Darrell McCoy wins Hannibal mayor’s race

HANNIBAL, Mo. — The McCoy family had a busy night Tuesday night.

One of the family’s four children had a school musical, another had dance practice and dad Darrell McCoy defeated Charlie Phillips in a landslide victory to become the next mayor of the city of Hannibal.

“I’m excited for Hannibal,” McCoy said in a phone interview with Muddy River News after results were in. “I’m excited that the voters were able to make it out today and vote and really excited to just hit the ground running, really focusing on just trying to bring that unity back to the city.”

McCoy will succeed Mayor Barry Louderman, who was elected in a Nov. 7, 2023 special election.

Results of the city’s non-partisan municipal election show that McCoy won 1,112 votes, or 61.5%, in Marion County and 60% of the vote (9 total votes) in Ralls County, compared to Phillips’ 38.5% and 40% respectively.

McCoy was appointed in 2020 by the Hannibal City Council as the 1st Ward Council Member to fill the vacancy of James Godert, who resigned mid-term. He was then elected in April 2021 to a full three-year term in the 1st Ward. He chose not to run for re-election in May 2024 but eventually was appointed to the Hannibal Board of Works in July 2024, a position he resigned from to pursue his candidacy as mayor. 

“I really just felt like it was time for me to bring all that experience together into one place for one position and use that to really just help unify everybody, bring everybody together, to have the civil and educated conversations on how we move forward,” he said.

At a mayoral forum last month, McCoy said that the city had “kicked the can down the road so many times on so many issues.” He said his first priority will be to figure out what the city’s priorities even are.

“By that, I mean really sitting down with all of the stakeholders, the community members, the elected officials, our department heads and really developing a solid roadmap and a plan on how to move the city forward,” he said.

One of those priorities, he said, will have to be addressing the city’s funding disparities within its police and fire departments, where McCoy served as a firefighter for 10 years. Muddy River News asked both candidates what their plans were to address the issue if lobbying efforts in Jefferson City fail at last month’s forum, but the question was derailed by Louderman. The question was posed again to McCoy Tuesday night.

“We’re really going to have to dig into our budget and look at any leverage we can pull to just keep that budget as balanced as possible,” he said. “(We have to) figure out if there’s anything that we can adjust or change, because police and fire have to be one of our biggest priorities — making sure that we have enough people that are trained and compensated.”

His professional career began as an EMT with the Marion County Ambulance District for 12 years. He was the coroner for Marion County from 2010 to 2014 before becoming a conductor/engineer for the BNSF Railway. He is now a division trainmaster for BNSF, supervising approximately 100 employees and providing logistics/transportation oversight for a territory spanning from Burlington, Iowa to St. Louis.

McCoy thanked Phillips for “the good, clean campaign we had” and said he appreciated everything he’s done as a council member.

“The duties in the role of the mayor are not for the timid, they’re not for the average person, and I sincerely hope Mr. McCoy is up to it. Time will tell,” Phillips said in a phone call after the results were in. “I hope he stands by his campaign pledges of unity. Hannibal has a lot of issues; I would hate to see Mr. McCoy implement any new initiatives before our existing issues have been resolved.”

Phillips and his wife, Laurel, moved to Hannibal in 2015. In March 2022, they opened the Quarry House, a 1920 home they transformed into an Airbnb on the city’s south side. He was first elected to a three-year term as the 4th Ward councilman in April 2022 when he defeated Euhlan Leeders Jr. with 78 percent of the vote. 

His role on the Economic Development Committee and his support of police and fire raises, the implementation of a public comment period and a monthly city manager report were listed among the accomplishments he achieved while on the council. 

“I wish Mr. McCoy all the success, and I stand behind him as he guides us into a new administration. I really do. I mean that from the heart,” Phillips said.

Phillips said he “will certainly endeavor to continue with public service” in Hannibal going forward.

Leeders Jr. ran again for the 4th Ward seat, but this time unopposed on the ballot, with the exception of write-in candidates Amy Powell and Ryan Adcock. Leeders Jr. will replace Phillips if he outpaces the write-ins, which are still pending as the results are unofficial.

The 2nd Ward race concluded in a run-off, as no candidate secured 50% of the vote. April Azotea leads Tammy Riley and Earl Hughes III with 45 percent of the vote. The winner will replace 15-year councilman Mike Dobson on the council.

Donald Bastian ran unopposed for municipal judge. He was first elected in April 2018 after he completed the term of Frederich Cruse, who retired in September 2017.