Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said two progressive challengers who she backed in this year’s state Senate primaries delivered an important message about accountability to the incumbents — even though one of those challengers lost and another trailed by more than 30 votes as a recount began Wednesday.
She said the outcomes still showed that voters are “tired of the status quo.”
“I’m always encouraging every one of our residents not to take any election years off,” Wu said on GBH’s Boston Public Radio Wednesday. “Every single cycle matters, every single seat matters — and as hard as we are fighting against the Trump administration, there are things that we need to be moving on more urgently and more effectively at the state and city level.”
She pointed out that both challengers were first-time candidates who started out with little money and name recognition.
“[They] ended up holding an incumbent to just over 50% in both cases, and a recount literally happening right now in the city of Boston for one of those races,” Wu said. “I think it shows that longtime incumbents with big war chests and a lot of support can’t just cruise to reelection in this moment because people expect more.”
Wu threw her political muscle behind challengers to two Senate incumbents who helped derail her controversial push to shift some of Boston’s property-tax burden from residential to commercial owners, a plan that ultimately failed to get the required assent from the state Legislature. She backed Daniel Lander, a former senior policy advisor in her administration, in his bid against state Sen. Will Brownsberger, and Latoya Gayle, an executive at a local nonprofit, in her run against state Sen. Nick Collins.
Collins has already been declared the winner in his race. The Brownsberger-Lander contest has gone to a recount — the first count ended with Brownsberger leading Lander by 34 votes.
Wu also endorsed an incumbent Democrat, state Sen. Mike Rush, who lost his reelection bid to progressive challenger Persis Yu, an attorney and social worker.
Wu praised Yu’s campaign in her interview Wednesday.
“In my own state Senate district that I live in ... a first-time candidate who ran with an incredibly compelling campaign platform and ground game and organization took out a longtime incumbent who I had had the personal experience of knowing, Mike Rush,” Wu said.
Wu added that while Rush was an effective behind-the-scenes advocate for Boston’s interests, his work inside the Senate may not have been known to the public at large.
Asked by host Jim Braude if her public attempts to unseat two Senate incumbents would make it more difficult for her to advance her agenda on Beacon Hill moving forward, Wu said she isn’t sure.
“Does this lead to more entrenchment, or does this lead to more open discussion? I think the ball is in the court of the state Senate at this point,” Wu said. “What I did hear from voters is that, in both of these cases, many constituents and residents of those districts met their senator for the very first time.”
Wu’s praise over the primary outcomes as a welcome boost to Boston-area civic engagement marked a shift in tone from her Boston Public Radio appearance last month. She suggested in August that both Brownsberger and Collins represented a Trumpian streak in state politics.
“There are people on the ballot right now who have taken votes alongside those who are trying to terrorize our immigrant communities, or undermine reproductive rights, or take us backwards on climate, or give tax cuts, tax breaks, to corporate interests over residents,” Wu said in August.
“If our proposal that we had put forward for residential tax relief that the City Council passed three times, that the House of Representatives passed twice, and then got blocked by the Senate, when Senator Collins and Senator Brownsberger stepped up and blocked that — if that had gone through, Boston residents would have saved more than $150 million over the last two years in property taxes. Instead, that went to tax cuts for corporate interests here in Massachusetts, here in the city of Boston.”
Wu told listeners in August it was just as important to vote in this year’s state legislative primaries as it will be to vote in the 2028 presidential election.
“Please, no matter where you live, no matter who your representation is, get involved, get out to vote,” Wu said. “It matters just as much to vote in 2028 for a new president — it matters just as much to vote for your local legislators this cycle.”
