Who Is Michelle Wu And Can She Save Boston?

Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu announced Tuesday she is running for mayor, saying she is the best candidate to lead the city through its race, policing and unprecedented health crisis.

Wu announced her candidacy on Twitter in a recent post.

Wu introduced herself as a mother, a daughter of immigrants and a candidate running “to make Boston a city for everyone.”

“The Boston we love is a city that takes care of each other, where hard work meets big dreams with grit and resilience. But for too many, during this pandemic and well before, it’s been impossible to dream when you’re fighting to hold on,” she said.

Wu, 35, a Chicago native and graduate of Harvard Law School, was first elected to the City Council in 2013 and has comfortably won the citywide vote in the last two elections. She’s grown a large support cast from newer politically active corners of the city. Specific neighborhoods include Roslindale and Jamaica Plain, both areas that saw huge social justice protests where supporters can be seen wearing "I Can't Breathe" and "Black Lives Matter" shirts.

In 2015, she was the first woman of color elected council president by her colleagues. She lives in Roslindale with her husband, Conor, and their two young sons, Blaise and Cass, the Boston Globe reported.

Wu has been a fierce critic of Mayor Martin J. Walsh. In an interview with the Globe, she ripped the city’s current leadership, arguing the current administration run by Walsh failed to seize on this pivotal moment in Boston’s history.

“To meet this moment, we need leadership that matches the scale and urgency of our challenges,” Wu said in the interview, “and that can only happen if communities most affected are leading the way. We need leadership with a vision and conviction to act, grounded in community.”

“In this moment of crisis," she added, "it’s not only possible but necessary to reimagine our systems because we’ve seen how business as usual has been failing Bostonians since well before the pandemic. ... We have the resources in Boston to be a city where everyone can reach their full potential. We need leadership and vision and political will.”

Wu first informed Walsh she planned to run in a private conversation last week, which Walsh confirmed to the Globe.

In interviews since then, Walsh has declined to say if he’s running for reelection. Walsh plans to shift his focus to combating COVID-19, reopening city schools and helping Democrats win the White House in November.

But people close to Walsh, who had $5 million in his campaign account as of August, said he plans to run. Wu had less than $345,000.

An incumbent Boston mayor has not lost a bid for re-election since 1949.

Wu and Walsh are both Democrats. The city conducts nonpartisan mayoral elections, the next one scheduled for November 2021.