There are endorsements. And then there are endorsements.
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-8th District, whose office has a strained relationship with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s City Hall, has stopped well short of giving his enthusiastic blessing to her 2025 reelection bid.
During an appearance on WBZ-TV’s “Keller @Large” program on Sunday, the South Boston lawmaker gave fellow Democrat Wu, who’s seeking a second term, a “B” for her accomplishments, but an “A” for effort.
“You know, some of the things she’s struggling with are not of her making, you know, the economy, things like that,” Lynch told host Jon Keller. “But you know, I give her [an] ‘A’ for effort.”
Then there’s Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden, who offered a surprising, but no less full-throated, endorsement of Wu’s reelection bid against philanthropist Josh Kraft.
Wu has “been a true partner in delivering real public safety for Boston — not just through words, but through action,” Hayden said in a statement first shared with Politico.
“Together, we’ve built smart, compassionate strategies that have made Boston the safest major city in America,” Hayden continued. “I am proud to endorse her for re-election and look forward to all we will continue to accomplish together.”
So here’s why that matters: In 2022, Wu backed former City Councillor Ricardo Arroyo over Hayden in a hard-fought race, earning some serious pushback from Hayden’s campaign.
Arroyo lost the race — and his council seat — after he was accused of a 2006 sexual assault. It was later determined that no crime had been committed.
Hayden’s backing, as Politco reported, looks like an attempt to neutralize one of Kraft’s top arguments: That Boston has grown unsafe and that Wu hasn’t done enough to fix it.
On Sunday, Lynch, credited Wu for her nationally watched appearance before the U.S. House Oversight Committee in March, where she faced hours of grilling from the panel’s Republican majority over Boston’s immigration policies.
Lynch and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-7th District, both sit on the committee.
But Lynch also lamented the strained relationship between his office and Wu’s camp.
“I just wish that my office and her administration could work better together,” he told Keller. “We seem to be at loggerheads on some things, and that’s why you know I give her a ‘B’ at this point.”
Lynch dodged when he was asked whether he thought Wu deserved another term in the top spot. But, he allowed, ” I think she’ll do a much better job than her opponent.”
“But we have work to do,” he said. “We have work to do.”
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