ST. LOUIS — Fox 2 is your local election headquarters and we’ve got big news about another major race taking shape. 

Two days after St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones declared the city was in a renaissance during her ‘State of the City’ address, she made her future intentions official:  she is running for a second term.

“My name is Tishaura O. Jones.  My pronouns are ‘she, her, hers,’ and I am running for reelection as Mayor of the City of St. Louis,” she said to a cheering crowd at the Third Degree Glass Factory Thursday night. 

She told Fox 2 that she expected competition.

“We don’t yet have an announced competitor; we’re running as though we do,” she said.

Pundits expect 2021 opponent, Alderwoman Cara Spencer, who faced off against Jones in a Fox 2 news debate, to make another mayoral run.  Jones beat Spencer by just 2,301 votes out of more than 58,000 cast, a margin of less than 4%.

Spencer did not comment on her own plans or the mayor’s announcement.

Jones believes she’s in a better position now than she was then, with crime down across the board during her first term, though homicides are “up” slightly so far this year.

She told the crowd that her push for better pay and places to live in every part of the city is working.  

As much as any opponent, she tells Fox 2 she’s fighting the election cycle, which will have St. Louis electing a mayor just a few months after voting for president and governor.

“I get it but local elections have more of an effect on your day-to-day lives than national elections.  My dad always says elections 9 miles away have more of an impact on your day-to-day life than elections 900 miles away,” she said.