Kim Gardner wins in rematch for St. Louis Circuit Attorney
Kimberly Gardner won a rematch Tuesday with Mary Pat Carl for the Democratic nomination for St. Louis Circuit Attorney, according to unofficial election results.
Gardner won 60.7 percent of the vote compared to Carl’s 39.2 percent. Gardner will go on to face Republican challenger Daniel Zdrodowski in November.
Gardner, who assumed office in 2017, is known for her role in prosecuting former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens in 2018. Prior to becoming prosecutor, she served as a state representative for Missouri’s 77th district from 2013 to 2017.
The circuit attorney has been a target for conservatives since her role in the Greitens case, and most recently Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley asked the Department of Justice to investigate her prosecution of a St. Louis couple accused of brandishing weapons at Black Lives Matter protesters in June. Gardner also drew the ire of President Donald Trump for filing felony charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey.
Though Gardner’s office dropped the prosecution against Greitens, the governor ultimately resigned.
In January, Gardner — St. Louis’ first Black circuit attorney — filed a federal lawsuit claiming the city and police union were involved in a racist conspiracy to remove her from office, the Associated Press reported. The mayor’s office and union have both denied any wrongdoing.
Black female prosecutors from across the country came to Gardner’s support, sharing their experiences with racism and sexism in their positions.
Gardner defeated Carl in the 2016 Democratic primary with 47 percent of the vote compared to Carl’s 24 percent.
Carl was the city’s assistant circuit attorney from 2003 to 2017, focusing on homicides and other violent crime. She became a partner attorney at the Husch Blackwell law firm in November 2017, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She campaigned on tough prosecution for violent crime and “alternatives to incarceration that provide job training and educational opportunities” for non-violent offenders, according to her website.
During her campaign for reelection, Gardner has claimed she successfully shifted her office away from the “tough-on-crime” approach toward “progressive prosecutor” policies. Under her tenure, the office stopped prosecuting low-level marijuana possession offenses, and convictions decreased compared to her predecessor by more than a thousand, St. Louis Magazine reported in July.
Reporter Bryan Lowry contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 9:56 PM.
