Michelle Wu has served as mayor of Boston since November 2021. Wu was elected mayor in 2021, winning with 64% of the vote, becoming the first woman, first person of color, and first Asian American elected to serve as the mayor of Boston. At 36 years of age, was also one of the youngest individuals elected to the office. Wu is a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to being sworn in as mayor, Wu served as a member of the Boston City Council.
An advocate for a municipal "Green New Deal" (the Boston Green New Deal), as mayor Wu signed an ordinance to divest city investments from companies that derive more than 15 percent of their revenue from fossil fuels, tobacco products, or prison facilities. She also has announced plans for the city to spend $2 billion on school construction projects as part of a "Green New Deal" for the city's public schools. As mayor, she has also taken actions related to increasing affordable housing in the city and took actions related to address city's COVID-19 pandemic. A supporter of fare-free public transportation, Wu has funded a two-year period of fare-free service on three MBTA bus routes, expanding on a single-route pilot program that had previously been started under Kim Janey's preceding acting mayoralty. Wu signed an executive order which outlined the formula for what funds developers building in the city's downtown must contribute to fund child care services in the city, building upon a decades-old policy that had previously lacked needed specificity. Wu also reached a contract agreement with the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association that secured the union's agreement to significant reforms within the Boston Police Department. Wu's administration also has implemented initiatives to decrease crime in the city. In her first term, the city twice set record lows for its annual homicide rates. In late-2024, United States Conference of Mayors described Boston as "the safest big city in America" and "a model of urban safety" and the Vera Institute of Justice agreed with a description of Boston as "one of the safest major cities" in the United States.
During her 2025 campaign for re-election, her challenger Josh Kraft's campaign spent record amounts of money against her in advance of the non-partisan preliminary (primary election). However, Wu won more than 71 percent of the vote in the preliminary (a 49-point lead over Kraft), which motivated Kraft to withdraw his name from the general election ballot leaving Wu unopposed on the November 2025 general election ballot. Without an opponent listed on the general election ballot, Wu won the general election with more than 93% of votes cast (the remainder going to write-ins).
2021 election
Wu was elected mayor in 2021. Her election made her the first woman, first person of color, and first Asian American elected to serve as the mayor of Boston. At 36 years of age, was also one of the youngest individuals elected to the office. Wu is a member of the Democratic Party.
Wu's victory was seen as a part of a moment of growth for political representation of Asian Americans. The same day as her election, two other Asian American individuals won elections in major American cities: Aftab Pureval in Cincinnati and Bruce Harrell in Seattle. Prior to their elections, there had only been six incumbent Asian American mayors in any of the 100 largest cities in the United States, and none of them were from cities outside of the states of California or Texas. Before Wu's election, very few Asian American women had ever served as major city mayor, and there were few Asian women serving in other significant elected executive offices.
Primary election Wu had long been viewed a future mayoral prospect, fielding questions about whether she'd consider one day running as far back as 2016. Since at least 2019, Wu was viewed as a potential challenger to incumbent mayor Marty Walsh, if Walsh sought reelection in 2021.Multiple sources: In September 2020, Walsh told The Boston Globe that Wu had told him of her intent to run in 2021. Later that month, Wu announced her candidacy, declaring that she was running a "people-powered campaign to bring new leadership to Boston's executive office". She was regarded to be challenging Walsh from the political left.
Walsh was designated by President-elect Joe Biden to be his nominee for Secretary of Labor on January 7, 2021, leaving the mayor's race an open seat. Senator Elizabeth Warren endorsed Wu for mayor two days later.
In April, an analysis by The Boston Globe found that, of the six major candidates then-running, Wu had received the least financial contributions from real estate developers. Andrew Martinez of Bisnow related this to Wu's plans to abolish the Boston Planning & Development Agency.
Wu's primary election campaign was seen as possibly being boosted by a collection of young internet activists who had vigorously supported her campaign, referred to as the "Markeyverse" due to their support for Senator Ed Markey in his successful re-election campaign the previous year. She was endorsed by a number of progressive groups, including #VOTEPROCHOICE
By September 2021, Wu was widely considered to be the front-runner in the nonpartisan primary election, with a significant polling lead.Multiple sources: Her campaign emphasized "wonkery" (policy details), in a manner resembling Wu's mentor Elizabeth Warren.
General election Wu placed first in the nonpartisan primary and advanced to the general election, where she faced fellow city council member Annissa Essaibi George. On September 25, Acting Mayor Kim Janey, who placed fourth in the nonpartisan primary, endorsed Wu for the general election.
Wu was viewed as the front-runner in the general election campaign, with advantages in endorsements, including from cultural groups,Multiple sources: Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, both of Massachusetts' U.S. Senators (Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren), and the editorial board of The Boston Globe. Ellen Barry of The New York Times characterized Wu as having benefited as a candidate from her years of engagement with the city's residents as a city councilor. She opined that Wu's work while on the City Council had introduced her to many of the city's voters and that Wu was, "difficult to caricature as a radical."
On November 2, 2021, Wu won the election with over 64% of the vote, becoming the first woman and first person of color to become mayor of Boston. Wu won sizable margins among various demographic groups, leading her victory to be characterized as one with a multiethnic coalition. Being 36 years of age, Wu was the youngest person elected mayor of Boston in almost a century. Wu was sworn in on November 16, 2021.
Platform and campaign positions In both the primary and general elections, Wu ran on a progressive-oriented agenda. Wu's mayoral platform included her previously outlined proposals for a municipal Green New Deal, fare-free public transit, abolishing the Boston Planning & Development Agency, implementing a food justice agenda, and her previously declared support to reinstate rent stabilization. In her campaign, Wu also supported restructuring the Boston School Committee (which is currently all-appointed since mayoral control of schools was adopted in Boston in the 1990s) to be majority-elected. Wu also called for the creation of the Teacher Advisory Board, and the empowerment of the Boston Student Advisory Committee. Wu proposed implementing universal preschool and universal child care for Boston children under five years of age, and for the creation of a city office to coordinate early childhood education. Wu's police reform plan reiterated her earlier calls for the diversion of nonviolent 9-1-1 calls away from police and instead to alternative response teams such as mental health clinicians, social workers, and community outreach workers. After a king tide caused Morrissey Boulevard to become flooded in November 2020, Wu reiterated support for a municipal Green New Deal and for accelerating city government timelines for carbon neutrality and exclusive renewable energy usage in the city at a meeting with activists along the thoroughfare.
2025 election
In the 2025 Boston mayoral election, challenger Josh Kraft's campaign against Wu vastly outspent her campaign. Kraft spent record amounts for a Boston preliminary election. However, in the September 9 preliminary election Wu received more than 71% of the vote, having a 49–point lead over Kraft that was described by The Boston Globe as "staggering" and the Dorchester Reporter as a "blowout". Two days after the preliminary, Kraft ended his candidacy. With Kraft filing to have his name removed from the ballot, and with no other candidate receiving the sufficient number of votes to qualify to replace him, Wu was unopposed on the November general election ballot.
Transition into office
Wu had a shorter transition into office than most mayors of Boston due to the fact that there was no permanent incumbent mayor at the time of the election. Under Boston's city charter, in such circumstances new mayors are sworn in as soon as is conveniently possible after the results of the election are certified. Before the election, on September 24, candidates Wu and Essaibi George had met with Acting Mayor Janey at the Parkman House and mutually agreed on November 16 date as a tentative date for a transition of power for the mayoralty. Wu would ultimately take office as mayor on that planned date. This meant that she had only a two-week period between her election and assumption of office.
After Wu won election, she named Acting Mayor Janey as honorary chair of her mayoral transition team. The co-chairs of the transition were former state representative and city housing chief Charlotte Golar Richie; former Massachusetts secretary of administration and finance (and 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee) Jay Gonzalez; and activist Mimi Ramos. Among the transition's numerous advisors was Julian Agyeman.
With Wu vacating her City Council seat before the end of her term in order to assume the mayoralty, by Boston City Charter, the opportunity to serve the remainder of the term Wu had been elected to in 2017 was to be offered to the first runner-up of the 2017 election. In this instance, that was Alejandra St. Guillen. Initially planning to accept the opportunity to serve the remainder of Wu's term, due to ethics concerns about matters such as St. Guillen also holding on the city's cannabis board, St. Guillen ultimately declined to accept the position. Thereafter, per the Boston City Charter, the remainder of Wu's term was offered to Erin Murphy, who was the second runner-up in the 2017 election. Murphy accepted the opportunity. Murphy had recently won election to a full term in the 2019 at-large city council election, and thus would only be starting her tenure on the City Council earlier by accepting. Murphy was sworn in by Mayor Wu on December 1, 2021.Multiple sources
Relationship with the Boston City Council