Mayoral candidate Josh Kraft anthem back at the Wu campaign in a speech Sunday, calling some of the incumbent’s messaging regarding his background, business interests and views on Trump “falsehoods.”
“Today I’m challenging the mayor: stop with the falsehoods and innuendo and join me in making this campaign about who has the best vision and ideas that help the residents of this city,” said Kraft. “Let’s make this a competition of ideas, not attacks. Let’s have a robust debate about the single most important issue facing our city, the high cost of living.”
Kraft, the former head of the Kraft Family Philanthropies and son of billionaire Patriots owner Robert Kraft, met with enthusiastic supporters at the Iron Workers Local 7 Union Hall to deliver a speech Sunday pushing back on statements from his opponent and speaking to the future of his campaign.
The candidate claimed the mayor’s campaign has engaged in “personal attacks” that “she knows not to be true.” Among the statements at issue, Kraft said Wu has stated he’s “new to Boston” and pointed to his 35 years working in Boston, including with the Boys and Girls Club of Boston.
Kraft also pushed back on the idea that he is seeking the elected office to “help my family’s business interest.”
“I’ve been fortunate to be able to work to make a difference in the lives of kids and families in the neighborhoods of Boston and Chelsea,” said Kraft. “That has been my passion, my life’s work and my number one priority, not my family’s business. In addition, my family’s business is not located in Boston, doesn’t do any business with the city of Boston, nor does it have any real estate assets in the city.”
Kraft said he disagrees with his father Robert Kraft on his support of Donald Trump, stating the president “has actively attacked democratic institutions and created division throughout our country” and made it harder for “the very people who both my parents, especially my mother, raised me to fight for.”
“And the worst part of all this is Michelle Wu knows all that, but she’s trying to convince the voters of something different,” said Kraft.
The Wu campaign called Kraft’s statement Sunday “more of the same.”
“Josh Kraft’s campaign is floundering for a simple reason: voters reject his relentlessly negative campaign and his attempt to purchase this election,” a Wu campaign spokesperson said Sunday.
On the Trump issue, Kraft said the answer is not about “who is going to give the best anti-Trump speech or deliver the best anti-Trump sound bite or joke,” but “who has the best plan and who is best equipped to offer with the consequences of the Donald Trump presidency.”
The speech comes days after Kraft has called the mayor to take “emergency measures” after a South Boston 4-year-old stepped on a needle and accused Wu on hiding the cost of the controversial White Stadium project until after the election.
On White Stadium, Wu defended her administration’s transparency, saying “at the point where numbers are finalized, they are public and available.”
Following the South Boston incident, the mayor called the danger of needles “just not okay” and spoke to efforts to “end outdoor congregate substance use” as well as ramping up enforcement and the Mobile Sharps Teams’ work.
The Kraft campaign brought up a wide range of the major issues in the election during Sunday’s speech and “real, detailed, and actionable solutions.”
“On housing, I’ve proposed a plan to jumpstart construction, reduce rent increases, and help more Bostonians become homeowners,” Kraft said. “On schools, I’ve laid out steps to raise literacy rates, fix the bus system and add elected members to the school committee. On Mass and Cass, I’ve rejected the mayor’s failed harm reduction strategy in favor of a recovery-first approach developed with experts and those with lived experience.”
The candidate argued Boston “cannot afford four more years of the Wu administration,” citing changes on the federal and local level, and stated he is “running to deliver results.”
Kraft was asked about new poll numbers following the event Sunday, indicating he is still confident. Wu held a 30-point lead over Kraft in a recently released Suffolk/Boston Globe CityView Poll.
“If I believed in the polls, I wouldn’t be running right,” said Kraft. “I am confident in our ability to win this election, because I feel it in the people I talk to in the neighborhoods, in the restaurant, in the small businesses, and all of them are passionate and interested and energized by our campaign.”
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