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Nasheed to run for Board of Aldermen president

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Sen. Jamilah Nasheed announced on Monday that she has filed to run for Board of Aldermen president for the City of St. Louis, which will be elected in April of next year.

“Now more than ever we need an effective leader,” Nasheed said.

Nasheed will be running against current president Lewis Reed and Megan Green. She says that she is ready to be the leader that the City of St. Louis needs.

In a column that she wrote to announce her run, Nasheed touched on the great things that are happening in the St. Louis region but also noted that residents have been left behind in those great changes.

“Our city needs an effective leader to move us forward and provide the solutions that we deserve,” she wrote.

Nasheed also touched on Reed’s 16 years of leadership, saying that he had the chance to turn the City of St. Louis around but has instead been working to privatize the city’s biggest asset, the St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

If elected to the position, Nasheed plans to make sure that neighborhoods are equitable across the St. Louis region. She wants to work on the development of neighborhoods and job creations. She would also like to work and form private and public partnerships to create after-school programs.

Nasheed noted that the roads are bad and once you go north, the city is deplorable, she would like to work on fixing that as well as bring down the federal budget so that city workers can receive that pay raises that they deserve.

“I also want to unite the Board of Aldermen,” Nasheed said. “The leadership has been a disaster. They need an agenda and a say in what they want. Members will have me as their mouthpiece and I will fight for their priorities.”

Nasheed has represented the 5th District in the Missouri Senate since 2013. Through her work in various committees, she has secured to fight crime, poverty and property and neglect while also increasing education opportunities and job programs for people across the City of St. Louis.

Before serving in the Senate, Nasheed represented the 60th District in the Missouri House of Representatives from 2007 to 2013. She was the first Muslim woman to serve in a state legislature.

In 2008, Nasheed passed House Bill 2191 which ensured the benefits of the A+ Scholarship Program for high school students in Missouri’s unaccredited school districts. The bill resulted in thousands of St. Louis students having the eligibility for free tuition to two-year colleges and technical schools.

Nasheed said that she plans to win this election in the same way that she has won all of her elections, with the three M’s: Money, Message and Machine, and maybe a fourth M, Media. She said that they are part of each other when it comes to campaigning.

“This ain’t my first rodeo,” Nasheed said. “My record is something that I can run on. I know how to win races and be an effective leader and how to articulate who I am to the people in St. Louis who don’t know me.”