Josh Kraft, the son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, announced Thursday that he is dropping his bid to unseat Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, days after advancing to the November ballot in the city's preliminary election.
Kraft made the announcement on WCVB-TV after placing second to Wu in the preliminary, a result that left him facing a wide gap in public support despite having spent millions of his own money on the campaign. As of the end of August, Kraft had outspent Wu about $5.5 million to $1.1 million, largely because he loaned more than $5 million to his own campaign.
In a letter to supporters provided to The Associated Press, Kraft said the decision to withdraw was not about him or Wu but about avoiding a campaign that would “ignite divisiveness.” He said he planned to redirect $3 million — a combination of funds he had intended for his campaign and additional dollars — toward workforce training for former inmates and to address homelessness and drug addiction in a section of the city commonly referred to as Mass and Cass.
“We could spend the next eight weeks politicking — with harmful rhetoric or nasty attack ads. Or we could get back to what really matters — the issues that impact Bostonians each and every day,” Kraft wrote in the letter, which he used to explain his exit to supporters.
In Tuesday’s preliminary, Wu received about 72% of the vote to Kraft’s roughly 23%, a margin that Kraft cited as a factor in his decision. In a written statement, Wu said she respected Kraft’s decision and thanked him "for caring about our city deeply enough to want to make it better." She added that her campaign would continue engaging community members on public safety and other issues.
Wu, Boston’s first female and Asian mayor, has drawn national attention for her approach to local governance and for publicly defending the city against federal actions on immigration. The week of the preliminary election saw a new immigration operation in Boston launched by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security following a surge in arrests in May. The Trump administration has criticized Boston’s sanctuary policies, and the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit last week against Wu, the city and its police department, saying the policies interfere with federal immigration enforcement. Wu has called the suit an attempt by the administration to deflect from its own failures.
Kraft had campaigned on addressing public safety, homelessness and drug addiction, and his campaign held events around the city in early September. He and his father attended a campaign watch party on election night, and Kraft had been active in canvassing in neighborhoods including Dorchester.
It was not immediately clear whether another candidate could be named to replace Kraft on the Nov. 4 ballot. City election officials and campaign lawyers will need to determine whether any substitution is permissible under local election rules and timelines.
Kraft said he hoped his decision would help reduce polarization and called for unity and practical action on the city’s most pressing challenges. He pledged to support the initiatives he identified in his letter and to work with community groups and officials on solutions for workforce development, reentry services and addressing concentrated homelessness and addiction.
The withdrawal leaves Wu without a major opponent in the general election and removes what had been a high-profile race that drew national interest because of Kraft’s family name and the broader political tensions surrounding immigration enforcement and sanctuary-city policies.