Boston Mayor Michelle Wu formally kicked off her reelection marketing campaign with a pointed speech that sought to painting herself as the one cheap choice to guide the town at a time when it’s “under attack” by the federal administration.
Wu took practically an hour and a half to take the stage Saturday on the Cyclorama constructing within the South Finish, the place roughly 1,200 folks had been ready to listen to her communicate, in line with a crowd estimate from a marketing campaign consultant.
When the mayor did lastly step as much as the mic, she pulled no punches when it got here to laying out how damaging she mentioned it might be for the town if voters select to elect her predominant opponent within the race, Josh Kraft, son of the billionaire New England Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft and a political newcomer.
At a time when Boston is “under attack” by a federal administration that’s “threatened by who we are as a city,” Wu mentioned, “now is not the time for a mayor who needs on-the-job training.”
Whereas lambasting Kraft, Wu additionally appeared to take intention at Thomas O’Brien, a distinguished actual property developer within the metropolis who was contemplating difficult her within the mayor’s race however modified his thoughts a few week in the past.
“Now is certainly not the time to hand the keys over to billionaires or developers,” Wu mentioned. “We’ve already seen what happens when millionaires and billionaires try to run a country. We don’t need to see what happens when they run a city, too — because this is our city and our city is not for sale.”
Wu, nonetheless, aimed nearly all of her vitriol at her present challenger. Together with highlighting his political inexperience, she raised doubts about Kraft’s skill to place the town first relating to his household’s enterprise pursuits.
Relations have been frosty between the Wu administration and the Kraft Group in latest months. The 2 sides are working to hammer out a group mitigation settlement for impacts the Krafts’ plan to construct an expert soccer stadium in Everett would have on the close by Charlestown neighborhood in Boston.
Kraft has mentioned he would recuse himself from issues associated to the Everett stadium deal, which Wu and different Boston officers have criticized attributable to visitors impacts and the town’s lack of involvement within the Krafts’ planning, ought to he be elected mayor.
“Boston doesn’t need a mayor who has to recuse himself from conflicts of interest,” Wu mentioned. “We need a mayor whose only interest is Boston, who fights for Boston’s success, instead of standing on the sidelines rooting against us.”
Wu, a first-term mayor, is launching her reelection marketing campaign at a time when she’s within the nationwide highlight for taking over the Trump administration, together with by verbally sparring with President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan.
She’s coming off a robust look in Washington D.C. final month, when she testified earlier than the Republican-led Congressional oversight committee, which is probing sanctuary cities like Boston and their impression on public security — when it comes to their insurance policies that restrict native cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Wu leaned into her public battle with the Trump administration throughout her reelection marketing campaign speech, and touted her administration’s public security file, saying that it has set “record lows” in homicides annually she’s been in workplace, “and now we’re the safest major city in the country.”
“I promise you that Boston will never back down from fighting for our families and our future,” Wu mentioned. “Boston will never back down, not from kings, not from bullies and not from naysayers who want to take us backward.”
Requested afterwards whether or not the nationwide consideration has led her to contemplate a bid for increased workplace or made her give any thought to not working for mayor once more, Wu, who waited seven months to formally launch her marketing campaign after first stating her intention to run for reelection final July, gave a one-word reply.
“No,” she mentioned.
Wu’s pictures at Kraft and the Trump administration drew the loudest applause, however she additionally used her speech to bounce between touting her first-term accomplishments, and making a pitch to voters to stay together with her to let her proceed the work that she promised she would once they first elected her.
The mayor touched on her efforts to enhance housing affordability and deal with local weather change, referencing an initiative she led that can require all new constructing building to stick to net-zero emission requirements starting this yr.
She additionally mentioned management on the Boston Public Faculties, which narrowly escaped state receivership just a few years in the past, has stabilized below her watch after 4 years of “revolving-door” instability.
Wu mentioned she’s remade the town’s planning division, established three free MBTA bus routes in Boston via February 2026, and maintained the town’s AAA bond ranking.
“Over the next four years, it will get harder before it gets easier for our families,” Wu mentioned. “I am asking for your vote and I am asking for your support because we have more work to do and Boston needs a mayor that fights for them.”
The Kraft marketing campaign issued a scathing response to Wu’s speech, saying the mayor has did not ship on main marketing campaign guarantees, like enacting hire management, making the MBTA free for residents, delivering a Inexperienced New Deal for Boston colleges, switching to an elected college committee, making housing extra inexpensive and fixing Mass and Cass.
“Lots of words, lofty claims, and victory laps on national issues is what Mayor Wu offered today, but what Bostonians are looking for is someone who is connected to their concerns and challenges and is focused on helping them,” Kraft, a longtime philanthropist, mentioned in a press release. “As mayor, I will listen to the people of this city and my focus will be on producing real results.
“Mayor Wu has taken an ideology-first, results-second approach to governing,” he added. “The results? Record high rents and home prices. A 20% increase in city spending and a 10% residential tax increase while pledging to spend $100 million (‘whatever it costs’) for White Stadium. No progress on ending the human suffering and public safety problems at Mass and Cass. Parents taking their kids out of the public school system in record numbers. Millions spent on poorly designed and hastily installed bike lanes clogging our streets. And an election department in state receivership.
“Not to mention she has failed to deliver on a single campaign promise she made to the people of Boston.”
