In an unprecedented election amidst unprecedented times, Michelle Wu, riding a tidal wave of support, defeated at-large city councilor Annissa Essaibi George for the Boston mayoral seat. She will serve as Boston’s first woman of color after being sworn into office on November 16.
Born in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Wu is the oldest of four children, and the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants. She moved to Boston as a young adult to attend university and Harvard Law School, and has remained in the area since. At Harvard Law, one of her professors was Elizabeth Warren, now a progressive senator from Massachusetts. Senator Warren later endorsed her on her recent mayoral win.
After law school, Wu entered the world of civil service. In 2013, she was the first Asian American female to serve on the Boston city council and the second Asian American overall. Since her first election, she has been reelected three times.
On March 22, 2021, long-standing Boston mayor, Marty Walsh, resigned after accepting a position as the United States secretary of labor, leaving room for Kim Janey to take his place as acting mayor. The preliminary elections on September 14 began with five mayoral candidates, but they were quickly whittled down. Three were eliminated, leaving Essaibi George, an ally of Walsh, and Wu as the final candidates for the November elections. On November 2, 2021, with over 64% of the vote, Wu secured the win.
Wu’s politics are described as “progressive,” while her main competitor, George, held more moderate policies. Wu’s campaign slogan is, “Together, let’s build a Boston for everyone.” Her main areas of focus are “racial, economic, and climate justice.”
She supports a citywide version of the Green New Deal, “an ambitious policy roadmap for delivering the kinds of structural changes.” It is a focal point of her policy. In the new deal, she pledges to “accelerate decarbonization” by committing to “citywide carbon neutrality by 2040.” Many other policies, such as growing an “urban tree canopy” will “boost tree coverage for carbon sequestration, cleaner air, temperature regulation, and community benefit,” and “green workforce development,” an investment in sustainable industries are included among many others.
Another of Wu’s major political focuses is the racial wealth gap. According to her campaign website, “the median net worth of a white family [in Boston] is $247,500, while the median net worth of a Black family is just $8,” a gap she vows to close. Her policy focuses on “fighting the root causes of wealth inequality” by implementing “concrete policies that build wealth and power among Black and Latinx residents, immigrants, and other underserved communities.” She and Ayanna Pressley, a representative of the seventh district in Massachusetts co-authored a paper detailing the process to optimize equity in city contracting. She plans to “attract and invest in Black businesses,” by fighting for locally owned businesses and streamlining permitting and licensing for small businesses.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she noted that labor “rights… [have] life and death consequences.” Wu plans to tackle the struggles of the underprivileged by creating a “Cabinet-Level Chief of Worker Empowerment,” a government office that will have the power and ability to “advance working Bostonians in both the private and public sectors.” She points to findings that the enforcement of labor-related systems is “spread across several City departments,” leaving them fragmented and inefficient. The responsibility of the Chief of Worker Empowerment is to centralize “oversight and resources to advance working Bostonians.”
Over the past few years, Boston has seen a cultural shift. Emphatically, in her election night speech, Wu said, “we are ready to become a Boston for everyone,” potentially foreshadowing a new age to come. The spirit of America, Massachusetts, has been a leader in the country. As Wu pronounced, Boston “has always been the city of revolution.” In a new age, Boston might be the dawn of a new reckoning. We have yet to see.
