I first met Michelle Wu eight years ago. Or at least, I met an imprint of her face plastered on a purple poster that read “Michelle Wu for Boston: City Councilor At-Large.” Her name was ubiquitous. Taking a brief stroll around Chinatown, you’d find her campaign advertisements hung on the fences surrounding parking lots, stuck to the side of brick buildings and taped to the window of every establishment — bakeries, barbers and Chinese barbecue shops included. In my brief decade of existence, I have never witnessed a person with my straight, jet-black hair run for public office. And this was her second run for reelection!
“If you’re looking for examples of candidates who don’t inspire public support as fervent as Wu’s, look no further than six hours down I-95.”
Fast forward a few years to her successful bid in 2021 for mayor of Boston, and I couldn’t help but feel a warm tinge of pride. After all, like many Asian Americans around the country, I never would have expected to see a woman who looked like me ascend to a major elected office. She defied my expectations, at least. The property owners in Chinatown clearly felt the same all those years ago, too.
Canvassing for her mayoral reelection campaign a few times this summer, I noticed a similar sentiment amongst other volunteers and prospective voters. Whether it be her pledge to affordable housing, popularity among younger generations or testimony before Congress this past March, for one reason or another, people felt proud to say Michelle Wu was their mayor.
Her combative appearance before the House Oversight Committee on Boston’s “sanctuary city” status, amid a spat between the city’s police commissioner and border czar Tom Homan, seemed especially compelling. I recall a pharmacy technician at Mass Eye and Ear telling me that if anything had moved the needle on his decision to vote for Wu, it was her statement defending Boston’s immigrant heritage in front of a crowd of Republicans. For the most part, other Bostonians agree. A March Boston.com poll found 62 percent of 1700 respondents felt Wu represented Boston well on the national stage. Although recent brutalist renovations to Copley Square invite criticism of Wu’s administration, with opponent Josh Kraft exiting the race after losing the preliminaries, the next four years will see Wu stay in charge. However, pride in Wu is still high; Big Papi’s endorsement of Mayor Wu captures the overall sentiment better than I can: “Boston deserves someone who shows up for all of us.”
If you’re looking for examples of candidates who don’t inspire public support as fervent as Wu’s, look no further than six hours down I-95. Eric Adams’ tenure as New York City’s mayor, marred by indictments on counts of bribery and conspiracy for accepting perks from Turkish officials, is all but over with his decision to drop out of the race in September. Andrew Cuomo, seeking redemption 
after his 2021 resignation as New York’s governor due to a sexual harassment scandal, has resorted to podcast interviews with Logan Paul in the final weeks before election day on Nov. 4. The man he chases, however, does at least try to tap into the spigot of pride New Yorkers have in their city. Zohran Mamdani’s campaign strategy has seen him sit down for a “Subway Take” responding to his critics, interview Knicks fans at Madison Square Garden about their chances against the Pacers last spring and organize community soccer games between teams from the five boroughs. At least this guy’s trying to get votes! And it shows up in the numbers: Mamdani now leads Cuomo by double digits in most polls. Albeit heavy-handed with the sheer number of TikToks his campaign pushes out, Mamdani has been able to siphon the common spirit of New Yorkers into his push for the mayoral office.
If a new generation of Democratic and progressive leadership is to start at the municipal level, candidates must look into developing backing by channeling a city’s pride behind their campaign.
