Incumbents dominate early results in Boston’s 2025 City Council election

Voters in Tuesday’s preliminary election narrowed down the wide field of candidates for Boston City Council, reducing the total roster for the Nov. 4 general election from 41 to 24.

In the at-large race, with 49% of votes counted, unofficial tallies showed that incumbents Erin Murphy received 17.7% (18,018) of the vote, Ruthzee Louijeune 17.30% (17,631), Julia Mejia 16.3% (16,653) and Henry Santana 12.6% (12,869), former Councilor Frank Baker 12.3% (12,470) and Alexandra E. Valdez 7.6% (7,717), Marvin Dee Mathelier 5.5% (5,575), Will Onuoha 4.7% (4,752), Rachel Nicole Miselman 3.3% (3,353) and Yves Mary Jean 2.4% (2,460) appear to be the candidates that will vie for the four at-large seats in the Nov. 4 General Election.

The largest field of candidates of the 2025 campaign was for District 7 Councilor, the seat vacated by former Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, who resigned in July after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.

Of the 13 candidates running to replace her, the four best vote getters with 37% of the vote counted are Mavrick Afonso with 18% (493) of the votes, Samuel Hurtado 17.8% (480), Said Coach Ahmed 13.6% (366) and Said Abdirahman Abdikarim 13.2% (357), unofficial tallies showed.

The two best finishers move on to the General Election.

In District 1, with 55% of the vote counted, incumbent Gabriela Coletta Zapata, who received 79% (3,319) of the votes, will move on to the November election. Andretti R. McDuffie-Stanziani, who received 13% (561) of the votes will likely move on to face Zapata. Ricardo M. Rodriguez received about 7% (302) of the vote,

In District 2, with 52% of ballots tallied, incumbent Edward M. Flynn garnered 87% (3,993) of the vote. His challengers are neck-and-neck, with Charles Jeffrey Delaney getting 6.3% (290) of the votes and Brian Matthew Foley getting 5.8% (265) of the votes.

In District 4, with 28% of the vote counted, incumbent Brian J. Worrell received 81% (1,283) of the vote, followed by Helen Y. Cameron with 12% (189) and Juwan Khiry Skeens with 6% (94) of the vote.

In District 5, with 10% of the vote counted, incumbent Enrique Pepen received 62% (703) of the vote, Winston Pierre 24.6% (280) and Sharon L. Hinton 13.4% (152).

There were no preliminary contests in Districts 3, 6, 8 or 9. District 3 Councilor John FitzGerald and District 8 Councilor Sharon Durkan are running unopposed.

District 6 Councilor Ben Weber is facing a challenge from Steven Berry, while District 9 Councilor Liz Breadon is running against Pilar Ortiz.