(*This developing story will be updated)
Days after his defeat in Boston’s Sept. 9 preliminary election, philanthropist Josh Kraft has suspended his campaign for the city’s top elected office.
“My decision is to suspend my campaign, my candidacy for mayor as of today and I appreciate you letting me announce it here tonight,” Kraft, 58, told WCVB-TV in Boston on Thursday.
“The last couple days, since Tuesday, I’ve sat and listened to my team, our volunteers, my family, my friends, advisors and it goes back to what I was saying at the beginning. I got into this to make an impact, as I’ve done my whole life, build a sense of community to make change for the greater good,” Kraft told the station. “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, the son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and a longtime Boston-area philanthropist, finished a distant second to incumbent Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu in Tuesday’s election.
Wu took first by a wide margin, earning 72% of the vote in her first reelection campaign, according to unofficial tallies updated around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Kraft followed with 23.1%.
Wu carried all 22 of the city’s wards, including Kraft’s home turf in the North End, according to unofficial results.
Both candidates were set to face each other in the November general election. But with the results a foregone conclusion, barely two in 10 voters (21.8%) cast their ballots on Tuesday.
Kraft’s exit from the race effectively guarantees Wu another four-year term in City Hall.
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.
Kraft told WCVB-TV that he intended to focus his energy — and $3 million in resources — to organizations aiding in the crisis at the area of the city known as Mass and Cass, or the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in the South End.
“What I’ll be doing is—the money that I would have needed to get through these next eight weeks of mudslinging—is take that money and some more money, and work with the Gavin Foundation and The Phoenix to fight to take those first steps to find a real solution to the human tragedy and public safety crisis of Mass and Cass, as well as to re-energize a similar program, Operation Exit, which helps people coming home from incarceration not just find jobs, but find careers,” Kraft said.
Kraft, a political newcomer, poured millions of dollars of his own money into the race. Meanwhile, super PACs supporting both candidates funded a barrage of attack advertisements.
Polling headed into Tuesday’s election showed Kraft trailing Wu by between 30 to 50 percentage points. The city has not turned out an incumbent mayor since James Michael Curley in 1949.
During a post-election gathering in South Boston on Tuesday night, Kraft and his supporters had vowed to fight on to the November campaign.
“Let me be clear — we are still in this race,” Kraft said onstage at the Ironworkers Local 7 hall. “We know the road ahead is not going to be easy. But neither is life in Boston right now for too many families.”
In barely 48 hours, the landscape changed considerably. Political observers said they did not see a pathway to victory for him. And Kraft faced mounting calls to exit the race.
An exit would make Kraft “look better in the eyes of voters than he already does,” Mary Anne Marsh, a veteran Democratic analyst from Boston, said.
And that would send a message that “given everything that’s going on in Boston, in the state, and this country … from Donald Trump, and all of that, [that] it’s a time for all of us to come together and work together,” Marsh said, adding that Kraft could make it clear he wants Wu to “have the opportunity to do just that.”
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