Boston Mayor Wu to run unopposed after recount confirms challenger falls short

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu will run unopposed in her reelection bid after a recount confirmed that third-place finisher Domingos DaRosa did not reach the 3,000-vote threshold to qualify for the November ballot. Wu, the city’s first Asian and female leader, is seeking a second four-year term. She was expected to face Josh Kraft, a nonprofit leader and son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, but he dropped out after losing badly to her in the preliminary election earlier this month. Since the top-two vote-getters advance, attention turned to DaRosa.

After a recount of several wards by the city’s election board was completed Monday, DaRosa, a Cape Verde Islands-born community activist, did not garner the 3,000 votes needed to qualify for the November ballot. The last time a mayor of Boston ran unopposed was Thomas Menino in 1997. Wu thanked everyone who voted for her and said in a statement that her focus in the coming weeks would be getting people to come out to vote for her and City Council candidates. 'I'm humbled by the overwhelming support across every neighborhood and every ward to keep going in our work to make Boston a home for everyone,' Wu said.

DaRosa acknowledged he came up short but blamed the lack of visibility and money for the outcome. 'It's going to teach people what happens in local politics,' DaRosa said regarding the fact that voters will have only one choice in November. 'Our conversation about how to make the city better always gravitates to who has the most money. It's not about who is doing the actual leg work, which I have actually been doing.'

Analyst Erin O’Brien, a political science professor at UMass Boston, acknowledged that uncontested races don’t feel good for democracy, but noted Wu was overwhelmingly chosen by city voters in the preliminary election—a dominant showing that suggests she could be mayor as long as she wants.

On the national stage, members of the Trump administration, often led by the president's border czar Tom Homan, accused Boston of not doing enough to crack down on illegal immigration and threatened a surge in arrests. Boston is commonly known as a sanctuary city, and Wu has repeatedly said she wants it to be a welcoming place for immigrants. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Wu, the city of Boston and its police department over sanctuary city policies, claiming they’re interfering with immigration enforcement. In response, Wu accused President Donald Trump of 'attacking cities to hide his administration’s failures.'

On the day of the preliminary election, the Department of Homeland Security put out a statement announcing arrests of seven people as part of a crackdown in Massachusetts.