2 women of color vying to be mayor of Boston
Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George advance to a runoff for a post long held by white men.
BOSTON — For the first time in 200 years, Boston’s voters have narrowed the field of mayoral candidates to two women of color, who will face off against each other in November.
City Councilmembers Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George topped the five-person race in Tuesday’s preliminary election. They bested acting Mayor Kim Janey, Councilmember Andrea Campbell and John Barros, the city’s former economic development chief. All five were candidates of color — a major shift away from two centuries of Boston politics dominated by white men.
Whoever wins the Nov. 2 runoff will make history in a city that has never elected a woman or Asian American as mayor. For the last 200 years, voters have chosen only a white man.
Wu’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan. Essaibi George describes herself as a first-generation Arab Polish American.
Wu and Essaibi George’s advancement in the election ushers in a new era for a city that has wrestled with racial and ethnic strife.
“I’m overjoyed that we are confident we’ve made the top two and are moving on to the final election,” Wu told her supporters earlier in the evening. “I just want to take a moment to honor and thank this historic field of candidates, an amazing moment for the city of Boston.”
Essaibi George said she was confident she could pose a significant challenge to Wu in November.
“I am so grateful to you showing up not just tonight but showing up for the last eight months,” she told supporters.
Wu spoke to reporters outside Boston City Hall on Wednesday.
“This is the moment in Boston that our campaign and our coalition has been calling for for a long time,” she said. “We got in this race … to ensure that Boston would step up to meet this moment.”
Essaibi George in her victory speech said the mayor of Boston can’t unilaterally restore rent control — a jab at Wu, who wants to revive a version of rent control, or rent stabilization, which was banned statewide by a 1994 ballot question.
Wu pushed back, saying she’s addressed tough challenges during her years on the City Council.
“We took on issues that people said were pie in the sky, would be impossible to accomplish, but by building coalitions, working across all levels of government and continuing to bring community members to the table, we knocked those down, one by one,” she said.
This year, Janey became the first Black Bostonian and first woman to occupy the city’s top office in an acting capacity after former Mayor Marty Walsh stepped down to become President Biden’s Labor secretary.
“I want to congratulate Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George on their victories this evening,” Janey said in a statement. “This was a spirited and historic race, and I wish them both luck in the final election.”
There had been an effort among some leaders in the Black community to rally around a single candidate to ensure that at least one Black hopeful could claim one of the top two slots.
All of the candidates are Democrats. Mayoral races in Boston do not include party primaries.
Wu was elected to the Boston City Council in 2013 at age 28, becoming the first Asian American woman to serve. In 2016, she was elected City Council president by her colleagues in a unanimous vote, becoming the first woman of color to serve as president.
Essaibi George won key endorsements during the race, including from unions representing firefighters, nurses and emergency medical technicians. She also won the backing of former Boston Police Commissioner William Gross.
Essaibi George grew up in the city’s Dorchester neighborhood and taught in the Boston public school system. She was elected to the City Council in 2015.
The November contest could be a test of whether voters in a city long dominated by parochial neighborhood and ethnic politics are ready to embrace someone like Wu, who grew up in Chicago.
Wu moved to Boston to attend Harvard University and Harvard Law School and studied under Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), then a law professor. She’s the only candidate not born in Boston.