Mayor-elect Phillip Jones hopes to bring change, fresh perspective to Newport News

Marine Corps veteran, businessman and Harvard graduate Phillip Jones made history last week by becoming the youngest African American elected as Newport News mayor after incumbent McKinley Price decided not to seek another term.

Jones, 33, defeated three City Council members — Vice Mayor Saundra Cherry, David Jenkins and Tina Vick — by a substantial margin in the Nov. 8 election, winning 40% of the vote.

But how did a political newcomer manage to defeat three opponents who had far more name recognition? According to supporters of Jones, they wanted a change.

Andrew Emerson, a 19-year-old political science major at Christopher Newport University, said he liked that Jones was young and previously felt the council didn’t represent younger voices.

“He seems to really know what he’s talking about whenever he spoke,” Emerson said. “He commands debate in a way that just the other candidates didn’t do. And I really appreciated that in a candidate.”

Pat Taylor, a 77-year-old resident of the Southeast Community, met with Jones on her front porch while he was campaigning. Taylor had grown unhappy with City Council in recent years — particularly over its controversial vote earlier this year to relocate Huntington Middle School, which once served as the city’s only high school for Black students.

She also feels there’s too much division and finger-pointing in Newport News — between the City Council and School Board and among the council itself. What drew her to Jones was “his spirit of inclusiveness. That we can not be divided and be successful.” She added that Jones “wore his heart on his sleeve” and displayed “a lot of aspiration” and “great potential.”

Jones grew up in Newport News, and both of his parents served in the military. His mother, Martha Stevenson-Jones, says that service and community involvement had been part of his nature since childhood.

“He’s very positive,” she said. “He likes to look at different things that are going on, and to be able to get involved. And so he really enjoys meeting people at the food bank, for example, Habitat for Humanity, those different organizations, because that’s just part of our family. That’s what we do.”

She said Jones “enjoys challenges” and has — since his teenage years — striven to be a leader, excel and “look for ways of improvement.”

After graduating high school, Jones went to the United States Naval Academy and later served in six years of active duty with the Marine Corps. He was commissioned as an infantry officer, leading peacekeeping and security cooperation missions in Asia, Europe, and Africa, according to his campaign website. He later got graduate degrees in business and public policy from Harvard.

He came back to Newport News in 2019 from Cambridge, Massachusetts. When he returned to the city, he felt it wasn’t “the best version of itself it could be.”

Jones said he had always had a desire to play a influential role in shaping the city, but was unsure at first whether to do so as a businessman or as an elected official. In 2020, he became a consultant with management consulting firm Bain & Company.

“I knew the goal was, I’m going to finish Harvard and I’m going to come back in some capacity,” Jones said. “That was always the bottom line — I will be involved in Newport News and Hampton. Because really, I think of it as the peninsula. I was like, I will be involved in the peninsula in some capacity after I graduate. And then things just happened that accelerated it — COVID accelerated it, Mayor Price not running accelerated it, and just everything came together.”

During his time at Bain, he helped other companies and nonprofits “become the best version of themselves” and he believed he could do the same with Newport News.

Jones started attending as many city government, nonprofit and community meetings as he could. He would chat with community members — many of whom had grievances with the council — about what they wanted in their city leadership. All of them said they wanted someone who could unify the city. Eventually, Jones decided he could be that person.

Earlier this spring, Jones got Ryan Jackson — who had previously worked on the campaigns for former governor Terry McAullife, Senator Mark Warner and Congressman Bobby Scott — to sign on as his campaign manager. Jackson had many connections in Hampton Roads due to his work on political campaigns and introduced Jones to many of them.

“We live in a military community, so I think the veteran aspect resonated well,” Jackson said. “The youth part resonated, too. I think new energy for Newport News resonated. It became a lot of our branding and slogan.”

Jackson said people “knew what they would get” with the three other council members and that Jones brought “a fresh perspective” and a clear vision for Newport News. Emerson said that since Jones is a newcomer, he didn’t have any baggage that the incumbents on the council may have had, and there were no “receipts” of him making promises and failing to keep them.

Jones, who’s engaged to be married, made an effort to knock on doors and introduce himself. He said he gradually won the support of business leaders, community leaders, pastors and military leaders. “It sort of coalesced into a big tent movement,” he said.

Jones campaigned on fully funding and accrediting the city’s schools, improving public safety, helping small businesses grow and bringing unity among the various city wards.

According to the Virginia Public Access Project, Jones raised $221,574 in donations — more than the other three combined by more than $100,000. Among his top donors was Arthur Casey of the Casey Auto Group, who contributed $10,000.

Casey said the other candidates were “nice people,” but “it’s time for a new spark.” He said Jones is “the kind of person I think that can build a consensus and bring people together. There’s been too much divisiveness on this on this council for a long time.”

Jones also started receiving endorsements from high-profile officials like former Governor Terry McAuliffe and state Senator and former Hampton Mayor Mamie Locke. Jones had become friends with McAuliffe’s son Jack several years prior. Jones said they went to the Naval Academy, Marine Corps and Harvard Business School together.

Jones said three campaign promises particularly resonated with voters — facilitating open communication and dialogue, being held accountable, and full transparency. Many also liked his proposal to broadcast work sessions.

“I think people across the country are hungry for younger and perhaps new leadership,” he said, crediting his team. “I think that helps me because I came in, and I was seen as an agent of change.”

Stevenson-Jones believes a big part of her son’s success was that he makes himself available and is “a good listener.” She described election night as “surreal.”

“It happened so quickly — from the time the polls closed to the time we received the actual numbers, it was really fast,” she said. “And I tell you, we were proud. Just really, really proud.”

Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com