Endorsements Debates and forums A forum hosted by political reporter Saraya Wintersmith of GBH News was held with Michelle Wu, Josh Kraft, Domingos ReRosa, and Alex Alex on May 15th. Kraft's committee spent more than $5.6 million before the primary, while Wu's campaign committee spent more than $1.1 million. The
Super PAC Your City, Your Future, supporting Kraft's campaign, spent more than $3.1 million before the primary. Its chief contributors
Jim Davis (chairman of the company
New Balance) and
Michael Rubin (founder of the sports merchandise company
Fanatics), who each gave the PAC $1 million. Bold Boston, a Super PAC supporting Wu, spent more than $850,000.
Campaign and major issues Kraft has campaigned as being more
moderate than the incumbent Wu, who is regarded to be a
progressive. Kraft entered the election considered a potentially strong challenger to Wu due to his lengthy philanthropic resume, his lack of political record for her to litigate, as well as his vast personal wealth and connections to wealthy prospective donors from which he could fund his campaign. Ahead of the preliminary vote, Wu criticized the amount of his own personal wealth that Kraft used to fund his campaign, the vast amount of money Kraft spent on the preliminary, as well as Kraft's lack of full public transparency about the sources from which he derives his $6.3 million annual income. Kraft has argued Wu's emphasis on Trump is an effort to distract from her own effort. One of Kraft's main criticisms of Wu was the installation of
bike lanes during Wu's mayoralty, with Kraft accusing her administration of having installing too many bike lanes and having done so with an insufficient amount of prior planning. Another of Kraft's top criticisms of Wu was the renovation of
White Stadium which Wu has championed, with Kraft characterizing it as expensive as well as unpopular with and detrimental to communities living near the stadium. Kraft also characterized Wu as having insufficiently addressed the city's housing needs in her term as mayor. Overall, Kraft's campaign was characterized as struggling to find a resonant message against Wu, and a week prior to the primary he parted ways with two of his top campaign advisors. Wu led the vote in all of the city's 22 wards by comfortable margins. Of Boston's 272 precincts, Kraft only led Wu in 9. Some of the precincts where Kraft outperformed her were in Ward 16, regarded to be one of the city's more
conservative areas. However, Wu still won a number of precincts in Ward 16, and carried the overall vote in the ward.
The Boston Globe as "staggering" the
Dorchester Reporter as a "blowout", and analyst Jon Keller as a "drubbing [for Kraft]".
The Boston Globe journalist
Adrian Walker opined that Kraft had run "the most unlikable campaign for mayor in Boston history". Walker characterized Wu, contrarily, as having run a strong campaign and having benefited from positioning herself as a foil against the Trump administration, writing on the eve of the preliminary election, In a later piece published by
The Boston Globe, business leader
David D'Alessandro opined that the weak performance of Kraft was less due to any flaws he had as a candidate, and more due to Wu being a strong incumbent, == General election ==