BREAKING NEWS: In a surprisingly clean-fought yet vigorously challenged campaign, Mike Thoms has won re-election for Mayor of Rock Island over energetic

Mike Thoms

and impressive challenger Thurgood Brooks.

According to official results, Thoms won 52-48 percent with a little over 5,000 votes cast.

This is Thoms’ second term. He won over a number of challengers in an open field in 2017 after then-mayor Dennis Pauley decided not to run for a third term.

The Thoms/Brooks contest was marked by its vigorous intellectual and political debate, with the more centrist Thoms facing off against a decidedly more progressive, and younger, Brooks. Both ran remarkably classy campaigns, with fliers and advertisements which emphasized their own strengths and honest disagreements in policy between the two, rather than mud-slinging. It was a refreshing and welcome change which put the onus on the ideas and ideology of both.

Thoms has said in previous interviews with QuadCities.com and our podcast, QCUncut, that his emphasis moving forward would be on continuing the economic growth of Rock Island, especially coming out of the harsh times of covid, which have devastated the city, and the downtown in particular. We wish him the best in those endeavors, and hope that he and Brooks find common ground to work together to build the city they both strove to lead.

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Sean Leary Director of Digital Media

Sean Leary is an author, director, artist, musician, producer and entrepreneur who has been writing professionally since debuting at age 11 in the pages of the Comics Buyers Guide. An honors graduate of the University of Southern California masters program, he has written over 50 books including the best-sellers The Arimathean, Every Number is Lucky to Someone and We Are All Characters.