St. Paul poised for City Council shake-up, as at least two races remain undecided

St. Paul voters on Tuesday elected three incumbents and one newcomer to the City Council, while another first-time candidate in the Third Ward appeared headed to victory after a challenger conceded.

Races in the First and Seventh wards will not be decided until Friday at the earliest.

Female candidates led contests in all seven wards, meaning the capital city could have an all-women council for the first time in its history. With four current members stepping down at the end of the year, the council is poised for its biggest shakeup since the 1990s.

Council members Rebecca Noecker, Mitra Jalali and Nelsie Yang easily won re-election in St. Paul's Second, Fourth and Sixth wards, according to preliminary results from Ramsey County.

Nonprofit director and former council aide Hwa Jeong Kim also declared a win over three challengers in St. Paul's Fifth Ward.

In the Third Ward's four-person race, civil engineer Saura Jost held a strong lead with 48% of first-choice votes. Isaac Russell, her closest opponent with 30% of first-choice votes, conceded late Tuesday with a social media post congratulating Jost on her victory.

The new council will serve four-year terms starting Jan. 1.

Winners in the First, Third and Seventh wards won't be officially determined until at least Friday, when Ramsey County election officials will start to tally second-choice votes. St. Paul has used ranked-choice voting since 2011, meaning voters can cast their ballots for multiple candidates in order of preference. Under this system, candidates must earn more than 50% of first-choice votes to secure an election night victory.

No candidate met that threshold in the First Ward's eight-way contest, but entrepreneur and community organizer Anika Bowie led Tuesday with 40% of first-choice votes. She was trailed by school guidance counselor James Lo and small-business owner Omar Syed, who both earned close to 20% of first-choice votes.

Two of the Seventh Ward's six candidates appeared locked in a tight race: Philanthropy program officer Cheniqua Johnson garnered 41% of first-choice votes, followed closely by social work professor Pa Der Vang with 36% of first-choice votes.

The new council will take on perennial issues such as public safety strategies and rising property taxes and fees, as well as deteriorating streets, which could get a funding boost from the 1% sales tax proposal also on the ballot Tuesday.

Election results have implications for a wide range of policies and projects debated on the campaign trail, including the city's rent stabilization law, the planned Summit Avenue bike trail and a 2024 ballot measure proposing a special property tax levy to offer child care subsidies to low-income families.

Some candidates hoped to push the council further left — a shift that many Democratic cities, including Minneapolis, have seen in recent years. Mayor Melvin Carter and the city's DFL Party endorsed a slate of female candidates — mostly women of color — campaigning together on a progressive agenda.

One of those candidates, Johnson, earned the vote of Rosalind Loggin, who cast her ballot Tuesday for the Seventh Ward candidate at Battle Creek Recreation Center.

"I like the way she says she's going to help," Loggin said. "I'm just hoping that actual change really takes place."

At the same polling location, Annie Handford and David Rosenbloom cast their ballots for Vang, saying the social work professor had impressed them during a door knocking campaign.

"I felt … that she was more grounded in reality, it was less of a utopian vision that she had," Rosenbloom said. "I would like to see the City Council be more grounded in trying to do concrete things for the city rather than attempting to do social policy."

St. Paul's odd-year elections historically see much lower turnout compared to presidential election years or midterm contests. The last council elections in 2019, when a trash collection referendum was also on the ballot, drew about 56,000 voters — about a third of those registered in the city.

With fewer people casting ballots, final-stretch get-out-the-vote efforts can make all the difference. When Council President Amy Brendmoen was first elected in 2011, she defeated an incumbent by just 36 votes.

Now Brendmoen's former aide, Kim, is running to replace her. Kristin and Nathan Asmus said they cast their ballots for Kim at the North Dale Recreation Center after she stopped by their house to campaign.

"We talked for like a half hour, just like a regular conversation with someone I knew," Nathan Asmus said.

Kristin added that though council elections don't affect national politics, she's been alarmed by former President Donald Trump's rise in the polls, prompting her to urge others: "You've just got to get out and vote."

Staff writer Greta Kaul contributed to this report.