Cara Spencer

Cara Spencer (born September 11, 1978) is an American politician from the state of Missouri. Since 2015, Spencer has served on the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis representing Ward 20, which is located in South St. Louis and includes the neighborhoods of Dutchtown, Gravois Park, Marine Villa, and Mount Pleasant. She is a candidate in the 2021 St. Louis mayoral election.
Early life and education
Spencer grew up in South St. Louis City and St. Louis County. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Truman State University.
Spencer was first elected to the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis in April 2015 after defeating incumbent Craig Schmid, who had held the seat for two decades, in the Democratic primary election. She then defeated independent candidate Stephen Jehle and Green Party candidate Vickie Ingram in the general election.
Upon taking office, Spencer worked to allocate resources to reopen the closed Marquette Swimming Pool, the largest outdoor public pool in the city of St. Louis, for the 2015 summer season.
During her first term in office she was the primary sponsor of legislation which; enacted stricter campaign finance laws, imposed stricter air pollution standards than state requirements on asbestos in demolitions, required absentee landlords to pay fines for building code violations, imposed fines on payday lending operators, and protects victims of drug overdose by enacting the 1st municipal good Samaritan law in the US, granting immunity to drug possession charges to anyone calling 911 for help during an overdose.
Spencer worked with fellow alderman Chris Carter III to co-develop and implement the "mow-to-own" program allowing residents to obtain an adjacent city-owned lot by mowing it for one year.
In 2016, an ethics complaint was filed against Spencer by attorney Jane Dueker, alleging that Spencer failed to disclose a personal financial interest related to legislation she introduced regulating payday lending. The case was dismissed.
Spencer was re-elected in 2019 receiving 70% of the vote in the primary election and 96% of the vote in the general election. In August 2020, Spencer was the target of a petition to recall her from her position as Alderwoman. The petition was organized by Metropolitan Strategies and Solution, a consulting firm that supported privatization efforts.
Spencer serves as the chair of the aldermanic Health and Human Services Committee for the city of St. Louis.
2021 St. Louis mayoral campaign
On January 13, 2020, Spencer announced her intention to run for mayor of St. Louis in 2021. In her announcement, she told KWMU, "St. Louis is uniquely poised to be the next fastest-growing city. We are a great old city, but we’re broken in a lot of ways, and I’m running for mayor to fix that."
The 2021 election will be the city's first to use approval voting.
On February 17, 2021, Spencer, along with Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed, were endorsed by the Editorial Board in a joint endorsement as voters could now select more than one candidate in the primary election. Spencer was also endorsed by the Planned Parenthood Advocates of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri and former St. Louis Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl.
Spencer, alongside Tishaura Jones, advanced to the general election after the primary on March 2. Spencer was one of two candidates to advance using the novel approval voting system in St. Louis

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu