It’s official: Josh Kraft is off the Boston mayoral ballot. Now what?
Billionaire philanthropist Josh Kraft has removed himself from Boston's 2025 mayoral ballot. So, for right now, at least, city voters can expect to prepare themselves for the fall season of the Michelle Wu Show.
But whether the Democratic incumbent mayor, who coasted to victory in last week's preliminary election, will run without opposition is still not a settled question.
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Read More: Josh Kraft suspends Boston mayoral campaign
That's because community activist Domingos DaRosa, who finished third last week with 2,409 votes , according to unofficial tallies, is pressing for a recount, according to The Boston Globe.
Under state law , Kraft can be replaced with the candidate who finished with the next-highest amount of votes if that candidate "[received] [the] number of votes at least equal to the number of signatures required by law to place his name on the preliminary election ballot."
In this case, that's 3,000 votes, leaving Darosa 591 votes short of the finish line.
DaRosa did not immediately respond to MassLive's request for comment on the next steps for his campaign.
But he expressed dissatisfaction at the notion that Wu might run unopposed for a second term in City Hall
"You're going to have a general election with one candidate?" he told The Globe. "This is unprecedented."
Kraft, the son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, announced Thursday that he was suspending his campaign and pumping the $3 million he would have spent into nonprofits supporting efforts to clean up the part of the city known as Mass and Cass.
"When I kept looking at the next eight weeks, the negativity, and all that it was going to be about. I realized, wow, I can do more. I can make a better impact for the residents of the city of Boston," Kraft told WCVB-TV in Boston .
In a statement, Wu said she "respect[ed]" Kraft's decision and "[thanked] him for caring about our city deeply enough to want to make it better."
"We are going to continue over the next two months and beyond to keep engaging our community members about the critical work in front of us and how we keep making Boston a safe, welcoming home for everyone," Wu said.
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