Wu's Diminishing Re-Election Prospects

Because Boston Mayor Michelle Wu currently enjoys a high re-election likelihood, she may feel that she can risk an occasional foray into foolishness. Maintaining a serious demeanor proved impossible when, on August 19, speaking as Boston's highest-ranking official, Wu surrounded herself with an off-key, all-female mariachi band and a small handful of ardent admirers to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement's actions against criminal illegal immigrants. Wu is hoping that her polling numbers are strong enough to overcome the spectacle she staged in front of City Hall.

A new poll of likely Boston voters conducted by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics (NHIOP) shows Wu entering the 2025 election season with clear advantages in approval, favorability, and ballot support. Wu earns strong job approval, with 61% approving and 37% disapproving. Half of voters say she deserves re-election, while 32% believe it's time for someone new.

Political analysts who have tracked pollsters' disastrously off-course predictions from 2016 through 2024 know better than to put much stock in their numbers crunching accuracy. Moreover, Wu's top challenger is formidable and has very deep pockets. Josh Kraft, a 57-year-old Jewish registered Democrat and son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, stayed out of the family football business and instead focused on philanthropic pursuits. He supported former Vice President Kamala Harris in last year's presidential election. In the past decade, he has donated primarily to Democrats, including most members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation. Kraft supported former Rep. Joe Kennedy III in his 2020 bid to unseat Sen. Ed Markey. His most recent giving history includes donations to Gov. Maura Healey, Boston City Councilor Julia Mejia, and the Massachusetts State Democratic Committee.

Wu's consistently defiant tone toward Attorney General Pam Bondi is not her best strategy. The mayor has called ICE officers "neo-Nazis" and "Trump's secret police." Her latest taunting, bravado-filled letter to Bondi is similarly ill-advised: "The City of Boston follows the law—local, state, and federal," clearly not the case. Harboring illegal aliens is a federal felony. Boston, under Wu's purposeful misinterpretation of federal immigration law, is filled with criminal illegal immigrants. ICE Boston and federal law enforcement partners report that they removed close to 400 immigrant offenders from the streets last week in a sweep that border czar Tom Homan said pushes back against sanctuary cities. Those detained included individuals from Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Honduras and charged with rape, kidnapping, robbery, assault on a pregnant woman, and child molestation.

Wu closed her City Hall speech by stating, "Boston will never back down from being a beacon of freedom and hope for everyone." Does "everyone" include Marcelino De Leon Yoc, a 32-year-old Guatemalan illegal immigrant and registered sex offender who has pending criminal charges in Boston for five counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older? Two ICE detainers—one from them in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston and another from Nashua Street Jail in Boston—were reportedly refused.

Because of fear of retaliation from the mayor's office, Boston police are allegedly working behind the scenes with ICE to remove and deport violent criminals. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said, "We're definitely going to, as you've heard the saying, flood the zone, especially in sanctuary jurisdictions. Boston and Massachusetts decided to say that they wanted to stay sanctuary. Sanctuary does not mean safer streets. It means more criminal aliens out and about the neighborhood. But 100%, you will see a larger ICE presence."

Wu's unwavering commitment to sanctuary city policies gives Kraft an opening that he should be able to capitalize on. Voters should prefer the law-and-order candidate Kraft over incumbent Wu, who has supported policies to protect criminal illegal aliens and to put Bostonians at risk throughout her four-year mayoral term.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org