As Michelle Wu and Josh Kraft compete for Boston mayor, one issue is taking center stage: Money
Outside spending and immense private wealth are hardly new concepts in Massachusetts politics. But the sums reported so far could set the city on a course to its most expensive mayor's race yet.
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Amid all the talk of dollars and cents, money has also become a favorite attack line for both candidates. Wu has repeatedly said Boston is 'not for sale' as she argues Kraft is a rich carpetbagger trying to buy his way into City Hall. Kraft, meanwhile, has taken aim at Wu over her fiscal stewardship of the city. He has said she should cut Boston's operating budget,
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During a radio appearance Wednesday, Wu took the chance to go after Kraft for the big money coming in to support him.
'We have not experienced in Boston's history a race of this kind before, with such sums of money pouring in,' Wu said during an appearance on GBH's 'Boston Public Radio.'
Seeking to draw a contrast, the mayor also emphasized her more modest finances.
'I have never in any point of my life or my family's life, been able to put $2 million of cash into a campaign account,' she said.
Wu's
Wu's campaign said the mayor and her husband hold about $450,000 in investment accounts for retirement and college savings, owe about $17,000 in federal student loan debt, and lease a 2025 Honda Prologue. They also own their Roslindale home, a two-family that is assessed at $806,100, though Zillow and Redfin estimate its sale price would be closer to $1 million.
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That's an apparent contrast with Kraft, whose father is
It's not clear how much of his family's wealth Kraft has direct access to, as he has not released his tax returns or shared more details on his investments and assets. A spokesperson said this week
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While Kraft has tried to set his campaign apart from his family's privileged background, it is undeniable that he is benefitting from it. He has
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Wu has also attacked Kraft by linking Kraft's father to his waterfront condo in the North End.
Public records show that in the fall of 2023, an LLC called 'Two BW Boston LLC' purchased the $2.4 million condominium where Josh Kraft lives. The address for the LLC is One Patriot Place — Gillette Stadium.
The Kraft campaign called Wu's attacks dishonest, saying this week that the candidate 'purchased his Boston home with his own money,'
and he is the 'sole owner' of Two BW Boston LLC. Kraft's campaign did not provide documents showing who was behind the purchase or support his claim that he owns it outright.
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Speaking to reporters Wednesday night after a mayoral candidate forum, Kraft defended the decision to invest so much in his own campaign, arguing he needs the money because of the steep odds he faces.
'I'm going against the power of incumbency. Mayor Wu has had four years to raise money. I haven't, I've had four months,' Kraft said, also pointing out his campaign has had to hire a number of staff. Above all, though, Kraft said he made the donation because he believes he can win this race.
'I believe in the campaign,' he said. 'Every neighborhood I go in, I hear about it, about the energy and the passion for my candidacy.'
Scott Ferson, a political consultant who worked for Wu's general election
rival in 2021 and is not involved in the race this year, said by putting so much of his own money into his campaign, Kraft is trying to 'shock the system.'
'He's talking to people in Boston who are saying, 'I don't think you can win.' He needs to show he's moving the needle somehow,' Ferson said.
'It's more fun than standing in the middle of Comm. Ave and lighting your money on fire,' he added.
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Democrat Shannon Liss-Riordan poured $9.3 million into her unsuccessful bid for state attorney general in 2022, and Republican John Deaton put more than $1 million into his losing campaign for US Senate in 2024. But those were both statewide races, meaning candidates were competing for a much bigger audience than Boston mayoral hopefuls are courting.
By comparison, when Wu last ran for mayor, she raised $2.6 million over the entirety of 2021. Her general election
opponent, then-City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George, raised $2.7 million that year, including the $250,000 she loaned to her campaign in October 2021, in the final weeks of the race. While Boston mayoral candidates have loaned themselves tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years, no candidate in recent history has come close to Kraft's $2 million sum.
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Including the hearty infusion from his own coffers, Kraft has already topped the sums Wu and Essaibi George amassed
in a full year of campaigning. According to the latest campaign finance reports, in 2025, Kraft has
The spending this year looks less like Boston's past contests and more like the
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And that's to say nothing of spending by so-called super PACs, the outside groups that can raise and spend unlimited sums but are not permitted to coordinate with campaigns they are supporting.
The Kraft-aligned super PAC called 'Your City, Your Future' has said
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'If it continues at this pace, it will definitely be unprecedented,' Doug Rubin, a longtime political consultant who worked for one of Wu's rivals in the 2021 mayor's race, said of the PAC spending.
He predicted that it could be 'just the beginning of a wave of negative attacks.' In campaigns, he said, 'once you go up [on television], you don't come down.'
Money certainly helps, but it hardly guarantees a candidate will win a mayor's race in Massachusetts. In 2021 and 2023, top spenders
Matt Stout of the Globe staff contributed reporting.
Emma Platoff can be reached at
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