Lead
Incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu and challenger Josh Kraft secured the two highest vote totals in Tuesday’s preliminary election and will face each other in the Nov. 4 Boston mayoral general election. The top-two, nonpartisan format advances the two leading vote-getters regardless of party. Wu is seeking a second term after her 2021 victory; Kraft, a nonprofit executive and son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, emerged as the leading challenger. The projection came as the campaign landscape was already complicated by a recent U.S. Justice Department lawsuit involving the city.
Key Takeaways
- Michelle Wu and Josh Kraft finished first and second in Boston’s July preliminary and will compete in the Nov. 4 general election under the city’s top-two system.
- Wu is the incumbent and served as Boston’s first woman and first person of color elected mayor in 2021; she is campaigning on housing, gun-violence prevention and climate action.
- Josh Kraft previously led the New England Patriots Foundation and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston and is the son of owner Robert Kraft.
- Both candidates are registered Democrats, but the preliminary was nonpartisan; party labels do not affect advancement to the runoff.
- Local debates highlighted differences on projects such as White Stadium, city responses to drugs and addiction, and personnel decisions.
- The preliminary result arrived days after the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit challenging Boston’s sanctuary-related practices, bringing federal scrutiny into the campaign environment.
- Two other candidates, former police officer Robert Cappucci and Domingos Darosa, were also on the preliminary ballot but did not advance.
Background
Boston uses a nonpartisan preliminary to narrow the field to two finalists for the city’s mayoral election, with the runoff scheduled this year for Nov. 4. That system allows the top two vote-getters to proceed regardless of party affiliation; in recent cycles it has produced matchups between candidates of the same party. Voter turnout patterns in preliminaries typically differ from general elections, which can shift the dynamics heading into November.
Michelle Wu first won election in 2021, becoming the city’s first woman and person of color elected mayor; Acting Mayor Kim Janey had been the first Black woman to hold the office when she assumed the role earlier. Wu’s administration has emphasized housing affordability, climate initiatives and public-safety measures—messages she ran on again in this campaign cycle. Her campaign collected endorsements from prominent Massachusetts Democrats, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey and Representative Ayanna Pressley.
Main Event
On Tuesday night, official canvassing was underway while multiple outlets, including NBC News, projected that Wu and Kraft would finish as the top two candidates. The projection triggered a shift in both campaigns from preliminary strategies to a head-to-head general-election posture, where messaging, fundraising and turnout operations will be decisive.
Kraft positioned himself as a critic of some of the administration’s spending priorities and personnel choices, citing projects such as renovations at White Stadium as emblematic of fiscal concerns. He also highlighted public-safety and addiction-response gaps as central to his campaign. Observers noted that his background in nonprofit leadership and ties to the Patriots organization helped raise his profile among voters.
Wu and her allies pointed to a record of municipal initiatives and center-left coalition-building as the basis for her reelection bid. Her campaign emphasized measurable goals on housing production, gun-violence prevention, and implementing climate resilience projects. The narrowing to a single challenger will concentrate debate and media attention on the contrasts between Wu’s record and Kraft’s proposals.
Analysis & Implications
The matchup sets up a November contest in which turnout and targeting will be decisive. Preliminary electorates tend to be smaller and more ideologically driven; the general election will draw a broader cross-section of Boston voters, potentially favoring the candidate better able to expand beyond base supporters. Both campaigns will need to pivot from name-recognition and fielding primary voters to persuading undecided and infrequent voters.
Policy differences on high-profile local projects, notably White Stadium renovations, give voters concrete items to weigh. Where Kraft frames some investments as excessive, Wu’s team argues that capital projects are part of longer-term neighborhood and public-safety strategies. The November debate is likely to center on the balance between near-term service delivery and longer-term infrastructure investments.
The DOJ lawsuit alleging that certain city policies impede federal immigration enforcement adds an unusual layer to the race. Legal proceedings and related federal activity can shift campaign narratives, forcing candidates to take positions on court and enforcement matters that might otherwise receive less attention in a municipal contest. How each campaign navigates federal scrutiny could affect voter perceptions of governance and public-safety competence.
Comparison & Data
Wu’s 2021 victory marked a historic milestone for Boston. The current preliminary outcome repeats a pattern in which incumbents face organized challengers who gain traction by focusing on a limited set of municipal priorities. Because official, certified vote totals and precinct-level turnout data can affect post-preliminary strategies, campaigns will analyze ward-by-ward results once the city posts certified figures.
Reactions & Quotes
Responses were swift across political and civic lines. The Justice Department suit and subsequent reporting about federal immigration-enforcement activity drew immediate attention from state and local officials, and from campaigns seeking to shape voter perceptions ahead of November.
“The City of Boston and its Mayor have been among the worst sanctuary offenders in America — they explicitly enforce policies designed to undermine law enforcement and protect illegal aliens from justice.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi (statement, news release)
“Wu is seeking a second term after her 2021 mayoral victory, campaigning on housing, gun-violence prevention and climate policy.”
NBC News (media report)
Local advocates, municipal staff and voters offered a mix of support and criticism for both nominees, focusing on different priorities: affordable housing and climate action for Wu supporters, fiscal restraint and public-safety changes for Kraft backers. Campaign spokespeople from both sides signaled a rapid move into a November general-election campaign, with emphasis on fundraising, voter outreach and message discipline.
Unconfirmed
- Whether the federal lawsuit materially changed voter decisions in the preliminary is not established and remains the subject of reporting and analysis.
- Specific links between the DOJ filing and any ICE operational changes reported by local outlets are under investigation and not independently verified in this piece.
- Detailed, certified vote totals and ward-level turnout figures were pending official posting at the time of projection and may refine the post-preliminary analysis.
Bottom Line
Michelle Wu and Josh Kraft will contest Boston’s mayoral seat on Nov. 4 after finishing as the top two in the preliminary. The race will shift from a multi-candidate primary dynamic to a focused head-to-head matchup where turnout, messaging and ground operations matter most. Voters will weigh contrasting priorities—housing and climate policy versus criticisms of spending and personnel choices—against the backdrop of a federal lawsuit that has injected immigration-enforcement questions into the municipal conversation.
Between now and November both campaigns will recalibrate: Wu to defend and expand her record, and Kraft to broaden appeal beyond preliminary voters. Analysts will watch fundraising, endorsements and precinct-level results as indicators of which candidate is better positioned to prevail in a general electorate larger and more diverse than the preliminary.
Sources
- NBC News — media report and projection
- City of Boston, Elections Department — official election administration and results (official)