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Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07 officially announced her re-election campaign at a Saturday event in the South End, criticizing the Trump administration and her opponent — philanthropist Josh Kraft — in her speech.
“We face serious challenges in this moment and now is not the time for a mayor who needs on-the-job training,” Wu said in her address.
Kraft, the son of billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, announced his bid for mayor in February. The chair of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, who has no previous political experience, called Wu a “leader that just does not listen” in his campaign announcement.
But Wu was quick to draw a difference between herself and her opponent during her Saturday announcement.
“We have already seen what happens when billionaires and real estate developers try to run a country. We don’t need to see what happens if they run a city too,” Wu said. “Because this is our city. And our city is not for sale.”
Wu touted the city’s improvements to affordable housing and safety during her announcement, highlighting that Boston is the “safest major city in America.”
Prior to the campaign launch, Wu spent the morning in City Hall Plaza at the city’s “Hands-Off” protest, a planned national effort with over 1,000 people protesting nationwide against the Trump administration and Elon Musk.
“I refuse to accept that my kids and all our kids could grow up in a world where threats and intimidation are the tactics that the president uses to get his way,” Wu said to the crowd. “Hands off Boston.”
“Boston has never and will never back down to bullies,” she added. “This is our city and you will not break us.”
Wu has been the subject of national attention after she appeared before the Congressional Oversight Committee in March and faced harsh questioning from Republicans committee members on Boston’s sanctuary city status.
“Today it is not just our country and our democracy that are under attack. It’s communities like ours — our lives and our livelihoods, our identities and our independence,” Wu said in her campaign announcement.
“It feels like everything that makes Boston Boston is being threatened by an administration that is clearly threatened by who we are as a city,” she added.
Though the city has faced repeated scrutiny from the Trump administration, including threats to federal funding, Wu held her ground in the hearing and remained firm in emphasizing Boston’s impressive safety statistics.
“Boston will never back down — not to kings, not to bullies, and not to naysayers who want to take us backward,” Wu said in her campaign announcement.
Representative Ayanna S. Pressley (D-Mass.) officially endorsed the mayor while introducing Wu at the event, calling her “strong and steady force for good.”
“Daily, she makes universal experiences like caregiving for a parent or a child visible, and normalized,” Pressley said. “She knows what it’s like to be the daughter of immigrants. She knows what it’s like to redefine leadership and, in doing so, empower thousands to step into their own.”
Wu is the first Asian American woman to serve as a city councilor and mayor — and made history almost three months ago as Boston’s first mayor to give birth while in office.
“It’s not easy making the greatest city on earth even better, and it's not easy especially during times like these,” Wu said. “But we can and we will because here in Boston we don’t back down.”
“Here in Boston, we stand up, we fight, we win, and we show the world that when we work together — because we work together — anything is possible,” she added.
—Staff writer Megan L. Blonigen can be reached at megan.blonigen@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @MeganBlonigen
