Wu. vs Kraft: 3 charts show where they campaigned, and where it paid off
In the seven months he campaigned for mayor of Boston, Josh Kraft criss-crossed the city, spending days meeting business leaders in West Roxbury, community members in Mattapan, new restaurateurs in Roxbury and everywhere in between.
Mayor Michelle Wu did much of the same and more, her jam-packed schedule taking her far and wide across Boston for visits to the city’s full slate of neighborhoods.
Yet some neighborhoods drew more attention than others from the two leading candidates.
The public schedules of the two Democrats, who were set to face off in the Nov. 4 general election before Kraft dropped out of the race Thursday , begin to tell the story of this year’s contentious mayoral race .
Paired with results from Tuesday’s preliminary election, the schedules show where the candidates spent time and sought out voters, and where the voters they courted delivered.
To determine where the candidates campaigned, MassLive reviewed public schedules for both Kraft and Wu dating back to when Kraft, the former head of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston and son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, declared his candidacy in early February.
He did so in Dorchester , the city’s largest neighborhood with 123,000 residents and one of its most diverse. There, and throughout the campaign, Kraft accused Wu of tuning out the concerns of residents and business owners and acting “as if she alone has all the answers” on the city’s housing crisis, schools, bike lanes and other issues.
In the weeks that followed, the campaign took Kraft across Boston: to a social services center in South Boston, to a Chinese New Year’s party in Chinatown, to a middle school debate tournament in Roxbury and many more stops along the way.
Kraft made frequent campaign visits to Roxbury — the heart of Boston’s Black community, where he established his campaign headquarters in March — and devoted many other days to events in Dorchester, South Boston and Downtown.
The mayor’s schedule over the same period, meanwhile, also shows numerous events in Dorchester, Roxbury and Downtown, where City Hall is located, along with more frequent stops than Kraft in the Back Bay, Fenway, Mattapan and a wide array of other neighborhoods.
Across the board, those neighborhoods delivered for Wu on Tuesday.
After winning 19 of 22 city election wards in her first mayoral campaign four years ago, Wu swept them this time around. She earned a whopping 72% of the vote and cleared Kraft’s vote tally by nearly 50 percentage points.
For the most complete picture of where the mayor has visited this year, MassLive reviewed both Wu’s campaign schedule and her mayoral schedule since Kraft entered the race.
The mayor scheduled fewer campaign stops than Kraft this election cycle, though her days have been filled with far more overall speeches, ceremonies, meetings and other events tied to the official duties of running a city.
Wu formally launched her first reelection bid in the South End two months after Kraft entered the race.
“Now is not the time for a mayor who needs on-the-job training,” she said then, alluding to the escalating scrutiny of the city by the Trump administration and its allies, particularly over immigration policy.
In her official capacity, the mayor has spread her time across Boston.
Along with numerous events in Dorchester and Roxbury, Wu’s schedule shows her visiting Fenway and the Back Bay a combined 30 times, far more often than Kraft’s three public trips to the neighborhoods during his campaign.
She hit Mattapan, Charlestown and Jamaica Plain each at least a dozen times, swung through the North End and South Boston each 11 times, and visited every Boston neighborhood at least once after Kraft entered the race, the schedules show.
Both candidates’ public schedules show only a snapshot of their campaigns and where they have spent time.
Many events and meetings in which a candidate or mayor participates go unannounced. But the schedule reflects the portions of a public figure’s day that they and their staff want to broadcast to voters through the media, offering some glimpse of the issues and constituencies they value.
Where were Wu’s voters in 2021?
When Wu won the mayor’s office in 2021 over her fellow city councilor Annissa Essaibi George, she dominated across much of the city, winning with 64% of the vote.
Wu performed strongly in Boston’s voter-heavy 18th and 19th wards, which draw from the neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, Mattapan and Wu’s home in Roslindale. Of the roughly 25,000 votes cast there, Wu took nearly 18,000, or about 72%.
She also won handily in other parts of Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, Allston-Brighton, the South End, Roxbury, Fenway, the Back Bay and northern sections of Dorchester on her way to a commanding city-wide victory.
Where Wu faltered, however, was in South Boston and the southern sections of Dorchester, which went for Essaibi George. Charlestown was close. So was the vast, populous 20th ward, encompassing West Roxbury and parts of Roslindale, where Wu took a narrow majority of votes.
2025 results show where voters delivered
Wu dominated on Tuesday across much of the city, winning all but three wards with 60% or more of the vote.
Across the 10 wards that include various pieces of Roxbury and Dorchester, neighborhoods where Wu had a combined 75 events on her public schedule over the last seven months, she won 70% of the vote. Four years ago, she won 64% in those areas.
In the two wards covering Fenway and Back Bay, also among the most common neighborhoods on Wu’s public schedule, she won with 73% and 71% of the vote. In both cases, she improved her margin by two percentage points from four years ago.
In the 18th and 19th wards, Wu cleaned up again with Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, Roslindale and Mattapan voters. She held more than a dozen events in J.P. and Mattapan each since Kraft entered the race in February, plus seven in Roslindale and six in Hyde Park, and together won the two vote-heavy wards by a combined margin of 81% to 15% over Kraft.
Wu held five public events in West Roxbury in recent months, fewer than many other neighborhoods. But she prevailed Tuesday in the 20th ward, winning 65% of the vote after taking 52% four years ago.
Kraft’s schedule showed three visits to Charlestown, to Wu’s 12. She won the neighborhood’s ward with 62% of the vote, about 10 percentage points better than in 2021.
Kraft’s 16 visits to Dorchester made the neighborhood the most frequent stop on his public schedule. On Tuesday, he lost the 16th ward — the largest in Dorchester — 40.7% to 54.5%. In 2021, Essaibi George won the ward with roughly 60% of the vote.
Only in two neighborhoods — South Boston and Hyde Park — did Kraft’s schedule show more events than Wu’s or the same number.
In Hyde Park, he lost the city’s 18th ward 18.6% to 76.1%.
South Boston was one of his most-visited neighborhoods, according to the public schedule. The neighborhood was the closest of any in the city for Kraft, but he still lost its two wards by a combined 43% to 51%.
It was in Southie, at the Iron Workers Local 7 Hall, that Kraft addressed supporters after polls closed Tuesday night.
Wu’s margin was pushing close to 50 percentage points, but Kraft pledged to continue competing.
“Listen, I believe in life there’s always a path,” he said Tuesday night. “It’s just hard work and sweat equity.”
Two days later, he suspended the campaign, effectively handing Wu a second term.
More on Boston's 2025 race for mayor
Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
