Boston’s liberal, progressive Mayor Michelle Wu may soon lose her seat as the top politician in Boston.
That’s because the Kraft family, the owners of the city’s beloved New England Patriots football team, have a plan to oust her from office this fall.
According to Politico, New England Patriots Foundation President Josh Kraft plans to challenge Wu in the city’s election this fall, according to two people who have spoken with him recently.
Kraft, the son of billionaire and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, has been weighing a challenge to Wu for months, but Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn’s decision to forgo his own bid for the seat his father, Ray Flynn, once held cleared a path for the younger Kraft to jump into the race.
According to reports, Kraft is eyeing early February for an official announcement. A spokesperson for Kraft declined to comment.
Kraft’s advisors were reportedly spotted looking at office spaces in Boston’s Nubian Square to serve as a home for the campaign.
Kraft, 57, already has some ties to the Roxbury neighborhood: the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, where Kraft serves as board chair, is headquartered there.
Wu swept into office in 2021 on the promise of progressive change, becoming the first woman and first person of color to be elected mayor in Boston.
She also became the city’s first mayor to give birth while in office, welcoming her third child, a daughter, earlier this month a day before she turned 40.
Taking on Wu, a powerful Democrat, will be a tall task for Kraft.
Wu has successfully brought in allies onto the City Council in 2023, making it easier to push her agenda.
Last fall, she earned another victory in a race for a typically little-watched court position that became a proxy-battle between Wu and her more moderate critics on the council.
Wu also has the power of incumbency in a city that hasn’t ousted an incumbent in decades.
Politico noted that Wu already has endorsements from a handful of unions, including Laborers’ Local 223, Unite Here Local 26, SEIU Local 888 and AFSCME Council 93 — and $1.7 million in her campaign coffers at the end of last month.
However, local experts believe that Kraft could still provide a strong challenge as he could have access to near unlimited funds.
And unlike most first-time candidates, he already has some name recognition — both among Patriots fans and as a philanthropist with ties to Boston’s Black community and as the former head of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston.