Black Iowa Mayor Re-Elected After Being Targeted By Pro-Police Group
Voters in Waterloo, Iowa reelected the city’s first Black mayor and three Black candidates for City Council, now giving it its first Black majority ever.
The Associated Press reports the outcome of Tuesday’s election came after bitter debates over policing and race in the city, which houses roughly 67,300 Black people (less than 17 percent).
Quentin Hart, who was originally elected Waterloo’s mayor in 2015, won a fourth term to lead the city, defeating white challenger Margaret Klein, who campaigned as a champion of police.
Three of the four City Council seats on the ballot were won by three Black newcomers – pharmacist Rob Nichols, artist Nia Wilder, and music educator John Chiles. White incumbent, Ray Feuss, won reelection. The four defeated candidates were endorsed by political action committee Cedar Valley Backs the Blue that formed to oppose Hart’s reelection.
With the election results, four of the council’s seven members will be Black. Joel Fitzgerald, Waterloo’s first Black police chief who assumed the role last year, faced criticism and calls to resign from Klein, who was backed by the pro-police group. Critics accused the group of using racist campaign tactics to falsely paint Hart as an opponent of law enforcement who allowed crime to get out of control in Waterloo.
“This community chose working together, a message of unity, a message of hope and a message that is love for the city and not just division,” Hart told the AP on Wednesday (November 3).
Hart won 58 percent of the vote against Klein out of 13,400 ballots cast.
