ST. LOUIS — Mayor Tishaura O. Jones’ reelection campaign said Thursday that its chief challenger, Alderwoman Cara Spencer, is associating with Trump supporters, citing a pro-Trump message on a website with nearly the same name as Spencer’s political action committee.
But Spencer says the site’s a fraud, and is calling on Jones’ campaign to take back the allegation.
“Tishaura Jones and I disagree on many things,” Spencer said in a news release issued late Thursday. “But I would never blatantly lie and spread false claims in order to advance my campaign.”
Jones’ campaign first made mention of the site around 4 p.m. Thursday, when it sent an email to supporters with the subject line “Cara’s PAC endorses Trump??”
The email featured a screenshot of a site called with the words “We Chose Donald Trump” flashing across the screen.
People are also reading…
The name of Spencer’s PAC is “A Brighter Future for ӣƵ,” and the PAC’s site is .
The site in question — without the “a” — included video ads on its homepage that attacked Jones. And they were copies of ads produced by the PAC, staffer Jordan Overstreet confirmed. The videos earlier in the week.
But at the bottom of the home page in question was a small link button that said “more info.” That link led to a second page, also under the URL — again, missing the “a” — and on that page there were again video ads.
These ads had nothing to do with Spencer, however. Instead, they appeared to be old ads from a U.S. House primary last year, in which former state Sen. Bob Onder, from Lake Saint Louis, and former state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, from Columbia.
And these ads, on the second page, attacked Onder for not being enough of a supporter for President Donald J. Trump.
It was one of these that included the “We Chose Donald Trump” screenshot, suggesting Missourians picked Trump, but Onder hadn’t.
The Jones campaign, in its email Thursday, linked the Spencer ads on the home page with the anti-Onder ads on the second page, and then alleged that Spencer had allied with “some right-wing MAGA types” — a potentially damaging move in ӣƵ, where Trump won just 17% of the vote in November.
By 6 p.m. on Thursday, the site had been taken down.
Around that same time, Spencer called the Post-Dispatch. She said the Jones campaign was mistaken. Her PAC’s site includes only a photo of the downtown skyline and a link to donate money.
Her campaign later said it asked the Jones campaign to “issue a statement to clear the record and remove all references to this misinformation.”
Jones’ campaign did not respond to a call seeking comment.
Post-Dispatch photographers capture hundreds of thousands of images each year. Take a look at some from January 2025. Video edited by Jenna Jones.
