1. Tishaura Oneda Jones is an American politician who has served as the mayor of St Louis, Missouri since April 2021.
54 Facts About Tishaura Jones
1. 2.
Tishaura Jones ran unopposed for re-election to the House in 2010.
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In 2012, Tishaura Jones ran for St Louis Treasurer and won the general election with 77.9 percent of the vote.
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Tishaura Jones was re-elected to the office in 2016 and 2020.
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Tishaura Jones was elected as Mayor of St Louis in the 2021 mayoral election, narrowly defeating St Louis Alderwoman Cara Spencer with 51.7 percent of the vote, becoming the first African-American female mayor in the city's history.
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Tishaura Oneda Jones was born on March 10,1972, in St Louis to Virvus and Laura Jones.
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Tishaura Jones's father was a former comptroller for the city.
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Tishaura Jones graduated from Affton High School in 1990 and enrolled in Hampton University, an historically black college in Hampton, Virginia.
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Tishaura Jones graduated from the school with a Bachelor of Science in finance in 1994.
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In 2001, Tishaura Jones earned a Master of Health Administration degree from the Saint Louis University College for Public Health.
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In 1995, after graduating from Hampton University, Tishaura Jones applied for a liquor license for a restaurant she was starting in the Central West End called Sugar's Place.
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Tishaura Jones's lien was released in 2003, and Jones said her credit score in 2017 was in the high 700s.
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Tishaura Jones said her experience with bankruptcy inspired her to create an office as treasurer that gives financial literacy instruction to St Louis residents.
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From May 2001 to June 2003, Tishaura Jones was an executive trainee at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital.
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Tishaura Jones began her political career in 2002, when she was appointed to the Democratic Party Central Committee for St Louis's eighth ward.
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On November 4,2008, Tishaura Jones was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives over independent candidate Nels Williams to represent the state's 63rd district.
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Tishaura Jones ran unopposed in 2010 to win her second term, and became both the first African-American and the first woman appointed to serve as the Missouri House's assistant minority floor leader.
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From March 2010 to June 2011, Tishaura Jones worked as the Vice President of Municipal Finance at the minority-owned, Oakland-based investment firm Blaylock Robert Van.
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Tishaura Jones served as St Louis Treasurer between January 1,2013, and her election as mayor in April 2021.
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In 2012, Tishaura Jones ran for the position of Treasurer of St Louis.
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Tishaura Jones was among four Democratic challengers in the primary election.
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Tishaura Jones stated that in addition to having the same qualifications as Wessels, she additionally had more relevant experience through her work with the investment banking firm Blaylock Robert Van, a fact which the Post-Dispatch did not mention.
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Tishaura Jones said she would look into offshoring jobs in the treasurer's office to see if that was more cost-effective.
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Tishaura Jones was sworn in on January 1,2013, becoming the first woman to serve as treasurer.
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Koran Addo of the Post-Dispatch noted how Tishaura Jones had changed the public perception of the treasurer's office and expanded its role:.
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In 2016, Tishaura Jones spoke at a plenary session alongside Robert Greenstein and Starsky Wilson where she talked about her "firsthand experiences with social movements" following the shooting of Michael Brown and the Ferguson unrest.
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Tishaura Jones was re-elected to a second four-year term as treasurer on November 8,2016, with 76.6 percent of the vote.
28.
In 2017, KMOV reported that Tishaura Jones had taken 50 trips during her first term as treasurer, including trips to attend conferences and meetings in Chicago, Las Vegas, New York City, Paris, and Washington, DC All the trips had been at least partially reimbursed by the city for a total of over $27,000.
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Tishaura Jones defended herself, stating that the trips were related to her office and denying that any of the trips were a form of kickback.
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The issue was brought to a circuit court, which ruled in favor of Tishaura Jones, finding she did not violate city ordinance.
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On November 3,2020, Tishaura Jones was re-elected with 77.6 percent of the vote.
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Tishaura Jones was elected as Mayor of St Louis in 2021, after losing her first mayoral race in the 2017 St Louis mayoral election, where she lost a bid to become mayor after being narrowly defeated in the city's Democratic primary by moderate Lyda Krewson.
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On November 4,2020, after being elected treasurer for a third term, Tishaura Jones announced she would campaign for the mayor's office.
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Tishaura Jones won the 2021 mayoral election against St Louis Alderwoman Cara Spencer on April 7,2021, and was sworn in on April 20.
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Tishaura Jones is the third African-American, the second woman, and the first African-American woman to hold the position.
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On November 17,2016, Tishaura Jones announced her candidacy in the 2017 mayoral election.
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Tishaura Jones's letter garnered national media attention, and was received favorably by readers and national press.
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The letter was viewed by over 250,000 people within a few days, and following the letter's publication, Tishaura Jones's campaign raised $36,000 in 48 hours.
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Tishaura Jones politically identifies as a progressive, and has generally been characterized as such by the media.
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Tishaura Jones says she supports abortion rights generally, although she has said she would not have an abortion herself.
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Tishaura Jones endorsed a statement condemning an abortion law passed by the Missouri General Assembly.
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Tishaura Jones has stated her support for no-judgment drug disposal sites, the abolition of cash bail, focused deterrence, and sobering centers.
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On February 2,2009, while in the Missouri House of Representatives, Tishaura Jones introduced a bill that would curtail state intervention into the St Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
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On May 17,2017, Tishaura Jones started a fundraiser on GoFundMe to remove the Memorial to the Confederate Dead, a Confederate memorial in Forest Park, after St Louis mayor Lyda Krewson said the only reason the memorial was still up was because it would cost the city too much to remove it.
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On June 26,2020, Tishaura Jones criticized Mayor Krewson and called on her to resign after Krewson listed the names, addresses, and proposed police budgets of several protesters calling to defund the police during a Facebook Live stream, a move which critics said was doxing.
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In June 2021, Tishaura Jones was one of 11 US mayors to form Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity, a coalition of municipal leaders dedicated to starting pilot reparations programs in their cities.
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On January 10,2012, while in the Missouri House of Representatives, Tishaura Jones introduced a bill to set stricter requirements for charter management organizations.
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In November 2015, as treasurer, Tishaura Jones created a program that opens a savings account for every St Louis kindergarten student in public school, funded entirely from revenue earned by parking meters.
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Tishaura Jones said the program was inspired by a similar initiative by San Francisco treasurer Jose Cisneros.
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Tishaura Jones believes that gun control is necessary to reduce violent crime.
51.
On January 13,2011, Tishaura Jones introduced a bill to the Missouri House of Representatives requiring the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to post resources on umbilical cord blood banking on its website.
52.
Virvus Tishaura Jones had defeated James Shrewsbury in the 1993 St Louis comptroller Democratic primary, a race where Walker had funded the campaign of "stalking horse candidate" Penny Alcott.
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In 2020, Tishaura Jones endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren and then Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party presidential primaries.
54.
On June 10,2020, Tishaura Jones revealed in a Facebook post that she was undergoing surgery for uterine fibroids.