Elected mayor of Boston with progressive flags, Michelle Wu collects pioneering ideas. She will be the first woman chosen by vote to lead the Massachusetts capital after 200 years in which only men ruled the city. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Wu will also be the first non-white person in office. At 36, she is still the youngest Boston Executive leader in at least a century.
The count is not yet over, but the tally numbers released by the city show that it received nearly 64% of the vote in the second round. The opponent, Annissa Essaibi George, won 35.6%.
In addition to gender and foreign roots (George is of Arab descent), the candidates have in common the fact that they ran in the election without being affiliated with one of the two major US parties — although both received support from the Democrats, who govern the city. since the 1930s.
Wu now joins a roster of mayors in major US municipalities whose racial identities play a central role in their political careers and target more progressive specters of American politics. On that list, there is also the elected mayor of New York, Eric Adams, who became, on Tuesday (2), the second black man in command of the symbol city of the country.
Even in the first round, the municipal election in Boston already pointed to the end of the period of two centuries in which only white men ruled the city. In addition to Wu and George, three black people completed the top five: Acting Mayor Kim Janey, City Councilor Andrea Campbell and former city economic development chief John Barros.
The female majority in the dispute in such an important city became a laughing stock in Wu’s victory speech. “One of my kids asked me if boys can be mayors in Boston. They can, and they will be again someday, but not this time. Today Boston elected your mother.”
In her speech, the elected mayor nodded to diversity by saying the phrase “anything is possible” in English, Spanish, French and Mandarin. Wu also cited two women who inspired her in politics: Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, the first black woman to win a congressional seat from Massachusetts, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, a 2020 pre-candidate for the US presidency and a professor of Wu at Harvard.
After completing law school at the institution in 2008, Wu returned to Chicago, where she grew up, and had to become a caregiver for her mother, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Shortly thereafter, she became a micro-entrepreneur by opening a small shop specializing in teas that honored characters from literary classics such as “The Great Gatsby” and “The Portrait of Dorian Gray”.
Her first political position was as city councilor (equivalent to councilwoman) in 2013. Three years later, she broke yet another racial barrier and became the first Asian-American and the first non-white person to be president of the legislative body—nominated by her colleagues unanimously.
Married to banker Conor Pewarski, 36, the then-counselor was one of the main supporters of a city law granting six weeks of paid parental leave to Boston civil servants, valid even for same-sex couples.
At the time, what motivated her was the fact that she found herself having to reflect on whether she should be a full-time mother or find ways to reconcile the double shift. He chose the second option, and his two sons, Blaise and Cass, were regulars at city council sessions.
“Sometimes I’m the only one standing during an argument [no Legislativo], putting Cass to sleep,” she wrote in an article that appeared on CNN in 2017. “I’m tired but grateful: choosing to combine motherhood and public service has made me a more confident mother and a better lawmaker.”
In this year’s campaign, Wu chose themes such as housing, the environment, racial equality and free public transport as flags. She promises to prioritize “housing stability” for families in Boston, where, according to her website, thousands of people live overburdened by rents and fearful of evictions.
Wu is also proposing a “green new deal” at the municipal level to make the city “a world beacon on climate action and environmental justice.” To address the consequences of institutional racism and Boston’s discriminatory political histories, his campaign includes measures aimed at “closing the racial wealth gap” and promoting “racial and economic justice.”
.
