Local News

Wu heads into preliminary election with massive 50-point lead over Kraft

A recent poll from Emerson College found that Michelle Wu has expanded her lead over Josh Kraft in the mayoral race.

Mayor Michelle Wu greets her campaign volunteers during a Labor Day rally at City Hall Plaza. Danielle Parhizkaran/Boston Globe

By Ross Cristantiello

September 8, 2025

1 minute to read

Just days before Boston’s preliminary election, a new poll from Emerson College found Mayor Michelle Wu holding a massive 50-point lead over her most significant rival, Josh Kraft.

Among likely voters, 72% said that they would vote for Wu, compared to just 22% who said they supported Kraft.

Wu seems to have extended her lead over Kraft throughout the second part of the summer. Polling from mid-July found Wu to have a 30-point lead over Kraft. An Emerson poll from February found Wu starting the race with a 13-point lead.

“Over the past seven months, Mayor Wu appears to have made her case for re-election to Boston voters, while Kraft has not been able to expand his support,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement.

On Tuesday, voters will weigh in. The city’s preliminary election is designed to whittle down the field of candidates before the general election on Nov. 4.

Aside from Wu and Kraft, two lesser-known mayoral candidates are on the ballot: longtime community activist Domingos DaRosa and Robert Cappucci, a retired Boston police officer and former elected member of the Boston School Committee. Neither DaRosa nor Cappucci have registered above single percentage points in public polling, and therefore Wu and Kraft are widely expected to make it to the general.

With the Trump administration bearing down on Boston and frequently criticizing Wu for her support of so-called “sanctuary” policies, the mayor has seen a boost in her popularity among an electorate that largely despises the president.

The recent Emerson poll found that 77% of Boston voters disapprove of the potential deployment of National Guard troops to ostensibly combat crime in the city. A third of Boston’s voters said that threats to democracy were the most important issue facing the country, compared to 17% who listed the economy and 12% who listed housing affordability.