St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter Announces Re-Election Bid

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The mayor of Minnesota's capital city has announced he is running for re-election.

Mayor Melvin Carter, a St. Paul native, is currently serving his first term. He previously served on the city council and is St. Paul's first African-American mayor.

"Serving as Mayor of the city that raised me is a great honor, and I am humbled by the broad array of support we've already received to continue this work," Carter said in a release.

Among Carter's first-term accomplishments: raising St. Paul's minimum wage to $15 an hour and establishing support programs such as CollegeBound Saint Paul and the People's Prosperity Guaranteed Income Pilot. The former gives every child born in the city a $50 college savings account, while the latter provides $500 in guaranteed monthly income to 150 families for 18 months.

Aside from guiding the city through the COVID-19 pandemic and unrest following the death of George Floyd, challenges during Carter's first term included a heated debate over the city's garbage collection, concerns about gun violence and disagreements with the city's police chief.