For all of their differences, Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic ºüÀêÊÓƵ Mayor Tishaura O. Jones have at least one trait in common:
They know their enemy.
Being savvy politicians well past their first electoral rodeo, conservative white male Hawley and progressive Black female Jones are acting like they know who they’ll need to beat to keep their jobs.
And with that step taken, some recent paces from the incumbent pair fall into place — though Hawley has been conspicuous with his moves, while Jones has taken a more indirect route.
Let’s look at the bigger office first, where Hawley is making forays into the strongholds of Lucas Kunce, who seems at this point to have the best chance to win the Democratic primary, which also features ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell and ºüÀêÊÓƵ-area state Sen. Karla May.
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Kunce, with a hardscrabble upbringing in central Missouri and a 13-year stint in the Marines, is staking his candidacy on working-class, blue-collar voters. This has paid off with Kunce picking up strong endorsements from big labor unions and related groups in Missouri.
So it makes perfectly good political sense that Hawley, an Ivy League lawyer and son of a banker, now is embracing the working class with both arms.
Last week, Hawley of the United Auto Workers and its strike against the Big Three U.S. automakers. “They deserve better wages, better hours, and a guarantee their jobs will be safe,†he political news site.
He also has been conspicuous in his dealing with Tyson Foods, which announced it will close two Missouri plants at a cost of about 2,200 jobs — he took to social media last week to say he has talked with Tyson CEO Donnie King about the company selling its operation to another company and also helping chicken producers sell their stock.
â€We will hold him to these commitments,†Hawley said.
I spoke with the CEO of Tyson Food today, Donnie King. He told me, first, Tyson is willing to sell its facilities in Dexter and Noel, Missouri to any interested party - including a competitor. I was glad to hear it, because anything less would violate antitrust laws. I hope Tyson…
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO)
Then two weeks ago, Hawley introduced legislation — similar to measures first proposed by progressive Democrats — that would put a cap on credit-card interest rates.
To be sure, Hawley’s moves toward the working class will be countered by Kunce reminding voters that in the past, Hawley opposed minimum wage increases and supported right-to-work laws that hinder unions.
With the general election for that Senate seat more than 13 months away, plenty of time remains for that back and forth.
As far as Jones is concerned ...
Most observers believe Jones’ toughest challenger in 2025 will be Alderwoman Cara Spencer, who narrowly lost the mayoral race to Jones in 2021.
The first indicator that Jones is keeping one eye over her shoulder on Spencer came in July, with the now-infamous brace of text messages that Jones’ office inadvertently released to the public.
In one exchange, the mayor pointedly suggests to her father, former Comptroller Virvus Jones, that he should go on social media to point out a misstatement Spencer made about political patronage rules. The elder Jones did just that.
Then in May, Spencer introduced a bill to tighten laws in ºüÀêÊÓƵ on openly carrying firearms. For weeks after, the mayor’s office was silent on the proposal, other than to say it was researching it.
Then came July, and Spencer’s bill passed the Board of Aldermen by unanimous vote.
More importantly, in election terms, the public reaction to Spencer’s bill was substantially positive and many saw her efforts as a relatively small step — but also a constructive and enforceable one — toward a solution.
So three weeks after Jones signed Spencer’s gun bill, the mayor herself proposed several additional gun laws that aldermen currently are considering.
Jones’ position seems to echo the notion that if some is good, more is better — with no mention that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Add to all that a couple of other Jones-Spencer happenings:
Earlier this week, Post-Dispatch reporter Steph Kukuljan reported on security problems that still plague the abandoned Railway Exchange Building in downtown ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
Jones’ office said city officials are meeting with “key downtown stakeholders†to come up with solutions.
But Spencer, whose ward includes the old building, said she has never been included in that process. To Jones’ people, apparently, the area’s elected representative is not “key†to the process.
As any savvy incumbent like Jones knows, having your main political foe solve a problem for you simply creates another problem for you come reelection time.
Spencer might be able to build a better mousetrap, but don’t count on Jones’ office to supply the cheese.
Also this week, a local newspaper that once employed the mayor’s father published an anonymous column that used unnamed sources to say that Spencer was holding up stricter Airbnb regulations because she was catering to well-heeled business interests.
I have done everything BUT hold up Airbnb legislation. Asking repeatedly for stronger edits and a new version so that we can hold hearings for months. I finally received a new draft yesterday, ironically enough, coinciding with this "anonymous" hit piece.
— Cara Spencer (@CaraSpencerSTL)
Spencer went on social media to deny the allegation, saying she has been asking the Jones administration for stronger language in proposed Airbnb measures.
She also called the column a “hit piece†and chided the newspaper for purposely misleading the public.
Being veteran pols with reelection dates further on up the road, Hawley and Jones are not running scared. But they do seem to be running faster.