Eastern unseats Jackson-Hicks for mayor in East St. Louis
East St. Louis will have a new mayor. Council member Robert Eastern III defeated incumbent Mayor Emeka Jackson-Hicks in unofficial election results.
According to Tuesday’s returns from the East St. Louis Election Commission, Eastern received 2,697 votes. Jackson-Hicks received 1,728 votes. Former mayor Carl Officer received 906 votes, and Darnell Thompson received 92 votes.
Eastern was not available for comment late Tuesday.
Jackson-Hicks was elected mayor in 2015, defeating incumbent Mayor Alvin Parks.
“We fought the good fight, I’m very proud of my team,” Jackson-Hicks said. “My hope is the new administration will continue to build on the foundation that this administration has already started. It takes more than one term for any mayor to make changes in a city like East St. Louis.”
In the 2015 election, as well as in this race, Jackson-Hicks received the endorsement of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. Jackson-Hicks was one of two candidates for mayor Durbin endorsed during this election cycle, a spokesman for the senator said.
Meanwhile, in Collinsville, with 26 out of 26 precincts reporting, Collinsville Mayor John Miller secured another term as mayor, defeating former City Council member Nancy Moss. Miller had 1,392 votes to 810 votes for Moss.
Voters in several metro-east communities also decided who they wanted to serve as mayor or village president in the April 2 election. Here are the unofficial results from the contested mayoral or village president elections:
East St. Louis
Robert Eastern III: 2,697 votes
Emeka Jackson-Hicks (incumbent): 1,728 votes
Carl Officer: 906 votes
Darnell Thompson: 92 votes
25 of 25 precincts reporting.
Collinsville
John Miller (incumbent): 1,392 votes
Nancy Moss: 810 votes
26 of 26 precincts reporting.
Cahokia
Curtis McCall Jr. (incumbent): 1,313 votes
Donna Ayres: 324 votes
Write-in votes: 264 votes
13 of 13 precincts reporting
Centreville
Marius Jackson (incumbent): 813 votes
Reginald “Red” Reynolds: 457 votes
Write-in votes: 4 votes
6 of 6 precincts reporting
Marissa
Chad Easton (incumbent): 335 votes
Rodney Rednour: 35 votes
2 of 2 precincts reporting
Hamel
Larry Bloemker (incumbent): 142 votes
Devin A. Bushrow: 73 votes
1 of 1 precincts reporting.
Find more election results from St. Clair Count, go to stclair.platinumelectionresults.com. For more results from Madison County, go to madisonvotes.com. Visit bnd.com/news/politics-government/election for more information about the candidates in some contested races who received questionnaires from the Belleville News-Democrat.
Reporter Carolyn P. Smith contributed to this article.
This story was originally published April 2, 2019 at 7:15 PM.
