Columbia’s city council looks different this month. For the first time in the city’s history, every seat on it is held by a woman, after Sharon Jones won the Fourth Ward’s special election on August 4.
Jones took 51% of the vote, according to KBIA, beating Dave Sorrell (38%) and Ryan King (11%). She fills the seat left by Nick Foster, who resigned in June to relocate to Atlanta — and who endorsed Jones twice on his way out the door.
Jones isn’t new to Columbia city government. She’s a civil rights attorney with more than 20 years of practice and has chaired the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission since 2020. She also founded the Jones Advocacy Group, a lobbying and legal support firm. Her campaign drew endorsements from LiUNA Local 955, the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, and the Sierra Club.
Council member Vera Elwood marked the moment plainly: “for the first time in Columbia history, we’re gonna have an all woman city council,” she told KBIA.
Jones ran on three themes — critically evaluating the city’s growth, listening to residents, and improving conditions for city employees — and says her first priorities in the seat are digging into the city budget, re-evaluating the Flock traffic camera program, and figuring out whether Columbia’s infrastructure problems come down to funding gaps or follow-through.
For readers out this way, Columbia is still the closest city hall, courthouse, and hospital system for a lot of daily errands, so who’s sitting on that council — and what they prioritize first — tends to ripple out to Howard and Cooper county residents too, even when the ballot itself doesn’t reach us.
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