The 2021 Boston City Council election was held on November 2, 2021. All thirteen councillors from the nine districts and four councillors at-large were up for election. Elections in Boston are officially nonpartisan.
Councillors
Andrea Campbell
Andrea Joy Campbell (born June 11, 1982) is an American lawyer and politician who is the Attorney General-elect of Massachusetts. She is also a former member of the Boston City Council. On the city council, she represented District 4, which inclu ...
,
Annissa Essaibi George
Annissa Essaibi George (born December 12, 1973) is an American politician who served as an at-large member of the Boston City Council. First elected in 2015, she served on the council from 2016 to 2022. She was a candidate in the 2021 Boston ma ...
,
Kim Janey
Kim Michelle Janey (born May 16, 1965) is an American politician who served as acting mayor of Boston for eight months in 2021. She served as president of the Boston City Council from 2020 to 2022, and as a member of the council from the 7th dist ...
, and
Michelle Wu
Michelle Wu ( zh, t=吳弭, first=t; born January 14, 1985) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the mayor of Boston, mayor of Boston, Massachusetts since 2021. She is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
ran in the
mayoral election, while
Matt O'Malley
Matthew Joseph O'Malley is an American politician and businessman who served as president of the Boston City Council in 2021. He was elected as the District 6 representative in a special election on November 16, 2010, and was re-elected in 2011 ...
did not seek re-election. Councillors
Ricardo Arroyo,
Frank Baker
John Franklin "Home Run" Baker (March 13, 1886 – June 28, 1963) was an American professional baseball player. A third baseman, Baker played in Major League Baseball from 1908 to 1922 for the Philadelphia Athletics and New York Yankees. Althoug ...
,
Kenzie Bok,
Liz Breadon,
Lydia Edwards,
Michael F. Flaherty
Michael F. Flaherty (born May 4, 1969) is an at-large member of the Boston City Council. Flaherty is a member of the United States Democratic Party. He was elected Boston City Council Vice President in 2001 and Boston City Council President from ...
, and
Julia Mejia
Julia Mejia is an At-Large City Councilor in Boston, Massachusetts. Elected in 2019, Mejia is the first Latina elected to the council.
Biography
Born in the Dominican Republic and raised by a single mother, Mejia came to the United States when ...
ran for re-election.
Background
Marty Walsh
Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and former union official. He has been the 29th United States Secretary of Labor since March 23, 2021. A Democrat, he previously served as the 54th mayor of Boston from 2014, ...
was elected to the
mayoralty
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...
of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
, in the
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
and
2017 elections
The following elections occurred in 2017.
Africa
* 2017 Somali presidential election 8 February 2017
*2017 Gambian parliamentary election 6 April 2017
* 2017 Algerian legislative election 4 May 2017
*2017 Lesotho general election 3 June 2017
*2 ...
. On January 7, 2021,
President-elect
An ''officer-elect'' is a person who has been elected to a position but has not yet been installed. Notably, a president who has been elected but not yet installed would be referred to as a ''president-elect'' (e.g. president-elect of the Unit ...
Joe Biden announced that he would select Walsh to serve as the
United States Secretary of Labor
The United States Secretary of Labor is a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and as the head of the United States Department of Labor, controls the department, and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all ot ...
. Walsh resigned as mayor on March 22, after being confirmed as Secretary of Labor, and was replaced as acting-mayor by
Kim Janey
Kim Michelle Janey (born May 16, 1965) is an American politician who served as acting mayor of Boston for eight months in 2021. She served as president of the Boston City Council from 2020 to 2022, and as a member of the council from the 7th dist ...
, who also served as president of the
Boston City Council
The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year terms and there is no ...
.
The city council voted to move the primary election date from September 21, to September 14, in order to allow for another week
mail-in voting
Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system.
In an el ...
ballots to be distributed for the general election and was approved by Mayor Janey.
Incumbent status
Campaign
At-large
Michelle Wu
Michelle Wu ( zh, t=吳弭, first=t; born January 14, 1985) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the mayor of Boston, mayor of Boston, Massachusetts since 2021. She is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
, who had served on the city council since 2014, announced that she would run in the
mayoral election on September 15, 2020.
Annissa Essaibi George
Annissa Essaibi George (born December 12, 1973) is an American politician who served as an at-large member of the Boston City Council. First elected in 2015, she served on the council from 2016 to 2022. She was a candidate in the 2021 Boston ma ...
, who had served on the city council since 2016, announced that she would run in the mayoral election on January 27, 2021. Incumbent councillors
Julia Mejia
Julia Mejia is an At-Large City Councilor in Boston, Massachusetts. Elected in 2019, Mejia is the first Latina elected to the council.
Biography
Born in the Dominican Republic and raised by a single mother, Mejia came to the United States when ...
, who had won election to the city council by one vote in the
2019 election, and
Michael F. Flaherty
Michael F. Flaherty (born May 4, 1969) is an at-large member of the Boston City Council. Flaherty is a member of the United States Democratic Party. He was elected Boston City Council Vice President in 2001 and Boston City Council President from ...
are running for reelection.
Althea Garrison
Althea Garrison (born October 7, 1940) is an independent American politician from Boston, Massachusetts, who has served on the Boston City Council as an at-large councilor.
Garrison was elected as a Republican to the Massachusetts House of Repr ...
, the first openly transgender person to serve in a state legislature and former member of the city council,
Ruthzee Louijeune
Ruthzee Louijeune (born 1987) is an American politician and lawyer serving as president of the Boston City Council. She has been an at-large member of the Boston City Council since January 2022, and has served as the council's president since Jan ...
, a lawyer who worked as senior counsel for Senator
Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...
's presidential and senatorial campaigns, Alex Gray, a policy analyst, and Nick Vance, a political action co-chair of the
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
in Boston, are running in the election.
Note: The primary result is uncertified
1st district
Lydia Edwards, who was first elected to the city council in
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
, announced that she would run for reelection and launched her campaign on February 26, 2021, at a virtual event.
2nd district
Councillor
Ed Flynn filed to run for reelection.
3rd district
Frank Baker
John Franklin "Home Run" Baker (March 13, 1886 – June 28, 1963) was an American professional baseball player. A third baseman, Baker played in Major League Baseball from 1908 to 1922 for the Philadelphia Athletics and New York Yankees. Althoug ...
, who was first elected in 2011, announced that he would run for reelection after initially wanting to leave politics until the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
changed his plans. Stephen McBride is running in the election.
4th district
Andrea Campbell
Andrea Joy Campbell (born June 11, 1982) is an American lawyer and politician who is the Attorney General-elect of Massachusetts. She is also a former member of the Boston City Council. On the city council, she represented District 4, which inclu ...
, who had served on the city council since 2016, announced on September 24, 2020, that she would run for mayor.
Evandro Carvalho
Evandro C. Carvalho (born September 9, 1981) is an American attorney and politician who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 2014 to 2019. He is a member of the Democratic Party and represented the Fifth Suffolk District, c ...
, who served in the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...
, announced that he would run in the election on October 19. Leonard M. Lee Sr., a community organizer and member of the Boston Parks Commission, announced on February 3, 2021, that he would run in the election stating that he was inspired to run after a nineteen-year-old was killed by the police outside his home. William Dickerson III, a former city council aide, Nikkia Jean-Charles, who was inspired by
Ayanna Pressley
Ayanna Soyini Pressley (born February 3, 1974) is an American politician who has served as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 7th congressional district since 2019. This district includes the northern three quarters of Boston, most of Ca ...
's campaign for a seat in the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
, Trina Ruffin, and Troy Smith are running in the election. Joel Richards, a Boston Public School Teacher and Boston Teachers Union activist, is also running in the election.
Note: The primary result is uncertified
5th district
Councillor Ricardo Arroyo is running for reelection and John White is also running in the election.
6th district
Kendra Hicks, an activist, announced that she would run against councilor
Matt O'Malley
Matthew Joseph O'Malley is an American politician and businessman who served as president of the Boston City Council in 2021. He was elected as the District 6 representative in a special election on November 16, 2010, and was re-elected in 2011 ...
in the 2021 election. O'Malley, who was first elected to the city council in 2010, announced that he would not seek reelection on December 2, 2020, so that he could focus on his family.
Note: The primary result is uncertified
7th district
Kim Janey
Kim Michelle Janey (born May 16, 1965) is an American politician who served as acting mayor of Boston for eight months in 2021. She served as president of the Boston City Council from 2020 to 2022, and as a member of the council from the 7th dist ...
, who was serving as acting-mayor and who had served on the city council since 2018, announced on April 6, 2021, that she would run in the mayoral election.
Tania Fernandes Anderson
Tania Fernandes Anderson (born January 4, 1979) is a Cape Verdean-born American politician and non-profit executive who is a Member of the Boston City Council for the 7th district. A Democrat, she was elected in 2021 to succeed Kim Janey and repr ...
, Angelina Camacho, Joao DePina, Marisa Luse, Santiago Rivera, and Lorraine Payne Wheeler are running in the election.
Note: The primary result is uncertified
8th district
Kenzie Bok, who was first elected in 2019, filed to run for re-election.
9th district
Liz Breadon, who was first elected to the city council in 2019, is running for reelection against Michael J. Bianchi and entrepreneur Eric Porter.
Note: The primary result is uncertified
Campaign finance
Endorsements
At-large district
1st district
2nd district
4th district
5th district
6th district
7th district
8th district
9th district
Polling
At-large
General election
Notes
References
Further reading
*
External links
Election officeat boston.gov
{{2021 United States elections
City Council election
Boston City Council elections
Boston City Council election
Boston City Council
The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year terms and there is no ...