Boston Mayor Michelle Wu cruised to victory in her uncontested bid for a second term Tuesday night, as votes in City Council races were still being counted.
Wu declared victory just past 9:30 p.m. Tuesday as vote counts were still being posted by the city’s Election Department. Additionally, Wu said from the stage that at-large Councilor Henry Santana won his re-election “in a landslide.”
Former City Councilor Frank Baker, looking to make a comeback in Tuesday’s election, said he had not seen final results yet. After September’s primary, Santana was seen as the most vulnerable incumbent on the at-large slate.
Wu, a popular progressive Democrat, will serve a second, four-year term as mayor. Hers was the only name on the mayoral ballot, a situation that was created after she defeated her principal challenger, Josh Kraft, by 49 points in the September preliminary election, leading him to drop out of the race just days later.
Wu’s reelection bid was bolstered by her defiance of the Trump administration, on immigration and other local matters. She was thrust into the national spotlight for her defense of the city’s sanctuary policies, which provide protections for illegal immigrants, at a Republican-led Congressional oversight committee last March.
U.S. Rep Ayanna Pressley congratulated Wu on “her decisive reelection” in a statement.
“Mayor Wu is leading our city through consequential times with clear vision and standing firm in defense of our neighbors,” Pressley said. “The mayor ran a grassroots, people-powered campaign and earned strong support in every neighborhood of Boston. Thank you to the organizers, volunteers, and voters who made this historic victory possible.”
With the mayor’s race all but determined since Kraft, the son of the billionaire New England Patriots owner, bowed out in September, Wu’s focus has been on the City Council elections, particularly the at-large race, where she has been working to get Santana, her ally and former employee, reelected for months.
Wu’s election night rave was co-hosted by Santana and City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune.
Former Mayor Marty Walsh has backed Baker, who ran citywide for the first time in a comeback bid that came just two years after he opted not to seek reelection to the Dorchester-centric District 3 seat he held for more than a decade.
Results were still being counted for the City Council races as of Herald’s first edition banger the presses, with all eyes on the at-large race. Santana finished fourth in the September preliminary, and has been viewed by political observers as the incumbent most at risk of being knocked off the Council.
Baker finished fifth in the primary, and was awaiting results with his supporters at Florian Hall, the Boston firefighters union headquarters in Dorchester.
In September, Louijeune topped the at-large ticket. Julia Mejia came in second and Erin Murphy placed third. Challenger Alexandra Valdez, a City Hall employee supported by both Wu and Walsh, placed sixth, followed by local businessman Marvin Dee Mathelier and city employee Will Onuoha.
Voters will also determine who fills the Roxbury-centric District 7 seat that’s been vacant since July 4 when disgraced former Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson resigned after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges tied to a City Hall kickback scheme. She is serving a one-month prison sentence.
Vying for the seat are Said Coach Ahmed, a BPS educator and founder of a local track program, and Miniard Culpepper, senior pastor of the Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church. Ahmed and Culpepper emerged as winners from a crowded September primary, with less than half a percentage point separating their results.
Of the other district races, only District 3 Councilor John FitzGerald and District 8 Councilor Sharon Durkan are running opposed. Early results indicated that the remaining incumbents will keep their seats.
District 1 Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata faced Andretti Mcduffie-Stanziani; District 2 Councilor Ed Flynn faced Charles Jeffrey Delaney; District 4 Councilor Brian Worrell faced Helen Cameron; District 5 Councilor Enrique Pepén faced Winston Pierre; District 6 Councilor Benjamin Weber faced Steven Ray Berry; and District 9 Councilor Liz Breadon faced Pilar Ortiz.
Check back with bostonherald.com for full results.
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