencer's message?
"Everybody," she said. "I am about good government. I'm about serving the residents of our city and I'm about doing the job of government. And so, I think it looks like a wide variety of folks that just want to have the potholes filled, their garbage picked up, and feel excited about living in their city, the city we all love."
The message appeared to catch on with one artist who said he was born and raised in St. Louis.
"I would like to be a part of the campaign or something," said Roland Tabor, a choreographer who danced in music videos with MC Hammer and Usher. He said Spencer's speech got him thinking about the city's future with more live entertainment.
"Instead of St. Louis got to go out of town and do things, I would like to bring the industry to St. Louis," he said.
While this is Spencer's second bid for mayor, it's her first citywide campaign in the post-pandemic era. She says her style of retail politics was stifled during the lockdowns, and vowed a campaign that interacts with voters face-to-face.
"What is important in campaigning and building trust in government is being present in communities," she said. "Our last campaign, we were in lockdown. I mean, I'm going to spend this summer knocking on doors and talking to voters and really getting to know residents of the city of St. Louis in every part of our city."
Not everyone in the campaign event was necessarily 100% sold on Cara Spencer.
One Black voter from St. Louis who asked not to be named said he likes her "wonkiness," referring to her background in math. But he said he's not quite sure he's sold yet on the idea that she's the "savior" the city needs.