For nearly twenty years, Henry Iwenofu served as a member of the village board in Uplands Park, a small community in St. Louis county. Iwenofu likes to point to this as a qualification for other offices. After all, he is a seasoned elected official, with years of experience in guiding municipal government, right? Well, not exactly. The Iwenofu era in Uplands Park was marked by chaos and decline, and nearly ended the existence of Uplands Park as an incorporated community. We start our look at the Uplands Park years with Iwenofu’s election history.
His First Election
According to the biographical summary on what appears to be the village’s website – which, incidentally, still lists Iwenofu as their board chair at the date of this writing, in the midst of his campaign for Ferguson city council – Iwenofu claims to have been first elected in 2004. According to the St. Louis County Board of Election results for that year, Carmen McClendon and Charles Gamble were elected in 2004. Iwenofu is not listed as a candidate. Uplands Park did not elect any board members in the other elections of that year.
Iwenofu was not a candidate in 2005, either.
Nor in 2003.
The first election of Iwenofu we found was 2006. He took second place, receiving 57 votes.
Subsequent Elections
After being elected to the village board, he immediate began a campaign for state representative, running in a primary against Esther Haywood. Haywood, who was first elected to the seat in 2000, was a beloved local figure who had served on the Normandy school board for 18 years. She moved to the state legislature after the departure of Rita Days, who now serves as the county council representative for that area. Iwenofu failed to interrupt Haywood’s tenure in the legislature.
In 2008, Iwenofu was reelected, gaining second place in an election where the top 3 were winners.
In 2010, he came in third place, and again the top 3 were winners.
He finally came out on top in 2012.
But in 2014, the tide turned. Iwenofu came in dead last in a field of six candidates.
In 2016, he lost again, with a 5th place finish in a field of 6 candidates.
He ran again in 2017, finishing 4th in a 5 way race.
He didn’t run in 2018 through 2020. But he was back in 2021.
Finally, he was reelected in 2023, retaining his seat with 21 votes. His term in that office ends in April 2025. We presume, though we can’t verify, that he has resigned, since he no longer resides in Uplands Park.
Interesting fact, though: Iwenofu had already purchased his home in the Black Oaks subdivision of Ferguson when he was a candidate for office in Uplands Park.
