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Boston's next elected mayor won't be an Irish- or Italian-American man for the 1st time in 91 years
Boston voters went to the polls Tuesday to choose their mayoral finalists, and when the full unofficial results were released Wednesday, the two candidates left standing were Michelle Wu, 36, and Annissa Essaibi George, 47. Wu, an Asian American progressive city councilor who moved to Boston to attend Harvard, came in first in the crowded field with 33 percent of the vote, and Essaibi George, a moderate Democrat and Boston native with immigrant parents of Tunisian and Polish ancestry, got 22.5 percent.
Whichever of the two candidates voters choose on Nov. 2 will end Boston's 91-year streak of electing only Irish-American and Italian-American men, The New York Times reports. Boston's run of not electing a Black mayor will remain intact, though. Acting Mayor Kim Janey, who took over after Marty Walsh became U.S. labor secretary, and City Councilor Andrea Campbell — both of whom are Black — were neck-and-neck in the polls with Essaibi George for weeks, but they appear to have split the Black vote.
Tuesday's election was a nonpartisan primary, though all the leading candidates are Democrats. Just under 108,000 people voted, a low turnout in a city of about 675,000.