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ST. LOUIS — If the vote tally in Tuesday’s primary election showed anything, it was that many St. Louisans are ready for change.

In the mayor’s race, the challenger, Alderwoman Cara Spencer, won two-thirds of the votes; Mayor Tishaura O. Jones came in a distant second, with one-third.

And in the comptroller’s race, former alderwoman and state representative Donna Baringer won slightly more votes than 30-year incumbent Darlene Green.

Jones now faces a steep climb if she hopes to hold onto power in City Hall. And results in the comptroller’s race were another marker of incumbent weariness: Green hadn’t faced a serious challenge since 1996.

St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Megan Green, a Jones ally, said life is tough for incumbents all over right now. People want to see change quickly, or they want to change leaders, from the White House down to the local level, she said.

“Folks are just — they’re not happy,� she said.

But operational problems in the city — from administering grant programs, to snow removal to paying city bills on time — have weighed on the incumbents, too. Drops in homicides and violent crime Jones has taken credit for during her term have not been enough to overcome residents’ anger over slow trash pickup and water breaks, and a major January snowstorm that left streets icy for weeks is fresh on many voters' minds.

Jackson Hambrick, 32, of Tower Grove South, voted for Jones in 2021. He flipped to Spencer this time, and said the snowstorm debacle was emblematic of his concerns.

“The lack of urgency from the administration is the big one,� he said.

Several other voters in the progressive-leaning neighborhood, which backed Jones over Spencer by 17 points four years ago, said they had also switched their votes to Spencer.

“I’m just not pleased with how things are going,� said Bryndon Bay, 50, who voted for Jones in 2021.

Rachel Ruskin, 40, said she voted for Jones in 2021, too, and had high hopes.

“I was looking forward to women, and especially women of color, being in leadership positions,� she said.

But the south St. Louis resident was frustrated by problems with snow removal and trash pickup. This time, she voted for Spencer and Butler.

“I think she just dropped the ball on so many occasions,� Ruskin said.

Lana Stein, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said the vote totals Tuesday weren’t part of the international anti-incumbent wave but specific judgments on the two officials’ records.

“It’s not anti-incumbent,� Stein said. “It’s a question of what the incumbents have done or not done.�

Stein said Jones “had run a brilliant campaign� in 2021, but “as mayor, she didn’t follow through.�

The mayor maintained Tuesday that the election wasn’t over.

“It’s not over by a long shot,� Jones said. “We’ve got another 35 days.�

Jones’ supporters contend she still has a path if she boosts turnout — only 18% of registered voters in the city cast ballots Tuesday, about 10,000 fewer than in the primary four years ago. And, they say, the voters who backed Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler, who received 25% support in the primary, may coalesce around Jones in the second round.

But even if Butler’s 8,700 votes all went to Jones in the next round, it wouldn’t be enough to close Jones’ 12,000 vote gap with Spencer.

Butler declined to say whether he would endorse another candidate.

Ken Warren, the longtime pollster and St. Louis University professor, said the writing was on the wall.

“Those are very, very poor numbers for Jones,� he said. “It doesn’t look like we’re going to have anything other than a new mayor, Cara Spencer.�

Many of those voting for a new mayor are also voting for a new comptroller, which the city hasn’t had since the mayor’s father, Virvus Jones, resigned from the position in 1995 after he was charged with federal tax evasion.

While not as high profile as the mayor, the comptroller has one of three votes, along with the mayor and aldermanic president, on the powerful Board of Estimate and Apportionment, which sets city budgets and approves contracts. The comptroller also runs the city’s finance department, signs off on all contracts and runs the internal audit division, among other functions.

Mason Lampe, 29, of Tower Grove South, said he voted for Celeste Metcalf, who finished third in the comptroller’s race and won’t advance to the April general election. Lampe said news of absences and unpaid bills had shaken his confidence in the incumbent.

“Darlene Green’s been in there for a really long time,� he said, “and she hasn’t kept up.�

Which way Metcalf’s 8,500 supporters break — for Green and her long experience, or Baringer and a new face in one of the city’s most important offices — could decide the April contest.

Baringer won approval from almost 48% of voters, about 500 votes more than Green, who received support from 46%.

Metcalf, who ran on her experience as a certified public accountant and auditor in the public and private sectors, says she isn’t sure which way her backers will go and declined to endorse either one. Frankly, she said, she thinks neither Green nor Baringer have the qualifications to be comptroller. She ran because she doesn’t approve of Green’s performance. But she thinks Baringer doesn’t have the financial background for the job.

“Does the city need change? Yeah,� Metcalf said. “My concern is that it is going to take us further away from where we need to be.�

Joe Holleman of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.